Tuesday after Epiphany

Year of Saint Joseph

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann, Bishop (1811-1860)

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 33-38

Mass: 1 Jn 4:7-10; Resp Ps 72; Mk 6:34-44

Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

(1 Jn 4:7)

So much for brief reflections this month, we have a fascinating saint of the day. 😊

Today we commemorate Saint John Nepomucene Neumann, who arrived in New York in 1836 from his native Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic or Czechia), and became the first male American saint, canonized by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1977. "Young and zealous" is the way Butler's Lives of the Saints describes John, and that he was. Among other notables, John was ordained not long after arriving in the U.S., then worked tirelessly for German immigrants and Native Americans in the Buffalo-Rochester, New York, area. He then joined the Redemptorists, was a popular preacher with his knowledge of eight languages, and was eventually appointed vicar of all Redemptorists in America with headquarters in Baltimore. John defended and directed women religious and introduced the School Sisters of Notre Dame into the United States to teach in schools he had already established, and became a citizen of the United States. In 1852 he was named fourth bishop of Philadelphia, where he built churches and schools, completed the unfinished cathedral, introduced Forty Hours Devotion, and founded a new congregation of women religious, who with other groups of Sisters and Brothers, staffed his overcrowded schools. While bishop, attendance at Catholic schools more than doubled. At the same time, he wrote two German Catechisms, both approved and mandated. After all this and more, at the age of 48, John, completely exhausted by his apostolic labors, collapsed on the street and died on January 5, 1860 (Butler's January, pp. 40-41).  

All said, Nepomucene is not a name you run across every day. Saint John Nepomucene (1345-1393) is the patron saint of Bohemia. However, the name is familiar to the Benedictines in Lisle, IL. Sacred Heart Monastery, home of the Benedictine Sisters in Lisle, was founded by Mother Mary Nepomucene Jaeger. And Mother Nepomucene's blood brother, Abbot Nepomucene, founded the men's Benedictine community of St. Procopius Abbey, located just across the street from the sisters. God is praised!

SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE NEUMANN,

PRAY FOR US.

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: A look at the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, ID. Thanks EJF.

© Gertrude Feick 2021