He said that the first step leading to his conversion to Catholicism was the reading of "A Novena to St. Francis Xavier", a book belonging to an Irish servant girl.
[2] By this time, his father had begun to have some religious reservations and shared with Virgil some books he had been given by Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston, Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus.
Under the direction of Fenwick, in June 1817 they set out for Georgetown, D. C., where Barber and his son Samuel went to the college of the Jesuit Fathers.
Barber remained there a year and then returned to Georgetown, where he continued his studies until December 1822, when he was ordained a priest at Boston.
[3] He laboured there for two years and then spent some time on the Indian missions in Maine, and was after recalled to Georgetown College, where he passed the remainder of his days.
[2] Nearly three years after their separation, February 23, 1820, husband and wife met in the chapel of Georgetown Visitation Monastery to make their vows in religion.