Parishioner Visits St. John Neumann’s Birthplace

During his preparations for the Annual William K. Collinge lecture at St. Francis Xavier last summer, parishioner Dr. Charles Strauss learned a great deal about St. John Neumann, a 19th-century Bishop of Philadelphia who laid the cornerstone for St. Francis Xavier’s Historic Church in 1852 and returned to dedicate the church on July 31, 1853, the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Strauss family had already prepared to spend the fall in Prague, as Charles and his wife, Elizabeth’s academic and professional ventures would take them to St. John Neumann’s homeland.