Nicolas Adames

Archbishop Nikolaus Adames
Bishop Emeritus of Luxembourg
See	Luxembourg
Appointed	2 November 1883
Installed	25 December 1870
Term ended	27 September 1883
Orders
Ordination	25 August 1839
Consecration	29 June 1863 by Nicolas-Joseph Dehesselle
Personal details
Birth name	Nikolaus Adames
Born	(1813-12-29)December 29, 1813 Ulflingen
Died	February 13, 1887(1887-02-13) (aged 73)
Denomination	Catholic

Nicolas Adames (29 December 1813 – 13 February 1887) was the first Bishop of Luxembourg.

He was born in Troisvierges in 1813, the only child of the farmer Jean Adames and Marie Magdalena Wangen.

Nicolas Adames' father died in 1818 before he was 5 years old. His mother became remarried to a widower, Nikolaus Köcher from Basbellain, with whom she had more children. In his village, Nicolas started teaching at the age of 12. He learned French in Belgium, and worked for an accountant for one year. Under his village priest, he studied to join the Petit Séminaire in Bastogne, but went instead to the seminary in Namur, and was ordained a priest on 25 August 1839.

In 1841 he became a chaplain in Echternach before Bishop Jean-Théodore Laurent, the Apostolic Vicar in Luxembourg from 1840, made Adames priest of the Notre-Dame Church of the fortress city of Luxembourg. In 1845 he became the bishop's secretary.

When Jean-Théodore Laurent had to leave the country under pressure from anti-clericalists, Nicolas Adames provisionally administered the Apostolic Vicariate. During this period, Luxembourg and its majority Catholic population were ruled by the Protestant Dutch King-Grand Duke William II, and by an anti-church government.

On 27 March 1863 he was appointed titular bishop of Halicarnassos by Pope Pius IX, and made Apostolic Vicar of Luxembourg. His consecration was on 29 June 1863 under a picture of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Notre-Dame. In December 1869 he participated, as one of 744, in the First Vatican Council in Rome.