Stephen Aloysius Leven
| Stephen Aloysius Leven | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of San Angelo | |
| Church | Roman Catholic |
| See | San Angelo |
| In office | 1969 – 1979 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Ambrose Tschoepe |
| Successor | Joseph Anthony Fiorenza |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 10, 1928 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 30, 1905 Blackwell, Oklahoma |
| Died | June 28, 1983 (aged 78) Blackwell, Oklahoma |
| Previous post |
Bishop of San Antonio (auxiliary), Bishop of Bure (titular) Bishop |
Stephen Aloysius Leven (April 30, 1905 – June 28, 1983) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of San Angelo from 1969 to 1979.
Stephen Leven was born in Blackwell, Oklahoma, to Joseph J. and Gertrude (née Conrady) Leven. One of nine children, he was raised on farms around Ponca City and Newkirk, where his father was a sharecropper. He received his early education at St. Mary's School in Ponca City and St. Francis Academy in Newkirk. He then attended St. Gregory's College in Shawnee, and later St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas. He studied for the priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, Texas, for a year before entering the American College of the Immaculate Conception in Leuven, Belgium in 1922.
Leven was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oklahoma on June 10, 1928. At age 23, he was below the age requirement for ordination but was granted a dispensation by Pope Pius XI. His first assignment was as a curate at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, where he remained for four years. During that period, he also served as secretary to Bishop Francis Kelley for two years. He served as a pastor in Bristow and Drumright from 1932 to 1935. In 1933, he began a street preaching ministry based on the work of the Catholic Evidence Guild. On one occasion, the KKK burned a cross as a personal threat at a corner where Leven was accustomed to preach.
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