This is a photograph of Bishop J. A. Walsh with some of the Christians of Luoding who gathered to greet him. They are standing in front of the arched entrance way to a brick structure. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Boston public schools, Bp. Walsh attended Boston College and Harvard University before entering St. John's Seminary at age 19. He was ordained on May 20, 1892. He spent the first ten years as a priest in pastoral work at St. Patrick's Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1903 his mission spirit came alive when he was appointed Diocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. As Director, Father Walsh founded "The Field Afar", a publication to supplement the Annals of the SPF. In 1910, Fr. Walsh met Fr. Thomas F. Price of North Carolina at the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal. They worked out a plan for the American foreign mission seminary. The plan was approved by the American Hierarchy and Pope Pius X in 1911. In 1912, property was purchased to build a Seminary in Ossining, NY. In 1917 Maryknoll was ready to go to the missions and Fr. Walsh traveled through the Orient in search of a mission. Bishop de Guebriant in South China entrusted his mission in Yeungkong and Loting in the care of Maryknoll. The first mission set out for China in 1918. In 1933 Fr. Walsh was consecrated Titular Bishop of Siene. Bishop Walsh lived to ordain thirty-seven Maryknollers and to consecrate as Bishop his first Seminarian, Francis X. Ford. Bishop Walsh died in 1936 and is buried at Maryknoll.
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