Joseph Henry Leo Schlarman

Joseph Henry Leo Schlarman (February 23, 1879 – November 10, 1951) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Peoria from 1930 until his death in 1951.

One of ten children, Joseph Schlarman was born in Breese, Illinois, to Bernard and Philomena (née Keyser) Schlarman. His mother was born in Germany, and his paternal grandparents were from the city of Hanover. As a young boy he walked two miles to school every morning and attended daily Mass. For three years after graduating from grade school, he worked the fields in the summer and went to school in the fall, studying until the corn planting season arrived the next spring. With the intention of entering medicine, he studied at Quincy College for four years.

He later decided to join the priesthood and studied theology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he earned a doctorate in canon law in 1907. Schlarman was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Belleville on June 29, 1904. He served as a curate at St. Peter's Cathedral from 1907 until 1909, when he became chancellor of the diocese.

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