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Memorial
of Saint John Neumann, bishop
St. John Neumann
Feastday: January 5
b. 1811 d. 1860
This American saint was born in Bohemia in
1811. He was looking forward to being ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided
there would be no more ordinations. It is difficult for us to imagine now, but Bohemia was
overstocked with priests. John
wrote to bishops
all over Europe
but the story was the same everywhere no one wanted any more bishops. John was sure he was
called to be a priest
but all the doors to follow that vocation seemed to close in his face.
But John
didn't give up. He had learned English by working in a factory with
English-speaking workers so he wrote to the bishops in
America. Finally, the bishop in New
York agreed to ordain him. In order to follow God's call to the priesthood John would have to
leave his home forever and travel across the ocean to a new and rugged land.
In New York, John
was one of 36 priests for 200,000 Catholics. John's parish in
western New York stretched from Lake Ontario to
Pennsylvania. His church had no steeple or floor but that didn't matter because
John spent most of
his time
traveling from village to village, climbing mountains to visit the sick,
staying in garrets and taverns to teach, and celebrating the Mass at kitchen tables.
Because of the work and the isolation of his parish, John longed for
community and so joined the Redemptorists, a
congregation of priests and brothers dedicated to helping the poor and most
abandoned.
John was appointed bishop of
Philadelphia in 1852. As bishop, he was the first to organize a diocesan Catholic
school system. A founder of Catholic education in
this country, he increased the number of Catholic schools in
his diocese
from two to 100.
John never lost his love and concern for the people -- something
that may have bothered the elite of Philadelphia. On one visit to a rural
parish, the parish
priest
picked him up in a manure wagon. Seated on a plank stretched over the wagon's
contents, John
joked, "Have you ever seen such an entourage for a bishop!"
The ability to learn languages that had brought him to America led him
to learn Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch so he could hear confessions in at
least six languages. When Irish immigration started, he learned Gaelic so well
that one Irish woman
remarked, "Isn't it grand that we have an Irish bishop!"
Once on a visit to Germany, he came back to the house he was
staying in soaked by rain. When his host suggested
he change his shoes, John
remarked, "The only way I could change my shoes is by putting the left one
on the right
foot and the right
one on the left foot. This is the only pair I own."
John died on January 5, 1860 at the age of 48.
In His
Footsteps:
John was a Redemptorist priest. To learn
more about the Redemptorists
visit the Web site for Redemptorist Publications in
England, www.redempt.org.
Prayer:
Saint John
Neumann, you helped organize Catholic education in
the United States. Please watch over all Catholic schools and
help them be a model of Christianity
in their actions as well as their words. Amen
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