Reflection by Thomas P. Bones, Augustinian Secular:

I first met Fr. Purcell in 1947 when he was Assistant Chaplain to Fr. Grimes. I was at his departure ceremony at Staten Island in 1952. He, along with Fr. Grimes and Fr. Bresnahan, has had a profound spiritual influence on my life and values for which I am very grateful. Of course, he is in my prayers.

Reflection by Joanne Babaian:

I thank God for Father Purcell's vocation to the priesthood. May Father Purcell be an instrument of World Peace as his love showers down upon us in the Heavenly Kingdom of God. Thank God for all Priests. Amen.

Reflection by Tony LaRosa:

I have fond memories of Father Purcell from my Augustinian Academy days (class of '53). I remember distinctly the affairs called "Shamokinaki" the mothers organized for his benefit,which reflected his birthplace and his new home.

Reflection by Peter G. Gori, O.S.A.:

I first met Father Purcell years ago when I was in initial formation, probably 1971-72. Then and on every subsequent occasion when I was in his presence he impressed me with his wit, his joy and his justifiable pride in the Augustinian Mission in Japan. Most especially I remember admiring the way he easily related to us younger ones, always with interest, encouragement and respect. He was a personification of "ever ancient, ever new." May Our Mother of Consolation welcome him home.

Reflection by Susanne (Buggy) Dent:

My father, Thomas Buggy, and Father Purcell were childhood friends living on Seventh St. in Shamokin, Pa. I am living in the home that Fr. Purcell grew up in and also the home that I was born and raised in. I had an opportunity to meet Fr. Purcell in the 70's when he came to Shamokin and visited his old neighborhood. My father often spoke of Fr. Purcell and reflected on their childhood days. My father passed away in 1991. I will keep Fr. Purcell in my prayers. He was a wonderful priest and human being.

Reflection by Joseph F. Troy, Villanova '50 ME:

In 1947 as a member of the Sactuary Society I first met Tom Purcell. It was the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship. In August 1951 he married me and Eleanore Van Hook. In July 1952 he baptized our son Joseph Jr., with whom we joined in a visit to Staten Island to see him off to Japan. In July 1975 he presided at the wedding of our older daughter Mary Ellen to Charles Scanlan. In 1977 he baptized their son Brandan. In April 1985 we had a wonderful and enlightening two week trip to Japan, carrying a video of the recent successful NCAA Championship game of Nova against Georgetown. We were never without an English-speaking companion in our time in Tokyo or travelling to Kyoto, Nikko with Fr. Masami Yamaguchi, Nagoya and Nagasaki.

Thru all the years, whenever Fr.Tom returned for R&R at Villanova, we were able to enjoy him in our home for at least a day or two during which all of our children and grandchildren got to know and love him.

Over the more recent years I would regularly phone him to check on how he was doing and bring him up to date on all of us. After he was hospitalized the calls continued and I was able to talk to Fr. Mike Hilden, Fr. Tom Imada or Fr. Peter.

Fr. Mike called at 3:00AM Nagasaki time to tell me of Fr. Tom's death. Six hours later Fr.Tom Imada called from Fukuoka to also tell us. The friends in Japan were very thoughtful to do so.

Fr. Tom was a wonderful priest, a great friend and we will miss and think of him many times in the future years to come. We know that he is celebrating his arrival in the glorious reward with our Lord in Heaven.

Reflection by Anthony Burrascano, O.S.A.:

Our brother Thomas Purcell died on November 26, 2004, in the Franciscan Sister’s Hospital in Nagasaki, Japan, after 51 years of service to the Church of Japan. He was a moving force not only in the establishment of the Order in Japan, but also in the development of the Church and various religious communities in Japan.

In Japan, a funeral is typically held within 24 hours of death since they do not embalm. Burial of the body is not the typical burial method; rather cremation is the norm. Although Tom passed away on November 26, his funeral and cremation would be held on Monday, November 29 at 1:00 P.M. at the parish in Nagasaki, Japan. The Provincial, Donald Reilly, asked me to represent the Province at the funeral as a sign of the love and respect for Tom and his ministry. After a rather long and immediate journey across North America and the Pacific Ocean, I arrived at the parish in Nagasaki at 11:30 A.M. on the day of the funeral.

Upon arrival, I could see that many people had already begun to arrive for the liturgy. Tents were set up outside the church where people would gather to sign a book, receive a gift for attending and leave a monetary gift. Even an hour before the liturgy was to begin the Church was filled with parishioners, friends and a large number of religious sisters. Entering the church, situated in the main aisle was a large picture of Tom with candles on either side. Behind the picture was the sealed coffin with Tom’s body. Only his face could be seen, and a plate of glass covered it.

