Still, he left after his junior year and entered Fordham College, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, and then entered the St. John's Seminary in Brooklyn.
He was ordained on May 21, 1921, and was assigned to Holy Child Jesus Parish in Richmond Hill, Queens.
From 1925, Father Stedman was chaplain of the Monastery of the Precious Blood in Brooklyn.
At the time of his death, it was noted that more than 13,000,000 copies of his books had been sold.
He died of a brain tumor at the age of forty-eight, at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.