THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF ST JOHN NEUMANN
◊◊◊
The fourth Bishop of Philadelphia was a well-known and respected figure
in the life of the city even though he moved in and about it quietly… A rather
short man, he was just over five feet, two inches in height… As a young priest he
had a rugged constitution; but the incessant calls he made on his physical
resources took their toll, which became noticeable with the advancing years…
So reserved was he that even those with a just estimate of true values were liable
to be unimpressed. One old lady who ardently admired him declared, “Oh, to
see that humble little creature you never would think he was a bishop.” To
appraise him adequately, one had to see him at close range; then the
outstanding qualities of the man shone to the best advantage…
One class of people was his special concern – the poor. His generosity to
them became so proverbial that those working in the rectory complained that
the poor imposed upon him, oftentimes overdoing appeals for aid… On one
occasion when a poor beggar, caught red-handed coming back a second time,
was despoiled of her gift, the bishop intervened and allowed her to keep it,
saying that if she repeated her call she must indeed be badly off… When one
woman begged Neumann for a dollar, he was forced to confess that he did not
have a dollar to his name. Just then another woman called on him and asked
him to say a Mass for her giving him a five-dollar stipend. The bishop quickly
put the five dollars into the poor woman’s hands and said, “See what God sent
you!”
Another story illustrates well the bishop’s way with youngsters. Two
small girls were sent by the Sisters of the Holy Cross with a message for the
bishop. When he entered the parlor, he found the little ladies in wide-eyed
admiration of a very beautiful marble statue of a child in a cradle… The bishop
commented on it and playfully suggested that he would give the statue to the
one who could carry it home. When the statue, twenty-five or thirty pounds in
weight, proved too much for the youthful admirers, one of them ran home and
returned with a little wagon to claim the prize. Considering himself
outmaneuvered fairly, the bishop surrendered his precious piece of marble,
which she carried to her home…
Besides the poor and children, the bishop had a special care for the sick…
Frequently in his visits to the hospital, he might be seen going through the
wards from bed to bed, addressing words of consolation and encouragement to
all the patients, irrespective of age, condition or religion. And he would most
earnestly exhort the Sisters engaged with the sick to regard them as the
suffering members of Jesus Christ and lavish on them every care and
attention…
All his life he had a deep sense of his own nothingness… Neumann knew
that of himself he was nothing and could do nothing… Even the slightest
deviation from the highest form of service to God and man was proof positive
that of himself he could do nothing but sin. This basic conviction and the habits
of soul rooted in it were the solid foundations of all his other virtues…
Though Neumann was bishop only seven and three-quarter years… he
labored through every part of the diocese, and has, undoubtedly, done more for
its better organization and for the spread of piety throughout the various
Congregations than might have been otherwise done in even ten or twenty years
by another individual… He spared himself in nothing.
5 Curley, Michael J. C.SS.R. Venerable John Neumann, C.SS.R. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Press, 1952. 361-362, 366-370, 373, 376.13