James DeKoven

Background

DeKoven was born in Middletown, Connecticut and educated at Columbia College.

Career

In 1851 he was admitted to General Theological Seminary and was ordained as a deacon in 1854 in Middletown. He accepted a teaching position at Nashotah House in Wisconsin and became rector of the nearby Saint John Chrysostom parish in Delafield. lieutenant was there that he was ordained as a priest by Bishop Jackson Kemper.

In 1859 he became the warden of Racine College and continued to be at the center of that school for the rest of his life.

He led the cause for ritualism at the National Conventions in 1871 and 1874. DeKoven was several times nominated and even elected as a bishop, but was never ordained to the episcopate.

He was nominated or elected as bishop of Massachusetts (1873), Wisconsin (1874), Fond du Lac (1875), and Illinois (1875). In the Illinois election he was elected by the clergy and the laity, but the standing committee refused to accept his election.

The reason given by the standing committee was his ‘doctrine on the Holy Eucharist.’ An open letter written in the Milwaukee paper on January 14, 1874 was at least partly responsible for his Eucharistic doctrine being questioned.

The signers of this letter included three teachers from Nashotah House. De Koven remained in Wisconsin for the rest of his life, turning down calls to lead some of the nation"s largest and wealthiest parish churches, including Trinity Church in New York City, Church of the Advent in Boston, and Saint Mark"s Church in Philadelphia. After suffering a fall on the ice, De Koven died on Saint Joseph’s Day (March 19) in 1879.

He is buried on the grounds of Racine College, now the DeKoven Center, in Racine, Wisconsin.

His feast day is March 22. DeKoven"s image is used as a graphic by the rock band Monstrance, which is composed of clergy from the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee.

Connections

Father:

Henry Louis Koven

Mother:

Margaret (Sebor) De Koven