St. John Neumann

John was born in what is now the Czech Republic and sailed to America as a young man. He became a Redemptorist priest and eventually became the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. Bishop Neumann started one hundred Catholic schools in eight years, wrote catechisms and other pamphlets to teach the faith, and worked to bring good teachers into the diocese. He traveled across his diocese even though the roads were bad. He learned Gaelic so he could preach to the Irish immigrants. His life’s work was to spread the faith.