He was born in Bohemia in 1811 and came to the United States in 1836. After being ordained he worked among the immigrants around Buffalo. He joined the Redemptorist Order and became the superior in America. In 1851 he was made Bishop of Philadelphia where he started the Catholic parochial school system and inaugurated the Forty Hours Devotion in this country. He spent many hours in the confessional. At the age of forty-nine he died. He was simple, poor and unassuming, but he performed all his duties extraordinarily well, and for this he was canonized in 1977.
See also this feature article: Bishop John Nepomucene Neumann: An American Saint.
