John Nepomucene Neumann

 

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

 Also known as

·           Jan Nepomucký Neumann

Memorial          5 January

Profile

This is not the same guy as Blessed John Henry Cardinal Neuman, the British Saint who pronounces his last name NEW-mann.  This John was a quiet boy son of a German father and a Czech mother, born in 1811 in Bohemia; he pronounced his last name NOY-mann.   He was quite intelligent studying botany and astronomy as well as theology, graduating in 1833.

When time came for John’s ordination, his bishop was sick; the ordination was never re-scheduled as Bohemia had an over-abundance of priests.   Can you imagine… too many priests?   John decided to go to America to ask for ordination, and to work with émigrés.    He walked most of the way to France, from Bohemia then took ship for America.

 In 1836 in all of New York and New Jersey there were a total of 36 priests and 200,000 Catholics. When John arrived in Manhattan the third, and to date still the only non Irish,  Bishop of New York, John Dubois was overjoyed to see him.   Bishop Dubois quickly laid on the hands so John was ordained and quickly shuffled off to Buffalo.   

Once in Buffalo the other parish priest offered John the choice to work in the city itself (before the wings or the Anchor Bar were invented) or in the rural areas.    John chose the more difficult country area.

  He stayed in small towns with various church buildings in different stages of completion.   He built himself a small log cabin, rarely lit a fire, slept little, often lived on bread and water, and walked miles to visit farm after remote farm.   John spoke 12 languages and was able to communicate with the diverse population in the region.  New York State back then was a real melting pot.  

 John joined the Redemptorists, the first Redemptorist to take vows in the U.S. (These are the dudes with C.Ss.R. after their name)

He did various jobs and held many offices throughout the east: Home missioner in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; Rector of Saint Philomena church in Pittsburgh; Vice-regent and superior of the Redemptorists in America.    John became a naturalized citizen of the United States in Baltimore on February 10, 1848, renouncing allegiance to the Emperor of Austria.   On his 41st birthday, he was consecrated bishop of Philadelphia by Archbishop Francis Kenrick at St. Alphonsus Church in Baltimore, in 1852.  

Those of Italian extraction remember Bishop Neumann as the founder of the first national parish for Italians in the United States.  At a time when there was no priest to speak their language, no one to care for them, Bishop Neumann, who had studied Italian as a seminarian in Bohemia, gathered them together in his private chapel and preached to them in their mother tongue. 

In total Bishop John built fifty churches and a cathedral; He opened almost one hundred schools; and the number of parochial school students in his diocese grew from 500 to 9,000.   He wrote newspaper articles, two catechisms, and many works in German. He was always humble and self effacing so he probably would not even mention all he has done, or he would credit everyone else.   He was the first American man and first American bishop to be canonized. 

 On 5 January, 1860, the Bishop of Philadelphia was on his way to his new Cathedral on Logan Square when the Archangel Uriel finally caught up to him.    He lay crumpled in the snow only a few blocks away.    By the time a priest reached him with the holy oils, Bishop Neumann was dead.   He had a stroke on the corner of 13^th and Vine Streets in Philly.   This before cheese steaks.     

 At his own request Bishop Neumann was buried in a basement crypt in Saint Peter's Church, in Philadelphia.   The Saint is still in the basement, though now it is a lower church. The slab that lay over his tomb still rests in the floor. His remarkably incorrupt body, however, lies beneath the main altar under glass. People still come right up and press their hands against the glass of the altar to better see the saint.  

His name is misspelled in the church where his body lies in Philly (Neuman) and in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (Newman).   He was Canonized 19 June 1977 by Pope Paul VI; the first American Man and Bishop canonized

 Readings

Since every man of whatever race is endowed with the dignity of a person, he has an inalienable right to an education corresponding to his proper destiny and suited to his native talents, his cultural background, and his ancestral heritage. At the same time, this education should pave the way to brotherly association with other peoples, so that genuine unity and peace on earth may be promoted. For a true education aims at the formation of the human person with respect to the good of those societies of which, as a man, he is a member, and in whose responsibilities, as an adult, he will share. - Saint John Neumann

A man must always be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it. - Saint John Neumann