Background
Thomas Galberry was the son of Thomas and Margaret White Galberry of Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1836.
Thomas Galberry was the son of Thomas and Margaret White Galberry of Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1836.
Galberry's religious character was so marked while he was attending the local schools, that his parents at a considerable sacrifice sent him to Villanova College from which he was graduated as a class orator in 1851.
Entering the Augustinian novitiate, January 1, 1852, he made his solemn profession, January 4, 1853, and on the completion of his theological course he was ordained by Bishop Neumann of Philadelphia in St. Augustine’s Church, December 20, 1856.
For four years, Galberry acted successively as an instructor at Villanova, as a curate at St. Dennis’s Church, Cobb’s Creek, and as a pastor at Haverford, Pennsylvania; then he was transferred to Lansingburg, New York. Here during a pastorate of ten years, he established a cemetery, built a parochial school, and erected St. Augustine’s Church.
Because of his industry and business ability, he was appointed in 1866, superior of the Augustinian missions in the United States, which greatly widened his field of service. In 1870, he took charge of the Augustinian parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he remained until he was called to the rectorship of Villanova College in 1872.
As president, he infused new life into the institution, improved scholarship, and discipline, and constructed new buildings. In 1874, when the Commissariat of Our Lady of Good Counsel in the United States was instituted the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, Galberry was named prior-provincial by the general of the order and was continued in this position by the vote of his religious brethren when the first Augustinian chapter met on December 18, 1874. This vote of commendation gave him true satisfaction.
Three months later, Galberry was dazed on reading in a newspaper that his appointment to the See of Hartford had been promulgated in a public consistory in Rome. Feeling unequal to the task and not relishing this separation from his community, he forwarded a declination when the official notification reached him.
The Holy See was not satisfied with his reasons, and a papal mandate of February 17, 1876, enjoined his acceptance. Trained in obedience, the friar closed the affairs of his order and college and went to Hartford where he was consecrated by Archbishop Williams of Boston on March 19, 1876.
Almost immediately, he made his ad limina visit to Rome, incidentally visiting Augustinian priories in Italy, France, and Ireland. Returning to the diocese, he made the usual visitation, commenced the construction of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, founded the Connecticut Catholic (later the Catholic Transcript) as a diocesan weekly paper, erected two churches, opened a boys’ school, increased the number of female religious institutions in the diocese from six to seventeen, and encouraged the total abstinence movement.
In two years of consistent work, Galberry accomplished much. Urged to go to Villanova for a rest, he was stricken with a hemorrhage on the way and died in a New York hotel. On October 15, the archbishop of Boston performed the funeral services and Bishop De Goesbriant of Burlington pronounced the panegyric over his friend’s remains which were buried under the high altar of his cathedral.
Thomas Galberry commenced the construction of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, founded the Connecticut Catholic (later the Catholic Transcript) as a diocesan weekly paper, erected two churches, opened a boys’ school, increased the number of female religious institutions in the diocese from six to seventeen, and encouraged the total abstinence movement. The Research and Development building on the Villanova University campus is named in his honor.
Galberry’s life was not picturesque; he was a humble religious who sought no fame, but loyally served his order and church as a preacher, an administrator, a kindly teacher, and a firm superior.
