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The saints

St. John Neumann

An immigrant priest who walked the frontier, then built a school system as bishop of Philadelphia.

Feast: 5 January (feast on the U.S. calendar) · 1811 to 1860 · The modern era · Bohemia, New York and Philadelphia

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Black-and-white portrait of St. John Neumann in a cassock with a pectoral cross.

Unknown author, 1860. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. John Neumann

The frontier near Buffalo, 1830s

John came from Bohemia to New York as a young man, with almost nothing, to be ordained.1

He worked as a priest among German immigrants near Niagara Falls, walking from settlement to settlement.1

He joined the Redemptorists and was made bishop of Philadelphia.

Patron of teachers1

01St. John Neumann

Schools

He founded dozens of Catholic schools and spoke many languages so he could hear confessions.1

He collapsed on a street in Philadelphia and died at forty-eight.1

Live it this week

Help a parish school

Neumann built schools for immigrants’ children. This week, give to your parish or diocesan school, or volunteer an hour there.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint John Neumann”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.