Almost a century ago, his great great grandfather donated the land for the national monument to St Patrick at Saul, Co. Down. And now, his namesake, Thomas John Hampton is set to become the first priest in four decades to be ordained in the parish of Saul, the place where St Patrick began his mission in Ireland in 432AD.
The Rev. Thomas Hampton has just returned home from Rome, where he was ordained a ‘transitional’ deacon at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls on June 18. He delights in his connection to St Patrick – and, with hopes of priestly ordination next year, is thankful not only that he stopped resisting the call to priesthood, but that his health has been restored. A few months ago, the seminarian thought his biggest challenge was essays and exams. Then, he suffered a dramatic health crisis and undergoing surgery to remove an abscess on his brain. “I feel great – and exhausted,” he declares with great joy, “I’m still letting everything sink in.”
It was in the quiet of the Covid lockdown in 2020 that his priestly vocation became irresistible. “It has been on my mind since I was eight,” he admits, “and it always came and went, back and forward. I always thought I was not good enough.”
Hampton was also put off as a teenager student in Downpatrick when a teacher at De La Salle High School unwittingly recalled that it was only grammar school boys who historically went to the seminary in the Diocese of Down and Connor. “I thought I am not in grammar school, and I am simply not smart enough.”
Calling
Instead, he pursued a vocation as a secondary school teacher, spent some years in England, and now, aged 45, regards these years as preparation for the priesthood. Indeed, he has been fast-tracked from the usual seven years. “I am in the Pontifical Beda College in Rome, which was originally set up for the more mature, vintage man.”
Indeed, it is the ‘vintage man’ who is answering the Lord’s call to priesthood these days. “We have lived a life and had a few knocks and bruises along the way,” said the Rev. Hampton, “and without even realising it, we were getting pastoral experience before we stepped into any sort of seminary, and I think that’s really important.”
He credits an aunt who, along with many others, for encouraging him in his religious vocation – long before he ever spoke a word to anyone about the priesthood. “I thought my aunt was coming to see my parents, but she said, ‘I’m here to see you! Have you ever thought about the priesthood?’”
We are all vulnerable people and we always think we are never good enough”
His aunt, a parishioner from Mary, Mother of the Church, in Saintfield, had been spurred on in 2018 by her parish priest to give her nephew Thomas a ‘gentle nudge’ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Fr McHugh had put the gauntlet down to all the parishioners to go out to your son, or grandson, or your nephews, whoever it is in the family, and ask, ‘Have you ever thought of being a priest?’”
So how did he respond to his aunt’s question? “I said I have never ruled it out. I think about it all the time.”
He thinks many others should echo his aunt’s easy invitation. “Maybe someone needs to hear it. Because we are all vulnerable people and we always think we are never good enough. So those words can mean a lot.”
“Other people have said it over the years, and I sort of brushed it off and thought ‘no I am going for a career in teaching’ or ‘it’s not for me’.”
In fact, he was still hearing those words ‘You would make a good priest’ after he had made up his mind, words he took as confirmation that he was on the right path.
Initially he reached out to a religious order but was rebuffed because he was over the age of 35. He was stung by the rejection but the call to priesthood, in the days that followed, grew more fervent. “The strongest it has ever been,” he recalls. “And there was a time when I couldn’t sleep and when I did sleep my dreams were absolutely vivid and all the dreams were a call from the Holy Spirit.”
He reached out to Fr Kevin McGuckien, then Down and Connor vocations director. “Everything just fell into place,” he said. “It was almost like ‘I don’t need to fight in my mind anymore’.”
Soon, he learned that Eithne Brennan, a fellow parishioner from the St Joseph Priests’ Society, had been offering regular rosaries, not just for vocations but for a man from her home parish of Saul to enter the seminary. “I thought that was fantastic! We didn’t know each other – but we know each other now and I think getting prayers from strangers carries a lot of weight.”
Unexpected
After completing the Propaedeutic Stage in Spain, time spent learning the discipline of prayer and surrender to God’s will, Hampton was sent to Rome a few years ago. It was on March 18, while in a moral theology class, that he became dangerously ill, suffering the first of two violent seizures, one in the ambulance on route to hospital.
Hampton was sedated and unconscious for a few days before undergoing surgery to remove the abscess on his brain followed by treatment to remove the infection. He has no memory of the trauma, but vividly recalls the love and support of family and friends. As the youngest of four children, he was keenly aware of the anguish of his parents, Thomas and Bernadette, who hope to attend his ordination to priesthood next summer.
{{Go for a quiet walk on the beach – find a bit of nature – and see the truth of creation and what God has given us”
The last man to be ordained a priest in Saul was Fr Brendan Kelly, rector of the Redemptorist Clonard Monastery in Belfast, though two men Reverend John Breen, from Saul, and the late Reverend Paul McCormick, from Downpatrick, were ordained to the permanent diaconate around three years ago.
Why does Hampton think so few men are hearing the call to priesthood today? “I think there is too much distraction,” said the seminarian who advises other men, who may be called, to take quiet time to reflect. “Go for a quiet walk on the beach – find a bit of nature – and see the truth of creation and what God has given us. Maybe meditate and pray there. You can hear God more clearly at times in those places.”
