Thomas Frederick Price, MM (August 19, 1860 - September 12, 1919) was the American co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

One cleric who figured prominently in his early life was James Gibbons, newly appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina.

[3] With his religious background (especially the deep devotion of his mother to the Blessed Virgin Mary), Price soon felt an attraction to the priesthood.

He confided his interest to the parish priest, Mark Gross, and arrangements were made for him to enter St. Charles College at Catonsville, Maryland, in August 1876.

Price was the first native North Carolinian to be ordained to the priesthood, and he was assigned to missionary work in the eastern section of his home state.

Price's active role in the Foreign Mission Seminary by this time made his continued involvement in the publication impossible.

Price's plan was first to help the underprivileged of an area and thereby win the general population's favor, who would then be more inclined to listen to the missioner's message.

As time went on, Price began to emphasize more and more often, in the pages of Truth, the need for a seminary to train young American men for foreign missions.

At the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal in 1910, the two priests began to formulate plans for the establishment of a seminary for foreign missioners.

By 1918, three young priests (James Edward Walsh, Francis Xavier Ford, and Bernard F. Meyer) were ready for the foreign missions in China.

The long and arduous journey from Yeungkong to Hong Kong by primitive means of travel aggravated Price's advanced and serious case of appendicitis.

However, it was too late, and on 12 September, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, he died due to a burst appendix at five minutes past ten o'clock.

[5] A solemn requiem Mass was celebrated on 18 September 1919 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral for his priestly soul's happy repose.

At this ceremony, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Pozzoni, gave the last absolution, and a large concourse of priests and Sisters attended[5] 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.