Twins who entered Orphanage 22 years ago return as Priests
by VP
Posted on Friday September 10, 2021 at 12:00AM in From the Past
Nazareth, NC, Nov 29 1946
The twins returned to Nazareth on Thanksgiving Day. It was near Thanksgiving Day in 1924 when Lawrence and Clarence Hill first arrived at Catholic Orphanage here, the little Catholic community on the hill outside of Raleigh. Looking so much alike that the Sisters could not tell them apart, they were only six years old then.
When they returned on Thanksgiving Day, 1946, it was for the celebration of Father Clarence Hill’s first High Mass. Father Lawrence Hill, who was ordained a year before his brother, was deacon.
The twins were at the orphanage for 13 years. It was while they were at Nazareth that they made their separate decisions to become priests – Father Lawrence Hill deciding first and Father Clarence Hill making the same decision shortly after.
Lawrence enrolled at Belmont Abbey, the Benedictine school in North Carolina, after his graduation in 1937. Clarence worked for a year, then followed his brother to Belmont. In 1939, Clarence enrolled at St. Gregory’s Seminary near Cincinnati. He completed his work at Mount St. Mary’s of the West. Lawrence studied at Our Lady of Angels seminary in Niagara Falls.
The mother of the twins, Mrs. Mary Hill, lives at Lansing, Michigan. Both priests are now in the Diocese of Raleigh. Father Lawrence Hill is at St. Lawrence’s in Asheville as assistant pastor. He was assigned there recently after a year a High Point, which is where he lived before entering the orphanage. Father Clarence is assigned to the Home Mission Apostolate at Whiteville, N.C.
Source: Catholic News
