North Carolina

The cause for his canonization is with the Diocese of Raleigh, NC. Their website has a wealth of information and updates on his cause.

Born in 1860 in Wilmington, NC, Fr. Price would be the first native born priest of North Carolina. His parents were both Catholic converts. As a child the family fled to Ft. Sumter, SC at the start of the Civil War. His two older sisters were religious sisters.

At 16, he left for St. Charles Seminary in Cantonville, MD. His ship, the Rebecca Clyde, wrecked off Portsmouth. He said he survived due to Divine Intervention. He left again a year later in 1877 and made it safely.

Fr. Price was ordained in Wilmington on June 20, 1886. He was named missionary at large for the state of North Carolina.

He was friends with Fr. James Walsh of Boston. The started a seminary and The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

In 1918 he left for China with the first group of priests. He became sick a year later and died at St. Paul's Hospital in Hong Kong on September 12, 1919 from appendicitis.

He wrote a daily letter to the Blessed Mother. Over 3,000 entries in his journal still exist.

source: https://www.maryknollmagazine.org/2019/09/father-price-holy-priest/#:~:text=Thomas%20Price%20was%20ordained%20a,of%20mostly%20rural%20North%20Carolina.

St. Katharine Drexel gave money to build the Basilica at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, NC, shown to the left. Learn more about the Abbey and the college here.

Francis Parater, whose cause for canonization is with the Diocese of Richmond, VA, started his seminary studies with the monks at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, NC. He discerned the diocesan priesthood over monastic life and returned to be a priest for his home diocese of Richmond. Francis Parater would die at the seminary at the North American College in Rome, where he is also buried. Read more in the blog post about Francis Parater.