Vigils Reading – St John Neumann

THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

OF ST JOHN NEUMANN

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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