At 1:00 P.M. the procession began with the Archbishop of Nagasaki presiding and the Bishop of Fukuoka in attendance. There were approximately 40 priests concelebrating, representing various Orders and diocesan priests, Japanese and western. The Church was filled to overflowing.

Michael Hilden, O.S.A., pastor of the Nagasaki parish, preached. Masaki Imada, O.S.A., Vicar of the Vicariate of the Japanese Martyrs, was a principle concelebrant.

After the beautiful liturgy was completed, individuals approached a microphone and offered their eulogies to Tom. Upon conclusion, all processed to place a flower on the coffin and bow to the Augustinian community standing at the head of the aisle.

The coffin was then brought in procession out of the Church to the waiting hearse. The friars and some parishioners entered a bus to go to the crematorium. The people and the school children lined the drive out of the parish, bowing as the hearse drove off. Even in the streets people bowed and wept.

It was a short drive to the crematorium. Unlike those in America, they are large, modern and very busy. Upon arrival, the coffin was wheeled indoors to a marble entrance, preceded by the large picture of Tom. We gathered around as Maskai Imada, O.S.A., led us in a final prayer for Tom. Then the coffin was wheeled to a long marble hallway followed by all present. The hallway was lined with large metal doors in front of the furnaces for cremation. There were a large number of furnaces.

We arrived at one with open doors, number 7. The coffin was placed in front of the door, we bowed, and the coffin was pushed into the furnace with the doors closing.

We were then invited to a waiting room where food was served. We waited for about two hours then a light came on indicating that the cremation was completed. We then entered a room where the tray on which Tom was cremated was wheeled in. On the tray were the ashes and also the skeleton bones of Tom. Next we participated in what is called “Picking the Bones.” A large container was brought forth and we were given very large chopsticks. It is an honor for the family to use the chopsticks to pick the bones of the deceased and place them in the large container. We proceeded “Picking the Bones” of Tom, starting from the feet, and placed them in the container. All his bones, including his skull, were placed in the container and then the top was placed upon it. We bowed to the “remains.” Leaving the crematorium, the picture held by Mike Hilden preceded the container of bones held by Masaki Imada.

We then reboarded the bus with the picture and bones for a dinner at a Chinese restaurant. On arrival at the restaurant we entered, proceeded by the picture and container of bones, which were placed on a table in our midst. After the meal we proceeded back to the bus with picture and container leading, returning to the friary.

At the friary the container of bones was placed on the altar in the chapel surrounded by beautiful Japanese flower arrangements. The bones will remain for about thirty days and then be interred in the Augustinian plot in Nagasaki.

After traveling for thirty hours, the difference of the funeral rite was enough to keep me wide away. It was quite an experience. Even though I faced another thirty hours of traveling back the next day, it was an honor and well worth the journey. It was an honor to represent the Province to the memory of a friar who gave so much of himself to the Order, the Church and our God.

Reflection by Charles F. Fry:

Father Purcell was a second cousin of mine. I never met Father Purcell, and, though I was born and raised in Shamokin, PA, never had the pleasure of meeting any of my Madden relatives. I will have a Mass offered in memory of Father Thomas.

Reflection by Masaki Imada, O.S.A., Vicar of the Vicariate of Japan:

Father Thomas P. Purcell, O.S.A., 1913-2004: A Man of Undaunted Faith and a Big Heart

After a little over five years of hospitalization, Father Thomas Purcell, O.S.A., the only surviving member of the three co-founders or, more precisely, restorers of the Augustinian mission in Japan, passed on to the Lord at midnight, just a few minutes into Saturday, November 27 at Saint Francis Hospital in Nagasaki, Japan.

Trained as a historian during his initial formation, he had been deeply interested in all the work and lives of the Augustinian missionaries in the 17th century Japan, most of whom, as you know, were either from Spain or Portugal by way of Mexico and the Philippines, that is, missionaries of the Province of the Philippines. Hence, he was mindful of the fact that he and the other two friars came to Japan after 315 years had passed since the last Augustinians in Japan were martyred to resume the work that was so gloriously begun in the 17th century. Two years ago last October, we celebrated the 50 years of the Order’s presence but at the same time we were aware, largely thanks to Tom Purcell, that it was also to mark the fourth centenary of the official beginning of the first Augustinian mission in Bungo (present-day Oita, which is located in the western part of Kyushu Island) with the arrival of Fray Diego de Guevara and Fray Eustaquio Ortiz.

