Background
Albert Thomas Daeger was born on March 5, 1872 at North Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana, United States. He was the eldest of the eleven children of George Anthony and Frances (Kriech) Daeger. He was named Anthony.
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Albert Thomas Daeger
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also known as
Padre Alberto
Education
Educated at the local parochial school and at St. Francis Seraphic College, Cincinnati, where he was awarded a baccalaureate degree in 1889, Daeger entered the novitiate of the Friars Minor at Oldenburg, Indiana, where, as Friar Albert, he was invested August 15, 1889. He continued his philosophical and theological studies at St. Francis and St. Clement's colleges in Cincinnati, at St. Boniface in Louisville, and at the Holy Family Monastery at Oldenburg. His final solemn vows as a Franciscan were subscribed at St. Anthony's Monastery in Cincinnati, August 27, 1893, and he was ordained a Catholic priest, July 25, 1896, by Bishop Francis S. Chatard of Vincennes.
Career
Serving as a curate and pastor at St. Stephen's Church, Hamilton, Ohio, Our Lady of Sorrows at Kansas City, Missouri, and at St. Francis de Sales, Lincoln, Nebraska (1897 - 1902), he was transferred, much to his satisfaction, to Pena Blanca, New Mexico, for missionary work among the Indians with whom Franciscans had labored generations earlier. With Pena Blanca as a center, he traveled on foot, cart, and horse to bring religious services and instruction to the Indian and Mexican mission-stations at Cochita, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Cerillos, Golden, La Badja, San Pedro, Sile, and La Madera.
In 1910 he was assigned to the thirty missions of northwestern New Mexico centered at Farmington. Thus he came to know intimately the canyons, mesas, rocky wastes, deserts, lowly huts, and pueblos of the state even as he was familiar with the Spanish dialect and the various Indian tongues. Fearful for his health because of the rigor of his life and labors, his superiors transferred Padre Alberto in 1917 to the easier Rio Puerco missions and the parish of Jemez, New Mexico. Two years later he was appointed by Rome to the metropolitan see of Santa Fe, and he was consecrated by J. B. Pitaval, his resigned predecessor and titular archbishop of Amida, in St. Francis Cathedral, May 7, 1919. Elevation did not terminate Archbishop Daeger's labors among his widely scattered white and Indian flock of about 140, 000 souls who appreciated his unselfish, sympathetic, and inspired devotion.
The archbishop's end was tragic. "Modest and inconspicuous, he was on foot, and alone going about his Father's business and bemused with the welfare of his people" when he stumbled into a coalhole and was found dying of a fractured skull by a Negro who came upon his body in the basement. Tenderly eulogized for his sanctity and loving services for his lowly communicants by Bishop Urban J. Vehr of Denver, Daeger was laid to rest in a crypt under the sanctuary of his cathedral.
Achievements
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During his regime as Archbishop of Santa Fe, Daeger dedicated fifty-three new chapels and brought into the archdiocese a number of secular priests, the Servite Fathers, the Congregation of the Holy Family, the Missionary Catechists, and five societies of nuns to care for eight academies, parochial and public schools, and six hospitals. For boys there were two colleges and for Indians two large boarding-schools.
Connections
References
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Born
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Died
February 2, 1932 (aged 59) -
Resting place
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States -
Nationality
American -
Religion
Roman Catholic