1829 – 1912 (June 19)
Thomas Augustine Field was born in Kilbrin, County Cork, Ireland in 1829. He entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania in 1868, and was ordained to the priesthood in the Philadelphia Cathedral by Bishop Wood in 1871. He had studied in Indiana with the Holy Cross Society at Notre Dame before joining the Augustinians.
Father Field served in our various parishes as an assistant and later as prior and pastor. Before he was ordained, he taught English and Christian Doctrine at Villanova College as a professed cleric. In 1879, he was appointed the first resident pastor of our parish in Greenwich, New York, and built its first rectory. In 1894, he was Rector of the church at Andover, Massachusetts when it was destroyed by fire. Father Field planned and built a new brick church which was blessed in August in 1895.
In 1885, Father Field made strong appeal for a bill in New York which would permit Catholic services to be held in the prisons of that state. From 1905 to 1912, he served in our parishes in Bryn Mawr and Chestnut Hill, Pa.
He died in the Villanova Monastery on June 19, 1912 while making the provincial retreat. He was 83 years old. Father Field is buried at Villanova in the Community Cemetery.
