John Neumann
John Nepomucene Neumann was a Bohemian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church.
An immigrant from Bohemia, he came to the United States in 1836, where he was ordained, joined the Redemptorist order, and became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. In Philadelphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the US. Canonized in 1977, he is the only male US citizen to be named a saint.
Early life and education
Neumann's father, Philip Neumann, a stocking knitter from Obernburg am Main, moved to Prachatitz in the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1802 at age 28 with his wife, Antonie Strakotinská. Antonie died in November 1804, together with the child she bore. He married the daughter of a Czech harness maker, Agnes Lepší, on July 17, 1805, and Neumann was the third of their six children: Catherine, Veronica, John, Joan, Louise, and Wenceslaus.Neumann was born on March 18, 1811, and was baptized in the village church on the same day. He began his education in the town school when he was 6, and was a studious and hardworking child, whose mother called him "my little bibliomaniac" for his love of books and reading. Neumann spoke German at home and at school, and was only passably acquainted in his childhood with Czech.
At age 10, Neumann's parents told him they were prepared to allow him to continue his studies after grammar school, whereas most boys of that time would soon have to begin work. The catechist of Prachatitz helped prepare boys who hoped to pursue higher studies by offering them evening lessons in Latin at his home, which Neumann attended with eight or ten other boys for the last two years of his term at grammar school. In the autumn of 1823, Neumann passed the entrance examination with distinction for a school in Budweis which was operated by the Piarist Fathers.
Adolescence
Neumann entered the school in a class of 103 students, of whom less than fifty ultimately completed the six-year gymnasium course. The curriculum included Latin, mathematics, geography, history, and Christian doctrine in the first four years and was devoted to Latin and Greek classical authors in the last two years. Neumann was disappointed with the course's slow pace in his first years and thought he might easily have been able to advance to the third year, but this was not allowed. In the middle of the third year, Neumann's professor was dismissed for appearing before a public gathering while drunk and was replaced with a much stricter man who was resolved to make up for lost time and was very inclined to teaching by rote learning, a method Neumann disliked. The pace now became too fast for many students, and about twenty of Neumann's classmates dropped out, but he persevered and passed the examination that year with a fair average, as he had the two previous years.Neumann's grades suffered in the fourth year while he was boarding in Budweis with a woman whose son disturbed him in his studies. Neumann's father, observing that he seemed to have lost interest in his studies, initially encouraged him to stay home and choose a trade. Still, his mother and his sister Veronica pressured him to persevere in his studies. His father's ideas changed upon having a professor who happened to be vacationing in Prachatitz examine his son and finding Neumann had made greater academic progress than his grades revealed. Upon moving to a new boarding house where he could enjoy greater solitude and quiet, Neumann's grades distinctly improved, except in his only weak subject, mathematics. Though the professor of classics was even stricter than the second mentor, Neumann found the study of the humanities very agreeable and achieved the highest grades of his career up to that time in his final term at the gymnasium. Neumann's hobbies at this time included playing the guitar and making images with a pantograph.
After completing the gymnasium course in 1829, Neumann began two years of study in philosophy in the same building but under different instructors, the Cistercian monks of Hohenfurth Abbey. The subjects taught at the Philosophical Institute included philosophy, religion, higher mathematics, the natural sciences, and Latin philology. Neumann attained a better than fair average in philosophy, philology, and mathematics, fully overcoming his earlier weakness in the latter. He excelled in botany and astronomy, forming a club with fellow students to discuss scientific subjects in their spare time.
Upon graduating from the philosophical course in the late summer of 1831, Neumann was faced with becoming a physician, a lawyer, or a priest. Finding himself with more of a taste for science and secular poetry than theology and the mystics, and discouraged by the difficulty of admission to the seminary, especially with no influential friends to recommend him, Neumann was initially inclined to study medicine, and his father was prepared to pay the tuition for medical school. His mother, however, sensing that his real desire was to be a priest, encouraged him to apply to the seminary even without testimonials from influential people, and to his surprise, he was accepted.
