[1] As a teenager, he was groomed by the philanthropist Caroline Emmerton, who had founded The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association and sought to bring Murphy under her artistic patronage.
[1] Instead, Murphy followed his brother Will's footsteps to become a Catholic priest, enrolling at Baltimore's Epiphany Apostolic College, the minor seminary of the Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (aka the Josephites).
[1] In 1932, Murphy was reassigned to New Orleans, where he served at a Josephite parish and also as dean of religion and philosophy at Xavier University of Louisiana, an HBCU founded by Katharine Drexel less than a decade before.
[1] Murphy also kept busy with personal projects, including a play based on the life of Mary Magdalene, understood to be a converted prostitute who was mentioned in the gospel narratives.
[2][4] They would stage an adaptation starring Sinclair Lewis as a priest himself, who became a lifelong friend to Murphy (and received inroads from him to the Black community, inspiring his novel Kingsblood Royal).