On September 7, 1918, four Maryknoll priets left for the Society’s first foray into the foreign missions. Co-Founder Father Thomas Frederick Price, Father Francis X. Ford, Father Bernard F. Meyer, and Father James Edward Walsh set out for Yeungkong (Yangjiang), China, traveling by car, train, steamship, sailboat, and foot. It was the most exicting time of their lives, and using their diaries and letters, we can follow their story over 100 years later. Please click on the photos to enlarge and view captions.

The first leg of the missioners’ journey, from Maryknoll to Yokohama, Japan

Highlights from Father Price and Father Ford’s Journey
Highlights from Father Meyer and Father Walsh’s Journey


For more information about Maryknoll’s early work in China, see the Maryknoll Mission Archives’ collections of Mission Diaries and China Mission Records.
2021 marks 103 years of the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers mission work in Asia and the Pacific islands. In addition to China, the Society has worked in Hong Kong (1920), Korea (1923), the Philippines (1926), Japan (1933), Taiwan (1950), Indonesia (1974), Bangladesh (1975), Western Samoa (1976), Nepal (1977), Thailand (1983), Cambodia (1990), Vietnam (1992), and Myanmar (2006).