Seminary studies
Neumann entered the seminary of the Diocese of Budweis on November 1, 1831. Neumann's first two years studying theology were happy, stimulating days for him. Studying ecclesiastical history, Biblical archaeology, and introduction to and exegesis of the Old Testament in his first year, he received the highest possible grade, eminentem, in every subject, including diligence and conduct. At the end of his first year, he was one of the few men in his class permitted to take tonsure and minor orders. In his second year at Budweis, Neumann studied Biblical hermeneutics, philology, Greek, pedagogy, introduction to and exegesis of the New Testament, and canon law. His grades were again very good, receiving the highest grade in every subject except in one semester when he received the second-highest possible grade in pedagogy. In his spare time, he began to study French and worked to improve his command of Italian, which he had started to learn during his philosophy course, and of Czech.In his second year studying theology, Neumann began to read the reports of the Leopoldine Society on the need for priests in the United States, especially to serve the German-speaking communities there. Inspired by a dramatic lecture given by the seminary director on the missionary activities of Paul the Apostle, Neumann and his friend Adalbert Schmidt both made up their minds to devote their lives to the missions after completing their seminary studies. Neither said a word to the other until Schmidt revealed his plan a few weeks later to Neumann, who teased his friend for the whole month before finally admitting, "I am going with you."
Neumann's intention to go to America made it necessary to learn English, but there was no opportunity to do so in Budweis. The Bishop of Budweis had the privilege of sending two of his seminarians each year to study at the archiepiscopal seminary connected with the University of Prague. In the spring of 1833, Neumann successfully petitioned the bishop to continue his study of theology there, where he hoped to learn French and, more importantly, English. There is some indication that Neumann began to attend the university's lectures in French, but this became impossible when the state imposed new regulations in 1834 forbidding seminarians to go out for walks except for four hours a week, two on Tuesday afternoon and two on Thursday. Nevertheless, Neumann continued to study French independently and presented himself for the examination, managing to pass with a very high grade despite not attending all of the lectures. Neumann was disappointed that the university did not offer classes in English but studied independently from a book and by engaging in conversation with some English workmen at a nearby factory. After a year, he was capable of writing portions of his diary in English.
Neumann found the lectures in Prague disagreeable because of the Febronian views of his professors, which Neumann regarded as heterodox. The lector in dogmatic theology,, denied papal infallibility, which Neumann supported in a treatise he sent on the question to an inquiring friend in Budweis, though there is no evidence Neumann openly opposed Zeidler in class. Neumann said of Zeidler that he enjoyed too little reputation with the students to do them much harm. Neumann privately studied the Roman Catechism, the works of Robert Bellarmine and Peter Canisius, and the works of the Church Fathers, especially Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great. Neumann's grades at the end of the 1833–1834 academic year were once again very high, though not as high as at Budweis. In his final year at Prague, Neumann studied pastoral theology, homiletics, pedagogy, and catechetics. His grades, while good, were the lowest of his four years studying theology. By this time, Neumann was able to use German, Czech, French, English, Spanish, and Italian, as well as Latin and Greek.
Journey to America
Adalbert Schmidt, who was continuing his studies in Budweis and still planned to go with Neumann to America as a missionary, told his confessor,, of this intention. Dichtl encouraged this plan and thought to send Neumann to the Diocese of Philadelphia in response to Coadjutor Bishop Francis Kenrick's call for two German priests, which Dichtl had learned of through his correspondence with Andreas Räss, the director of a seminary in Strasbourg. However, correspondence between Europe and America was slow, and no definite response regarding Neumann was received from Philadelphia.Neumann expected to be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Ernest Růžička at the end of the academic year in 1835, but on June 10, Růžička became seriously ill. Although Neumann returned to Budweis for his canonical examination for the priesthood and very successfully passed, the ordinations delayed by the bishop's illness were ultimately canceled because the Diocese of Budweis had more priests than it needed, with some priests ordained the previous year still lacking assignments. It was a blow to Neumann that he would not be ordained before leaving for America, as he would not be able to give the traditional first priestly blessing to his parents, nor have his family present at his first Mass.
