SAINT JOHN NEUMANN

Today, January 5th, 1861, is the anniversary of the death of Bishop John Neumann. 

He was a diocesan priest, who became a Redemptorist, who became the 4th Bishop of Philadelphia.

While walking across Vine - near 13th Street - in Old Philadelphia, he felt something going wrong with him. When he got to the other side he began to stagger. He fell over. Two men rushed over to him. They carried him into the house of a non-Catholic. That’s where he died right after that. A priest was called for - so as to be given Last Rites - but John Neumann died before the priest arrived.

That morning he had said to Father Urban, a priest who had dropped in to see him, “I have a strange feeling today. I feel as I never felt before. I have to go out and do a little business and the fresh air will do me good.” Then the bishop added the following, “A man must always be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it.”