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Arlington, where he lived until earlier this year. After a fall in which he broke his arm, and due to failing health, he was admitted to Sleepy Hollow Nursing Home this past August. He died there in his sleep last Thurday, 44 years to the day after his first appointment as the pastor of Precious Blood Catholic Church in Culpeper.
“He came here as a missionary to the Blue Ridge,” Rev. Hobson remembered, “at a time when to be a Catholic — unless you were Italian or Irish — was considered something strange. He worked hard at it, and the establishment of churches in Madison, Culpeper, Rappahannock and Orange are largely the result of his efforts. He is the granddaddy of all that.”
“Father,” as he was always referred to, often recalled his first days in this area, and the reaction he received when people found out he was a Catholic priest. “I used to doff my hat and turn around to prove to them that I didn’t have horns and a tail," he would remember with a chuckle. “Many people had never seen a Catholic — much less a priest.”
After his appointment as chaplain of Saint Peter’s Cathode Mission, Father Maurice’s rectory was an apartment on Main St. He could often be seen walking the streets of Washington, on his way to the Post Office or merely taking a stroll for his exercise. He always had a smile and a pleasant greeting for everyone he met — and his bright eyes often twinkled as he offered a compliment or a few words of encouragement.
“I perceived Father Maurice as a saint, in the best sense of the word,”
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