He has no memory of the trauma, but vividly recalls the love and support of family, and friends”
Man from St Patrick’s mission field on road to priesthood
Almost a century ago, his great great grandfather donated the land for the national monument to St Patrick at Saul, Co. Down. And now, his namesake, Thomas John Hampton is set to become the first priest in four decades to be ordained in the parish of Saul, the place where St Patrick began his mission in Ireland in 432AD.
The Rev. Thomas Hampton has just returned home from Rome, where he was ordained a ‘transitional’ deacon at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls on June 18. He delights in his connection to St Patrick – and, with hopes of priestly ordination next year, is thankful not only that he stopped resisting the call to priesthood, but that his health has been restored. A few months ago, the seminarian thought his biggest challenge was essays and exams. Then, he suffered a dramatic health crisis and undergoing surgery to remove an abscess on his brain. “I feel great – and exhausted,” he declares with great joy, “I’m still letting everything sink in.”
It was in the quiet of the Covid lockdown in 2020 that his priestly vocation became irresistible. “It has been on my mind since I was eight,” he admits, “and it always came and went, back and forward. I always thought I was not good enough.”
Hampton was also put off as a teenager student in Downpatrick when a teacher at De La Salle High School unwittingly recalled that it was only grammar school boys who historically went to the seminary in the Diocese of Down and Connor. “I thought I am not in grammar school, and I am simply not smart enough.”
Calling
Instead, he pursued a vocation as a secondary school teacher, spent some years in England, and now, aged 45, regards these years as preparation for the priesthood. Indeed, he has been fast-tracked from the usual seven years. “I am in the Pontifical Beda College in Rome, which was originally set up for the more mature, vintage man.”
Indeed, it is the ‘vintage man’ who is answering the Lord’s call to priesthood these days. “We have lived a life and had a few knocks and bruises along the way,” said the Rev. Hampton, “and without even realising it, we were getting pastoral experience before we stepped into any sort of seminary, and I think that’s really important.”
He credits an aunt who, along with many others, for encouraging him in his religious vocation – long before he ever spoke a word to anyone about the priesthood. “I thought my aunt was coming to see my parents, but she said, ‘I’m here to see you! Have you ever thought about the priesthood?’”
His aunt, a parishioner from Mary, Mother of the Church, in Saintfield, had been spurred on in 2018 by her parish priest to give her nephew Thomas a ‘gentle nudge’ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Fr McHugh had put the gauntlet down to all the parishioners to go out to your son, or grandson, or your nephews, whoever it is in the family, and ask, ‘Have you ever thought of being a priest?’”
So how did he respond to his aunt’s question? “I said I have never ruled it out. I think about it all the time.”
He thinks many others should echo his aunt’s easy invitation. “Maybe someone needs to hear it. Because we are all vulnerable people and we always think we are never good enough. So those words can mean a lot.”
“Other people have said it over the years, and I sort of brushed it off and thought ‘no I am going for a career in teaching’ or ‘it’s not for me’.”
In fact, he was still hearing those words ‘You would make a good priest’ after he had made up his mind, words he took as confirmation that he was on the right path.
Initially he reached out to a religious order but was rebuffed because he was over the age of 35. He was stung by the rejection but the call to priesthood, in the days that followed, grew more fervent. “The strongest it has ever been,” he recalls. “And there was a time when I couldn’t sleep and when I did sleep my dreams were absolutely vivid and all the dreams were a call from the Holy Spirit.”
He reached out to Fr Kevin McGuckien, then Down and Connor vocations director. “Everything just fell into place,” he said. “It was almost like ‘I don’t need to fight in my mind anymore’.”
Soon, he learned that Eithne Brennan, a fellow parishioner from the St Joseph Priests’ Society, had been offering regular rosaries, not just for vocations but for a man from her home parish of Saul to enter the seminary. “I thought that was fantastic! We didn’t know each other – but we know each other now and I think getting prayers from strangers carries a lot of weight.”
Unexpected
After completing the Propaedeutic Stage in Spain, time spent learning the discipline of prayer and surrender to God’s will, Hampton was sent to Rome a few years ago. It was on March 18, while in a moral theology class, that he became dangerously ill, suffering the first of two violent seizures, one in the ambulance on route to hospital.
Hampton was sedated and unconscious for a few days before undergoing surgery to remove the abscess on his brain followed by treatment to remove the infection. He has no memory of the trauma, but vividly recalls the love and support of family and friends. As the youngest of four children, he was keenly aware of the anguish of his parents, Thomas and Bernadette, who hope to attend his ordination to priesthood next summer.
{{Go for a quiet walk on the beach – find a bit of nature – and see the truth of creation and what God has given us”
The last man to be ordained a priest in Saul was Fr Brendan Kelly, rector of the Redemptorist Clonard Monastery in Belfast, though two men Reverend John Breen, from Saul, and the late Reverend Paul McCormick, from Downpatrick, were ordained to the permanent diaconate around three years ago.
Why does Hampton think so few men are hearing the call to priesthood today? “I think there is too much distraction,” said the seminarian who advises other men, who may be called, to take quiet time to reflect. “Go for a quiet walk on the beach – find a bit of nature – and see the truth of creation and what God has given us. Maybe meditate and pray there. You can hear God more clearly at times in those places.”
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