John Henry Luers

Bishop John Henry Luers, 1859

John Henry Luers (born September 29, 1819 in Lutten , Oldenburger Münsterland , Germany , † June 29, 1871 in Cleveland , Ohio ) was the first Roman Catholic bishop of Fort Wayne .

Life

Born Johann Heinrich Lüers, he emigrated with his family to the USA in 1833 , where he first lived in Piqua (Ohio) and worked as a salesman, assistant cook and clerk. An encounter with the Bishop of Cincinnati , John Baptist Purcell , opened the way for him to higher education and the priesthood . Bishop Purcell bestowed upon him the sacrament of ordination on November 11, 1846 .

Pope Pius IX appointed him on September 22, 1857 first bishop of Fort Wayne . The episcopal ordination donated him the meanwhile appointed Archbishop John Baptist Purcell on January 10 of the following year; Co- consecrators were the Bishop of Covington , George Aloysius Carrell SJ , and the Bishop of Vincennes , Jacques-Maurice des Landes d'Aussac De Saint Palais .

As a bishop, Luers devoted himself to building parishes, founded an orphanage, and built the cathedral in Fort Wayne. During a trip to Cleveland, where he gave consecrations during the sedis vacancy there , he suffered a stroke and died there.

Web links

• Entry on John Henry Luers on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved January 18, 2014.
• Website with photo of the grave
• Data website of the Oldenburg Society for Family Studies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fort Wayne Historical Web Site
2. ↑ Fort Wayne Diocese Historic Website, Chapter 3
3. ↑ biographical information , in: dnb.de, accessed on January 18, 2014
4. ↑ Fort Wayne . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913. (accessed January 18, 2014)

predecessor	Office	successor
---	Bishop of Fort Wayne 1857–1871	Joseph Gregory Dwenger