I am continuing a new series of columns devoted to saints who lived and worked in the United States. Today we look at the fourth bishop of Philadelphia: St. John Neumann whose feast day is January 5. John Nepomucene Neumann was born in 1811 in the Czech Republic. John undertook seminary studies for the priesthood in Prague. But when it came time for his ordination, the bishop was ill. Ordinations were cancelled that year. When John was told that they did not need any more priests in his home diocese, he departed for New York where Bishop John Dubois accepted him as a candidate for the priesthood and ordained him in 1836. John was a gifted linguist and worked well with the immigrant populations. After working with German immigrants in the Rochester area, John joined the newly arrived Redemptorist missionary order whose novitiate was in Pittsburgh in 1840. Several years after joining the Redemptorists he became the Provincial Superior for North America. In 1848, Neumann became a naturalized American citizen. In 1851, when he was forty-one, John Neumann became the fourth bishop of Philadelphia.
Today we begin a series of columns on American Saints and Blesseds. To be more specific, I mean those individuals who have been canonized or beatified and who lived and work in the United States of America. Some were born here. Others came to this country as children or adults. The saint we are looking at today is St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821).
Last week I concluded the series of columns that I had written on the Doctors of the Church. This week I would like to begin a new series of American Saints and Blesseds. This series will be devoted to those men and women who were either born in what is now the United States or were immigrants to our country and did missionary work here. First, let’s cover some useful background when talking about saints and blessed. For this I am referring to an entry on “Saints” that can be found on the USCCB website.
Today we are discussing St. Thérèse of Lisieux, chronologically the last of the thirty-seven men and women who have been named Doctors of the Church. She was born on January 2, 1873, the last daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin, exemplary parents who were canonized together by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015. Louis and Zélie had nine children, four of whom died as babies or small children. The five daughters who remained all became religious. Four of them became Discalced Carmelites and one became a Visitandine.