St. John Nepomucene Neumann, Bishop

St. John Nepomucene Neumann, Bishop: 1811-1860 A.D.

America's Unspectacular Saint - Feast, January 5

Birth, family background, education, and ordination
Born at Prachatitz, Bohemia, [in what is now the Czech Republic] on March 28, and the third of six children of Agnes and Philip Neumann [a Bohemian mother and a German father], John was early attracted to the religious life. He was a voracious reader and student of a wide variety of languages and sciences. He entered the diocesan seminary of Budweis in 1831 A.D., and two years later the archepiscopal seminary and theological school at Charles Ferdinand University at Prague. Unable to be ordained because of a surplus of priests in Bohemia, John went to the United States in 1836 A.D. and was ordained in New York later within the same year. He then devoted the next four years to missionary work, especially among German-speaking Catholics, in upstate New York.

Entered the Redemptorist Order
By 1840 A.D., John wanted to deepen his spiritual life, so he became a member of the few Redemptorists in the United States at Pittsburgh and was the first Redemptorist priest to be professed in the United States. At 29 years of age, John Neumann plunged into an unremitting round of pastoral work in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. After four years as a Redemptorist missionary he became an American citizen and was named the provincial of the Redemptorists. He built St. Peter and Paul Church in Baltimore, and was appointed the rector of St. Alphonsus Church in that city in 1851 A.D.

Pope Pius IX had named him bishop of Philadelphia
A few weeks before his 41st birthday, John returned to his room one evening after a busy day of ministry and found on his desk the ring and pectoral cross which Archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick had worn for twenty-one years as bishop of Philadelphia. (The archbishop had paid a visit that afternoon). Neumann was aghast. He realized that Pope Pius IX had named him bishop of Philadelphia - an area which had more Catholics than any other - many of whom were Irish immigrants and some of them the elite of Catholic society in the city. As the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, John now had the opportunity to make great inroads into what had become his passion: the education of poor German, French, Irish and Indian Catholics.

A busy reorganizer and very close to the people
\ During his eight years as bishop of Philadelphia, he reorganized the diocese, as well as opened eighty new churches and nearly one hundred schools. To staff these schools, John brought in many religious orders of priests and nuns. At the first national council of Catholic bishops, he helped to map out a plan of Catholic education for the whole United States.

Although active in his support of education and busy with the duties of leading a diocese, John Neumann was never far from his people. By the time he became a bishop, he spoke twelve languages and made it a point to address each of his people in their own language. At the time of his death, John Neumann was renowned for his holiness, charity, pastoral work, and his preaching. He was canonized in 1977 A.D. by Pope Paul VI, the first American male saint.

Unspectacular but simplicity performed with constant perfection amidst difficulties spell heroism
St. John Neumann was almost overlooked as a serious candidate for sainthood for many years; in fact, the case was put on hold in 1912 A.D. because, they said, they doubted whether he had the necessary "heroic virtue"; he was "too ordinary" a man to be a candidate. However, there were persistent pleas for his cause. And Pope Benedict XV finally came to the conclusion that even the most simple works, when performed with constant perfection amidst difficulties, already spells heroism. Pope Paul VI made the same point in his homily at the ceremony on October 13, 1963 A.D., the day he beatified Bishop John Neumann. He referred to the "ancient biographers" of saints who sought the unusual and miraculous aspects of the lives of the saints, perhaps too much. The Pope admitted that they too had to understand that the life of a Christian who is really moved by faith and grace cannot but be wonderful.

The sainting of Bishop John Neumann was a triumph and a model for the millions of men and women who live unspectacular lives in persistent patience and quiet virtues every day before God whose will they strive to follow.

References of this article

• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• Saints for Our Time, by Ed Ransom
• The Who's Who of Heaven: Saints for All Seasons, by Msgr. John P. Kleinz