Catholic Fire

Today is the memorial of St. John Neumann, Bishop (USA). St. John Neumann was born in 1811 in Bohemia to Philip Neumann, who was German and owned a stocking factory, and Agnes Neumann who was Czech. John was a small and quiet boy with four sisters and a brother, and was named after Saint John Nepomucene . An excellent student, John early felt drawn to religious life. As a seminarian at Budweis, Bohemia, he studied astronomy and botany in addition to theology. He futhered his studies in theology at Charles Ferdinand University at Prague in 1833. John Neumann's ordination was delayed by the Austrian government so he began work with the North American mission in New York in 1836. He was ordained as a diocesan priest in June of 1836 by Bishop John Dubois at old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mott Street, New York City. The following week, he was pastor of the whole Niagara Frontier, some hundred square miles of swampy primeval forest. Many German immigrants had settled this sec...

In 1977 Pope Paul VI canonized the 19th-century Redemptorist John Nepomucene Neumann (1811–1860), fourth Bishop of Philadelphia, who was known for his development of the parochial school. Neumann became the first American male to achieve sainthood in the Catholic church. PRAYER FOR HIS INTERCESSION O Saint John Neumann, your ardent desire of bringing all souls to Christ impelled you to leave home and country; teach us to live worthily in the spirit of our Baptism which makes us all children of the one Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, the first-born of the family of God. Obtain for us that complete dedication in the service of the needy, the weak, the afflicted and the abandoned which so characterized your life. Help us to walk perseveringly in the difficult and, at times, painful paths of duty, strengthened by the Body and Blood of our Redeemer and under the watchful protection of Mary our Mother. May death still find us on the sure road to our Father's ...