(RALEIGH) -- Vatican officials are in Raleigh Saturday to help begin the canonization process for Wilmington-born priest Thomas Price. The Vatican has established several commissions to examine Father Price's life.

In charge of the investigating tribunal is Rev. James Garneau. "The church seeks the truth. And trying to find the truth about Father Price and his life and his work and the effects of that work is the task of the commissions and of the tribunal," he said.

Price became the first Tar Heel native ordained as a Catholic priest in 1860. He was known for spreading the teachings of the Catholic church across the state on horseback among hostile crowds, when fewer than 1,000 Catholics lived in North Carolina.