Franciszek Hodur
Franciszek Hodur ( born April 1, 1866 in Żarki, † February 16, 1953 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) was the founder and first bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States.
Life
He spent his childhood with his parents Jan and Maria Hodur in the village Żarki, about 55 km from Krakow. He enrolled as a seminarian in Krakow at Jagiellonian University and studied there. He left Europe in December 1892, traveled to the United States, where he hoped to serve Polish immigrants. He began his career in the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he was sent to the seminary of St. Vincent's Abbey Benedictine in Latrobe. On August 19, 1893 he was ordained by Bishop William O'Hara as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Break with Rome
When it came to conflicts between Polish Catholic immigrants in Scranton, Nanticoke, Wilkes -Barre, Plymouth, Duryea and Dickson City and her Irish-American bishop, Father Hodur traveled in January to Rome in 1898 in the hope of mediation by the Holy See. Without satisfactory result, he returned to the United States. After meeting with members of the community, which he had represented on this trip, he announced his decision to no longer remain under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church.
Episcopate
Franciszek Hodur was consecrated as Bishop of Deventer Spit on September 29, 1907 by Gerardus Gul, the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, and the bishops Jacobus Johannes van Thiel of Haarlem and Nicolaus Bartholomeus Peter. He was the first Presiding Bishop of the PNCC and consecrated other bishops to preserve the apostolic succession.
As Prime Bishop Hodur in February died in 1953, attended his funeral, including the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Charles L. Street, the Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago and Bishop Frederick J. Warnecke of the Diocese of Bethlehem, along with other prominent people in the ECUSA part.
- Roman Catholic priest (19th century)
- Old Catholic Bishop ( 20th Century)
- Pole
- Born in 1866
- Died in 1953
- Man