January 5 - St. John Neumann

John Neumann (1811-1860), one of the best-known American saints, was born in Bohemia.  He studied for the priesthood, but as Bohemia had too many priests (really?!), the only way he could be ordained was to become a missionary in America.  In a time when America was largely rural and Catholics were only just beginning to arrive in large numbers, he traveled from village to village to teach the gospel and celebrate Mass.  

 

He became the bishop of Philadelphia and is best known for organizing the first Catholic diocesan school system.

 

The story I happen to know about him though, takes place more than a century after his death.

 

In 1975, Father Kelley, a fifty-one year-old priest from Philadelphia, was in the hospital with colon cancer, which had killed other members of his family.  A priest walked in the room and said:  "Father, I understand you have a tumor.  I have a relic of Blessed John Neumann."  He touched the area around his appendix and then touched his fingers to Father Kelley's lips.  The priest blessed Father Kelley and left.

 

This puzzled Father Kelley.  First, the visitor had not identified himself, which any visiting chaplain should do when they first enter the room.  Second, the man had not seemed to be carrying a relic.  Third, upon questioning, none of the hospital nurses or his brother, a Philadelphia priest, could identify the man.

 

Although Father Kelley's colon cancer was in an advanced stage, after surgery and radiation it was gone, and to his doctors' amazement, did not return.

 

The next year Father Kelley saw a picture of John Neumann in Philadelphia's diocesan paper and recognized him as the priest who had visited him in the hospital.  Father Kelley went on to develop a devotion to Neumann, asking for his prayers daily, acquiring a first-class relic of his, and visiting the sick to pray for them as he was prayed for.  He believes that God brought more healings this way.  

 

Now, I'm a sucker for miracle stories.  They remind me that God sometimes chooses to heal us, physically as well as spiritually, as a foretaste of our ultimate healing in heaven.  I also love the baroque workings of God's plan.  Why did he choose to send a saint from heaven to heal this man?  Couldn't he have healed him in a more conventional way?  

 

Of course.  But in the overflowing of his love, he involves the communion of saints as well.