St. John Neumann

St. John Neumann

Today is the feast of St. John Neumann. He was born in Bohemia in 1811. He was going to be ordained and was looking forward zealously for it, but soon the bishop decided that Bohemia was overloaded with ordained men. The same was everywhere he wrote. So he learned English at a factory he worked at, and wrote to bishops in America. They agreed to ordain him into the priesthood, but he would have to leave his home forever to travel to a new place. But he did it in order to become a priest. He went to New York. There they needed priests, for there were only 36 priests, including him, for 200,000 faithful Catholics. His parish was including West New York, from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania. He didn't have a church, but he traveled over mountains and across plains to visit Catholics and have Mass at their dining room tables. He became Philadelphia's bishop in 1852. He organized a Catholic school system for the first time. By his hands, the count of Catholic schools soared from 2 to 100! He could hear confessions in 6 different languages. He sacrificed and lived in poverty so he could better serve God. One day he was in Germany while it was raining and arrived at his host's house soaked. When his host brought up the suggestion of changing his shoes so he would be more dry and comfortable, Bishop Neumann said, "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." He died on January 5, 1860.