Gregory Mills

     Hello my name is Gregory Mills. I was born in Boston Mass, in 1803. By the time I was ten I knew I wanted to be a priest. I wanted to help people. When I turned sixteen I tried telling my parents I wanted to go to a seminary but my father said no. He wanted me to go to college and become a banker like him. I just couldn’t spend my life like that.

     I kept asking but my father wouldn’t change his mind so I finally joined the seminary on my own and became a monk. In those days I was terribly shy. I couldn’t speak at mass, so I spent most of my life in monasteries. I always loved growing vegetable gardens though and I planted them where ever I went.

     In the 1850’s I was sent to a small parish in Arizona. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do what was expected but Father O’ Connor understood my limitations. He was such a spiritual man. He was close to eighty and in the spring of 1858 he had a heart attack and left his mortal life.