page_title: Thomas Frederick Price
section_title: Foreign missions begin
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Frederick Price / Plans for a foreign mission seminary / Foreign missions begin
caption_attribution_description: English: Father Thomas F. Price, co-founder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, center, was pictured in a 1918 photo in China.
context_page_description: Father Thomas Frederick Price was the American co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
context_section_description: Price made a countrywide tour of America to gain support for the new endeavor. By 1918, three young priests (James Edward Walsh, Francis Xavier Ford, and Bernard F. Meyer) were ready for the foreign missions in China. On September 7, Price went with them as superior to the new mission. From the time of the foundation of Maryknoll, Price had understood that Walsh was the one capable of administering and directing the seminary itself. Price himself had always hoped to be chosen as one of Maryknoll's first missioners, and his dream was realized.
  This group of first four American missioners in China arrived in Hong Kong in October 1918. They then settled down in Yeungkong (now called Yangjiang) on the South China Coast. Because of his age and its complexity, Price had great difficulty learning the Chinese language
  Price also suffered from physical ailments. Towards the latter part of 1919, Price became seriously ill. As there were no adequate medical facilities in that area, he was brought to Hong Kong for hospitalization. After a trying trip, Price arrived in the British Colony and was immediately taken to St. Paul's Hospital in Causeway Bay, an institution conducted by the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres. The long and arduous journey from Yeungkong to Hong Kong by primitive means of travel aggravated Price’s advanced and serious case of appendicitis. He entered the Hospital on 19 August 1919 and was operated on 8 September 1919. However, it was too late and on 12 September, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, he died as a result of a burst appendix. His body was buried in the priests’ plot in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. The date of his death was rather significant, as he had great devotion to Our Lady. He was only 59.
  A solemn requiem Mass was celebrated on 18 September 1919 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral for the happy repose of his priestly soul. At this ceremony, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Fr Pozzoni, gave the last absolution and a large concourse of priests and Sisters attended
  In 1923, a French missioner returned to France with Price's heart and gave it to St. Bernadette's religious order, the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. It was placed in a niche in the wall near the saint's body in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Nevers. It was Price’s own request for he had a very great devotion to Sister Bernadette. Price's body was exhumed in 1936 and transferred to Maryknoll Cemetery in Ossining, New York. In 1955, his remains, together with those of Bishop James A. Walsh, were finally interred in the crypt below the Maryknoll Seminary Chapel.
caption: Father Thomas F. Price, co-founder of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, center, was pictured in a 1918 photo in China.
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