Neumann's family were shocked and saddened when he returned home and informed them of his intention to become a missionary, and his sisters broke down and cried. In his diary, Neumann wrote that the bishop and canons of the diocese "more or less approved" of his plans to go to America. Dichtl still intended to send both Schmidt and Neumann to Philadelphia, but as the money raised for the trip was barely enough to cover the expenses of one, and the Leopoldine Society was unwilling to provide financial support for the journey without a direct and definite call from the Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann resolved to go alone. Neumann departed for America on the morning of February 8, 1836, without telling anyone except his sister Veronica that he was leaving Bohemia; his mother thought he was leaving only for another of his journeys to Budweis.
Neumann went to see Bishop Růžička, who gave his blessing for the trip, but did not provide the dimissorial letters Neumann desired. Perplexed by the proceedings but confident that the matter would be straightened out in due course, Neumann departed with 200 francs in his purse. Schmidt, who had now decided to remain in Budweis as a diocesan priest, accompanied Neumann as far as Einsiedeln. Neumann arrived on February 16 in Linz, where he was hospitably received and given a letter of introduction by Bishop Gregory Ziegler, and departed on the evening of February 18 for Munich.
In Munich, however, Neumann was introduced to John Henni, who told him that a German priest was no longer needed in Philadelphia. Henni reassured him that there was a great need for German priests in such dioceses as Detroit, New York, and Vincennes, but advised him that it would be better to remain in Europe than to leave without dimissorial letters. The next morning, a professor at the University of Munich advised Neumann to get in touch with Bishop Simon Bruté of Vincennes, who was then in Europe recruiting missionaries for his diocese. Henni provided Neumann with Bishop Bruté's address in Paris, where a letter could be expected to reach him by the time he returned there around Easter.
Neumann arrived in Strasbourg at midnight, February 26, where Canon Räss confirmed his no longer being needed in Philadelphia. Räss also revealed that he had no money to give Neumann, who did not have enough for the journey overseas, as the money that had been intended for Neumann had been given to some other missionaries from Alsace-Lorraine. However, Räss promised to introduce Neumann to a rich merchant in Paris who was greatly interested in missionaries and would undoubtedly give him a considerable sum and to write to Bishop John Dubois of New York urging him to accept the young Bohemian cleric. Neumann could not quite understand the attitude of Räss, who seemed cold and stiff, but he did make Neumann a present of many books. Neumann went on from Strasbourg to Nancy, where he spent four days with the Sisters of St. Charles, some of whom had been brought by Dichtl as novices from Bohemia so that they could return to found a house there, before continuing to Paris by way of Châlons-en-Champagne and Meaux. Another missionary bound for the United States, a priest surnamed Schaefer, was with him on the trip.
Neumann stayed for a whole month in Paris, buying books and seeing the sights. On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, he was able to hear Henri-Dominique Lacordaire preach at Notre-Dame de Paris. Neumann also visited the Panthéon, Montmartre, and the Louvre. Two weeks after Neumann and Schaefer had arrived in Paris, Schaefer received a letter from Bishop Bruté informing him that he would be accepted. Still, three other missionaries who had applied for a place in the Diocese of Vincennes were rejected. Nothing was said of Neumann, whose letter to Bruté had gone astray. Neumann stayed longer, hoping to receive other news or meet Bruté personally when he came to Paris. Still, as the weeks went on, Neumann was uneasy, as his finances were very strained, and the money Räss had promised from the rich merchant did not materialize. Finally, Neumann decided to wait no longer and sail to America since he was confident German-speaking missionaries would be needed there. If he could not find acceptance in New York, he would seek an assignment in Vincennes, Detroit, or St. Louis, and if these efforts failed, he would return to New York and wait there until his services were required.
On Easter Tuesday, Neumann left Paris and arrived in Le Havre shortly after noon, April 7, 1836. It was the first time in his life that he had seen the ocean. Neumann chose to sail on the largest vessel sailing out of Le Havre, a 210-foot three-master with a sixty-foot beam named the Europa, because it seemed less crowded with passengers than other ships. It took Neumann four days to get aboard, which he spent praying in the parish church, reading Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life, and practicing his English and French with the locals. The voyage lasted forty days. Neumann was seasick for three days but felt better afterward. For three more days, the ship was becalmed and made no progress; when the boat came within sight of icebergs off the banks of Newfoundland, Neumann was chilled by the thought of what might happen if the ship should crash into one of them.