Rev. Graham Golden, O.Praem., 1986-2021

The St. Pius X community mourns the loss of Rev. Graham Golden, O. Praem. ’04. Fr. Graham, 35, died when his car was struck by another vehicle on May 21, 2021. A member of the Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey and a priest for six years, Fr. Graham often shared his vocation story with the students of St. Pius X High School and was featured in Connections magazine in March 2021. Read the story here.

St. Pius X theology teacher Scott Howard ’85 remembers Golden as a freshman in 2001. “What stood out was his curiosity, intellect and sense of humor,” he said. “If he wasn’t smiling he was puzzling over some intellectual thought. He never changed!

“I always told my students that when Graham was in the room he was the smartest person in the room and the bright ones would clearly make a face of derision,” Howard said. “Then he would come in and speak and there was a bowing of heads! Graham would never boast about himself, so I did.”

Howard invited Fr. Graham to speak in his classes two weeks before his death. “You could just see and experience the depth of his spirituality,” he said. “I have a shirt that Fr. Graham gave to me many years ago. It says ‘Christ in the community.’ Fr. Graham lived it. He was Christ to the community.”

Fr. Graham was born to Dan and Deborah Golden on January 8, 1986, in Albuquerque. He was a proud graduate of St. Pius X High School and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of New Mexico with a BA in Music and Spanish (2008). He entered the Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey in 2008. After his two-year novitiate, he attended Catholic Theological Union and the University of Chicago where he received a Master’s Degree from each school. 

In 2015 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Fr. Graham entered the Norbertine Community with a desire to serve the poor and marginalized. Already as a seminarian he served as an intern for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The Campaign works to address the plague of poverty. After ordination, Fr. Graham worked with The Catholic Foundation as a Regional Council Coordinator to assess the needs of rural communities, particularly in Northern New Mexico. Subsequently, he served as associate and then pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Community (2018), and most recently became pastor of St. Augustine Parish at Isleta Pueblo. Fr. Graham was also the archdiocesan coordinator for the annual Pilgrimage for Vocations. 

At Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey he had multiple responsibilities: vocation director, formation director for seminarians, founder of the Office of Christian Discipleship and Religious Vocation, as well as initiator of the annual Art at the Abbey Exhibition. 

Fr. Graham was an extraordinarily dedicated, talented, and intelligent young priest. His pastoral heart touched many individuals and groups during the short six years of his priesthood. There is no replacing him. 

Fr. Graham is survived by his parents, Dan and Deborah Golden, his sister Aiyuan and nephew Qiao Rong, and his Norbertine Brothers and Sisters.