ST. JOHN NEUMANN: 

SOME COMMENTS ABOUT HIM

Today,  January 5^th, is the feast day of St. John Neumann - so I would like to simply make a few comments about him.

It would be nice to have this mass at St. John Neumann Church out on Bestgate Road - but then again I don’t have to clean the snow off my car to get out there.

Next time you’re at Mass out there, take a good look at the bronze statue of John Neumann in the church plaza.   I understand it’s pretty much his size and his look. He was a short man - and as solid as bronze.

It is good to know John Neumann was here on Duke of Gloucester Street for the blessing of the cornerstone of this church in 1858. I assume there was the understanding that he would be here for its completion as well  - but he was to die too soon.

I like to reflect that he visited Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan - which was my first assignment. Some factual questions hit me last night. I have to see in print if that actually happened. I know he was at St. Nicholas Church on East 2^nd Street in 1836. I came up with a question last night - did he by any chance do any baptisms in his short time there after his ordination on June 25^th 1836? Those baptismal records are at Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street.

John Neumann was born in Prachatitz, Bohemia - part of the Chech republic on  Good Friday, March 28^th, 1811. He was baptized that same day.

He died January 5, 1860. While walking on Vine Street near Thirteenth he collapsed with heart failure and was carried into a nearby house. He died almost immediately at the age of 49. He was going to the Post Office or from the post office to send a chalice to a priest.

He was the 3^rd child of 6 born to Philip and Agnes Neumann.  His dad was a stocking weaver.

His mom and dad were good Catholics. His mom went to Mass every morning.

In those days the practice as Catholics was for parishioners to go to communion once every 3 months - and confession every 3 months.

John wanted to be a diocesan priest. He went to the seminary with that in mind - but they had so many priests in his diocese of Budweis - so he had to wait. When he saw notice that priests were needed for people in the United States, he applied and headed for New York - with the hope of being ordained over here.

 He landed in Staten Island, New York. Then he sailed the short distance to Manhattan on June 1, 1836. He got accepted for the diocese of New York.  That June he was ordained sub-deacon, deacon and then priest on June 25^th. He was then sent to the Rochester NY area where there was only 1 priest - Father Pax. Then he was sent to Buffalo - where his field of work was some 900 miles.

He was quiet, an introvert, a hard worker, dedicated, and smart.  He spoke German and French for starters and in time learned English and several other languages - including some Gaelic. He's listed as speaking 6 modern languages.

Fortunately, he wrote a sort of journal - not for others  - but to put into words his struggles with faith, purity, envy, depression, the pits, and how things often went wrong for him.  This was done between 1830 and 1840 - when he was 22 to 31.

He also was asked to write his life quickly - the night before he was made a bishop. That document is around.  He wrote that short document in one evening.

That’s it for any writings he did - except for business correspondence, etc. etc. etc.

If you want to read a good biography of John Neuman read the one written by Father Mike Curly - a Redemptorist. It is loaded with details, footnotes and research.

After four years in the northwest corner of New York State, John Neumann realized life as a priest was too tough all by himself up on the Niagara, New York frontier, so he joined the Redemptorists.

He wanted companionship and community.

His novitiate didn’t work out as a year of novitiate should. He was often on the road. He was always being asked to do this and to do that. He was an ordained priest.  He worked in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. 

After taking vows, he quickly became the superior and boss of the Redemptorists in North America and then he was quickly made bishop of Philadelphia.

People knew this priest was the real deal as well as being very real.

Yet, he often felt inadequate. He suffered from put downs by others who spoke English and comments that this priest didn’t have the right foreign accent.

He was a bishop who went to the outposts of the diocese - all over the place, to little mining towns and what have you. He writes somewhere that when he was a kid, nobody ever saw a bishop - except at a confirmation every couple of years.  Well, the people of the enormous diocese of Philadelphia saw their bishop - especially in the tiny spots.

I’d make him patron saint of travel - the patron saint for those who suffer from feelings of inadequacy and self put downs - and also regrets.

I’d also make him the patron saint of those who do a lot quickly. As bishop of Philadelphia 80 churches were built under his auspices. He helped the Sisters  of the Third Order of St. Francis to begin - so as to teach in the many new Catholic schools in the diocese. He helped get two catechisms and in 1849 a Bible History published.

He was a real busy priest and bishop - and gave every situation and person he met, his best.