John was born on March 28, 1811, in Prachatice, in the Kingdom of Bohemia (then part of the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic) to Johann Philipp Neumann, a stocking knitter from Obernburg am Main, and Agnes Lebisch from Prachatice.
Neumann attended a school in České Budějovice. Two years later he transferred to the Charles University in Prague, where he studied theology, though he was also interested in astronomy and botany. By the time he was twenty-four, he had learned six languags.
After completing theological studies at the University of Prague, he went to New York City in 1836. He was ordained a priest on June 24, 1836, and assigned to minister to immigrants in the Buffalo, N. Y. , area. In 1842 he became the first Redemptorist to profess vows in the United States. Neumann excelled as a parish priest in Pittsburgh and Baltimore from 1842 to 1852. He was briefly chief administrator of all Redemptorists in the United States. Named bishop of Philadelphia in 1852, he was noted for his educational and pastoral work; he helped to found the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and wrote a catechism in German. Neumann died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 5, 1860. Neumann's burial crypt became a shrine. In 1886 local church authorities began to investigate his reputation for holiness, and in 1897 Rome began its investigation. His virtues were declared "heroic" in 1921. Beatified in 1963, he was canonized on June 19, 1977. His feast day is January 5.
He is the first United States bishop (and to date the only male citizen) to be canonized. While Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States. He is a Roman Catholic saint, canonized in 1977.
In 2011, the Redemptorist Fathers celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of St. John Neumann. The Closing Mass for the Neumann Year was held on June 23, 2012, in Philadelphia.
