John Nepomucen Neumann

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann
Bishop of Philadelphia
Native name	Johann Nepomuk Neumann
See	Philadelphia
Installed	March 28, 1852
Term ended	January 5, 1860
Predecessor	Francis Kenrick
Successor	James Frederick Bryan Wood
Orders
Ordination	June 25, 1836 by John Dubois, S.S.
Consecration	March 28, 1852 by Francis Patrick Kenrick
Personal details
Born	(1811-03-28)March 28, 1811 Prachatitz, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire
Died	January 5, 1860(1860-01-05) (aged 48) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Buried	National Shrine of St. John Neumann in Philadelphia
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Alma mater	Charles University in Prague
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Feast day	5 January March 5 (celebrated by the Bohemians)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (United States and the Czech Republic)
Title as Saint	Missionary, religious and Bishop
Beatified	October 13, 1963 Vatican City, by Pope Paul VI
Canonized	June 19, 1977 Vatican City, by Pope Paul VI
Attributes	Redemptorist habit with a pectoral cross
Patronage	Catholic Education
Shrines	National Shrine of Saint John Neumann, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

John Nepomucene Neumann, C.Ss.R. (Czech: Jan Nepomucký Neumann, German: Johann Nepomuk Neumann; March 28, 1811 – January 5, 1860), was a Catholic priest from Bohemia. He immigrated to the United States in 1836, where he was ordained and later joined the Redemptorist order and became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia (1852–60). He is the first United States bishop (and to date the only male citizen) to be canonized. While Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States. He is a Roman Catholic saint, canonized in 1977.

John was born on March 28, 1811, in Prachatice, in the Kingdom of Bohemia (then part of the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic) to Johann Philipp Neumann, a stocking knitter from Obernburg am Main, and Agnes Lebisch from Prachatice.

Neumann attended a school in České Budějovice which was operated by the Piarist Fathers before entering the seminary there in 1831. Two years later he transferred to the Charles University in Prague, where he studied theology, though he was also interested in astronomy and botany. By the time he was twenty-four, he had learned six languags. His goal was to be ordained to the priesthood, and he applied for this after completing his studies in 1835. His bishop, however, had decided that there would be no more ordinations at that time, as Bohemia had numerous priests and difficulty finding positions for them all. In 1836 Neumann traveled to the United States in the hope of being ordained.

Neumann arrived in New York with one suit of clothes and one dollar in his pocket. Three weeks later, Bishop John Dubois, Society of Saint-Sulpice, ordained him in June 1836 at what is now the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.