1857 – 1919 (January 30)
William Joseph Morrison, son of Patrick Morrison and Hannah Devitt, was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1857. He entered the novitiate at Villanova on January 26, 1877, and professed simple vows on September 26, 1878 and solemn vows on October 4, 1881. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Shanahan of Harrisburg, at Villanova, in the gymnasium church, on November 13, 1881.
Father Morrison devoted the years of his priestly apostolate to the parishes of the province. In 1881 he was assigned to Saint Mary’s, Lawrence, MA. In 1887 he was appointed pastor of Saint Patrick, Cambridge, and three years later returned briefly to Lawrence and then to Philadelphia, before being assigned in 1891 to Saint Augustine, Lansingburgh, New York. He was named rector of Saint James Parish, Carthage, in 1894, and in 1898 returned to Saint Augustine Parish, Philadelphia.
Father Morrison was appointed to Saint Augustine, Andover, in 1905, to Saint Augustine, Lansingburgh in 1908, and to Our Lady of Good Counsel, Staten Island, in 1911. A pastor well-loved by the many parishioners he served, he was particularly well thought of in Troy, as his transfer in 1911 evoked a signed petition to the provincial by hundreds of individuals requesting his continued service there.
Father Morrison died at Saint Agnes Hospital, Philadelphia, on January 30, 1919, at the age of 62. His Requiem Mass was offered at Saint Augustine Church on February 3, 1919, after which he was interred there in the vault of the church.
