Father Thomas Frederick Price
Cause for Canonization
Diocese of Raleigh Begins Compiling Information on Cause for Sainthood
Efforts are underway to compile specific information and unique documents that can assist in the Cause for Sainthood for Father Thomas Frederick Price, North Carolina's first native-born Catholic diocesan priest.
In March, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge was informed that the Diocese of Raleigh is being invited to join with Maryknoll in gathering testimonies concerning the reputation of Fr. Price, and any credible reports of favors or healing received though prayer for his intercession. Also sought are letters and other documents relative to Fr. Price. Persons having such information are requested to contact Fr. Michael Walsh, MM, Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Fr. Price, mwalsh@maryknoll.org, PO Box 305, Maryknoll, NY, 10545-0305.
The earliest informal investigations date from 1919. The participation of the Diocese of Raleigh began in 1947 under the late Bishop Vincent Waters. In 2002 the Maryknoll Society determined to renew its efforts in the canonization process, appointing Fr. Edward Dougherty,MM the official Postulator in Rome.
Father Price was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1860. His parents, Alfred and Clarissa, became friends of then Bishop, later Cardinal James Gibbons. When the Holy See made North Carolina a Vicariate Apostolic in 1868, it named St. Thomas Apostle Church in Wilmington the pro-cathedral. It was at that Church where Bishop Gibbons encouraged young Thomas Price to consider a vocation to the priesthood. He studied at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1886.
Within a few years of ordination, Father Price, infused with a zeal for evangelism, convinced Bishop Leo Haid, who had been appointed as vicar apostolic in North Carolina, to allow him to take the teaching of the Catholic Church statewide. The young priest did exactly that.
In 1897, Father Price created a national monthly magazine titled Truth. The cost for twelve issues was fifty-cents for Catholics and thirty-five cents for non-Catholics. He edited the magazine until1912, when he sold it to the Catholic Truth Society of New York.
In 1899, he established an orphanage at Nazareth, a small community near Raleigh, which cared for 100 children at any one time. The orphanage marked the beginning of what is now Catholic Charities in the Diocese.
Three years later, he began a preparatory school to train men for the domestic missions. He served as its Director until 1911. In 1911, Father Price's vision of spreading Catholicism was moving beyond the border of North Carolina. He joined with Father James A. Walsh in pursuing a dream the two men had of creating a foreign mission society. In 1912, he asked Cardinal Gibbons, who had become Archbishop of Baltimore, for permission to become a priest of Baltimore while he pursued creation of the American Catholic Foreign Mission Society, popularly known as Maryknoll. The request was granted.
The Vatican conferred full canonical status on the new Society in 1915. In 1918, Father Price accompanied the first three Maryknoll missionaries on their assignment to China. One year later, Father Price would die while in China of a ruptured appendix. His body was buried in China, but his heart was removed. He had requested that his heart be buried in Nevers, France, near the body of St. Bernadette. Father Price, who had devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Bernadette, had made several trips to Lourdes and Nevers. (His devotion to Mary began at a young age. In 1908, he began writing the Holy Mother a daily letter, sometimes as brief as a few sentences, sometimes longer, sharing with her the challenges and joys he encountered that day. There are a total of 3,087 letters that comprise what is called Father Price's Diary.)
In 1923, a French missioner returned to France with Father Price's heart and gave it to the sisters of St. Bernadette's religious order. It was placed in a niche in the wall near the saint's body. Father Price's body was exhumed in 1936 and returned to Maryknoll Cemetery in Ossining, New York. Today it lies in the crypt of the Maryknoll chapel.