One Happy Old Priest

About the Book

In One Happy Old Priest, Father Thomas Sullivan looks back on his eighty years as a catholic, a life that includes both family and scores of fine seminarians, priests, nuns, and parishioners. With an honest and rollicking writing style, Father Sullivan recreates moments that stand out in his childhood, seminary education, priest training, and life as a foreign missionary and pastor stateside. One Happy Old Priest is one man´s look at how the church has cultivated, preserved, and navigated decades of sometimes unwelcome change. The volume includes photographs of family, priests, nuns, and parishioners. An appendix lists Columban Fathers mentioned in the text, a testament of the many who dedicated their lives to the service of the church. The epilogue draws attention to the man Father Sullivan believes represents the best of what the church has to offer, then and now.

About the Author

Father Tom Sullivan was born and raised Catholic in St. Louis, Missouri. He entered the Cathedral Latin School from grade school. From 1947 to 1973 he was proud to be a member of St. Columban’s Foreign Mission Society. Ordained in 1952, he spent eleven years with the Columbans’ as a pastor in Yang Yang, Korea – a town just north of the 38th parallel that had no electricity. He received his Master’s degree from St. Louis University in 1970, and in 1971 attended the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 1972 he settled in Florida where he taught religion, English and served as a parish pastor until his retirement in 2007.