The three missionaries, Tom and George Krupa from the Villanova Province and Edward or Rusty Robinson from the Chicago Province arrived in Japan on November 11, 1952 and after their registration with the American Embassy and other necessary formalities in Tokyo, they traveled to Nagasaki and arrived there on November 22. During their brief stay, they spoke with the bishop about their future work and when they were shown three possible sites for it, they immediately chose amongst them the site of the atom-bombed Marianist Seminary.

Whether or not they had any detailed knowledge at the time of the Order’s history in Japan, it was providential that they chose that site because quite a few Augustinians, both religious and lay, were martyred in the 17th century in sections of our present-day parish, Our Mother of Consolation (Shiroyama Catholic Church) in Nagasaki. In the article Father Purcell wrote to commemorate the 40th anniversary of our presence in Japan he made a reference to this fact by saying: “During the thirty-five years of evangelization in Japan one reads of the glorious history of conversions and martyrdom. 24 friars and 57 members of the Third Order, as well as 47 members of the Archconfraternity of the Cincture whose names are known, shed their blood for the Faith.”

After they decided on the site of their future apostolate, they went back to Tokyo for seven months of language studies and returned to Nagasaki immediately to start preparing for their work from a scratch. Within two years they managed to establish a new parish and a kindergarten and in the following year they first established St. Mary’s Elementary School and then four years later they established St. Mary’s Middle School. St. Mary’s School, both Elementary and Middle, was and still remains the only and nearest thing in Japan to what would ordinarily be called a parochial school.

After serving for 10 years in Nagasaki as prior and pastor, he was assigned to begin a new mission in Nagoya in October, 1963. The Augustinian community in Japan chose a small spot in the industrial area of the city near the port. The building was completed in June, 1964 which housed the church on the first floor, offices on the second and the friary on the third. Dedicated under the patronage of Saint Monica, the parish which had started with just about a hundred Catholics grew to number about five hundred by the time Tom left for Saint Augustine Church in Tokyo in 1980.

Now the biggest project he undertook as pastor in Nagoya with groups of interested families was to buy plots of land and build homes and apartment houses for themselves by organizing their own cooperative in 1966 for this purpose. Father Tom took the initiative in this project because he soon became aware that there was an acute housing problem amongst his parishioners with many families of five, six, or seven members living in two small rooms, with common bathrooms in their cheaply built apartment, but they neither had the money nor the land. They studied together how to borrow money from the government at low interest and Tom also managed to receive grants from a big foundation in the United States. In the course of the next nine years they built two groups of individual homes or housing complexes and two more big apartment houses with each of these having a center for Sunday and occasional weekday Masses, catechism classes and so forth.

It was when the southern part of the parish in Tokyo was changing greatly with a large influx of population when Father Purcell took over in June of 1980 as pastor at our fourth parish in Japan, established by Father Edward Griffin in one of the then least developed areas of Tokyo in 1968. With the help of his assistant, Father Masami Yamaguchi, Tom undertook another big project of moving the church and friary to a more central section of the parish and building a bigger structure that would meet the growth of the parish and better serve the emerging needs. It was successfully completed in June of 1985 and dedicated in October of the same year. When Tom retired as pastor and left for Nagasaki in 1988, the parish had grown to about 850 registered individuals, including a large number of brothers and sisters in Christ from abroad.

Back in Nagasaki after 25 years, he continued to minister with joy as a semi-retiree assistant, mainly working with the parish senior-citizens’ group and the members of the Third Order or Secular Augustinians and going on sick calls almost daily, until he was hospitalized in October, 1999. Bedridden for the last five years of his life which he spent at Saint Francis Hospital in Nagasaki, he received communion daily and smiled and told jokes to doctors, nurses, and other staff of the hospital as well as to his visitors. A man of undaunted faith and a big heart, he certainly achieved many a good thing for the evangelization of Japan and to strengthen the Order’s presence thereof. However, as impressive as his accomplishments over the course of some thirty-five years as pastor, it has made an equally great and lasting impression on all of us who had the privilege of often seeing him during his long stay at the hospital that he never complained and never lost his great sense of humor to the last days of his life here on earth, which I think was in and by itself his last but not least ministry in the Land of the Rising Sun, his beloved country. It was singularly a ministry of being and it was sheer grace for us to have a chance to see the goodness in our dear brother, 68 years professed, 61 years ordained, and 91 years of being the man he was. I thank my God and thank Father Tom for a gift of himself and I am confident that he is now watching over us, the small Vicariate community of 14 friars, all the more from his new vantage point and assisting us with his prayers.