| Biography |
- MESSMER, Sebastian Gebhard, bishop of Green bay, was born in Goldach, canton of St. Gall, Switzerland, on the 29th of August, 1847. His father was Sebastian Gebhard Messmer, a farmer by occupation, though he held office for over twenty years in his town and canton. His mother was Rosa, nee Baumgartner. The ancestors on both sides were of the agricultural class. The education of young Messmer was begun in the common schools of his native town, from which he went to the high school at the neighboring village of Rorschach, on the Lake of Constance. There he spent three years. From 1861 to 1866 he was a student in the electrical preparatory seminary of St. George, near the Page 263 city of St. Gall, where he took he full classical course. For the following five years he pursued the study of philosophy and theology in the University of Insbruck in the Tyrol, Austria. There he was ordained to the priesthood, July 23rd, 1871, for the diocese of Newark, New Jersey. In October following be came to this country as professor of theology in Seton Hall College, near South Orange, N. J. Here he remained until August, 1889. During the same period he was chaplain of St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, in South Orange, for six years, and served St. Leo's Catholic congregation at Irvington, N. J., for two years. In 1883 he was one of the secretaries of the provincial council of New York, and in 1884 he held the same position in the plenary council at Baltimore. For several years he was moderator of the diocesan conference, synodical examiner, and member of the bishop's council. In 1885 he was made a doctor of divinity by the pope. Dr. Messmer edited the acts and decrees of the Baltimore council, made an English translation of a work on "Canonical Procedure," and compiled a manual for diocesan and provincial synods. Dr. Messmer has also written much,both in German and English, for ecclesiastical periodicals, relating to questions of interest to the church. In 1889 he was called to the chair of canon law in the Catholic university at Washington, D. C.; but went first to Rome for a course in Roman civil law, and there took the degree of doctor of canon law. Returning, he took his chair in the university in September, 1890, and taught there until March, 1892. In December, 1891, he was appointed bishop of Green bay, Wisconsin, and was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Otto Zardetti, then bishop of St. Cloud, Minnesota, March 27th, 1892, in St. Peter's church, Newark, N. J. On the 7th of April following, he arrived in Green Bay, and entered upon there discharge of his episcopal duties. Bishop Messmer is a very scholarly man, and has taken great interest in Educational matters and everything which tends to the promotion of intellectual culture. He is a member of the State Historical society of Wisconsin, and since 1894 president of the Columbian Catholic summer school.
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1847 - 1930 (82 years)
Ordained
