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James Anthony Walsh was born on February 24, 1867 in Cambridge, Massachusetts into an Irish-American, Catholic family.
After attending public schools for his grade school, James attended a Jesuit high school, Boston College High School. Among his high school interests were debating and journalism. It was his love of writing that laid the foundation for much of what he was able to contribute to the American missionary effort of the early twentieth century.
After high school, James attended Boston College and Harvard College before entering St. John’s Seminary in Boston. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston on May 20, 1892.
As a new priest, Fr. James worked with youth in various organizations in Roxbury. Among the people who had a profound influence on the young priest was Fr. Joseph Tracy, who was the director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for the Archdiocese of Boston. Fortunately, in 1903, Fr. Walsh was appointed diocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
His work in the Society led him to believe that it was time for the Catholic Church in the United States to “grow up,” to do its part in providing Americans to serve as missionaries throughout the world. For until this time, the United States was mostly a recipient of missionaries from Ireland, Spain, and other European nations who basically ran the Church in the United States. The more he became involved in the SPF, the more he became convinced that the United States needed to learn more about the missionary life throughout the world, and he came to believe the United States needed to develop a foreign mission seminary.
In 1907, Fr. Walsh began publishing The Field Afar, a monthly publication about the foreign missionary work of the Catholic Church. This publication became very important in stimulating many Catholic Americans to develop a missionary awareness and the United States’ role in providing missionaries for the world.
As he began receiving support for his idea of establishing an American foreign missionary seminary, he was fortunate to meet Fr. Thomas Frederick Price of Wilmington, North Carolina at a Eucharistic Congress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The two men became great friends, and although Fr. Price had a very strong desire to focus on “home missions,” he joined with Fr. Walsh in co-founding the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, more commonly known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1911.
One year later, with Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, Fr. Walsh co-founded the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic, later called the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic. Today, in Maryknoll, the Fathers and Brothers are often simply called “the society,” while the Sisters are called “the congregation.” In time, two other branches were added to the Maryknoll family: the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and the Maryknoll Affiliates.
Fr. Walsh became a bishop in 1933, and he served as the superior general of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers until he died on April 14, 1936 at the age of 69.
Like Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, Bishop James Anthony Walsh never worked as a missionary in China or other areas where Maryknollers were found. However, he did visit Maryknoll missionaries throughout the world, and with his administrative and writing skills, he was a great stimulus for the work of Maryknollers throughout the world.
Today, Maryknoll has missionaries throughout the world, and it lists many martyrs among its members. James Anthony Walsh, along with Fr. Thomas Frederick Price, is known as a Servant of God.
