Background

John was the second of ten children of James and Margaret (Leddy) Timon, immigrants from County Cavan, was born on February 12, 1797 in Conewago, Pa.

In 1802 the Timons removed to Baltimore, where the father, who had served apprenticeship to a draper, carried on a successful dry-goods business. Later, they went to Louisville (1818) and finally to frontier St. Louis (1819), where they prospered until the hard year of 1823.

Education

John completed his theological studies in the Lazarist seminary at The Barrens. He accompanied John Mary Odin of the seminary on missionary circuits through Missouri and into the Indian country, and an intense lifelong friendship between the two resulted.

Career

Ordained in June 1825 by Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis as a priest of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians or Lazarists), he continued in the seminary as a teacher until assigned to the missions of the Southwest with the log church at Cape Girardeau, Mo. , as a center.

Appointed visitor general of the Vincentians in 1835, he handled the community's business, effected a compromise in its conflict with Rosati over properties, built a permanent foundation at Cape Girardeau, refused Archbishop Eccleston's offer of Mount St. Mary's College at Emmitsburg, Md. , and visited Europe in 1837 to secure missionaries, one of whom was Michael Domenec, later bishop of Pittsburgh.

Refusing an appointment as coadjutor bishop of St. Louis, Timon accepted the more arduous position of prefect-apostolic of Texas with Odin as his vice-prefect. Letters of Cardinal Fransoni, which he transmitted to Acting President David G. Burnet were regarded as a papal recognition of Texan independence.

Within the space of a few years, he made visitations in Texas and Indiana, journeyed through the Colorado region, represented his community in ecclesiastical councils, aided in founding the first conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in St. Louis (1844), and revised the rules of the Lorentine Sisters. Few priests in the Mississippi Valley were as well known, and in 1847 Pius IX selected him for the new diocese of Buffalo, concerning the creation of which he was quite ignorant.

Consecrated in New York on Oct. 17 by Bishop Hughes who regarded him as the humblest man he had ever known but rather lacking in force, Timon lost no time in undertaking his new burdens. His most annoying problem was removed when the rebellious trustees of St. Peter's Church succumbed before an interdict. A prelate who would give his clothes to beggars and carry destitute babies to orphanages was naturally a founder of eleemosynary institutions. Among those he established were three orphanages, including one for German children; a hospital under the Sisters of Charity; Providence Lunatic Asylum; a home for mutes; a Magdalen asylum; and the first American Catholic institution for unmarried mothers. With more vigor than success, he urged the right of inmates of county institutions to have the service of a priest and to be freed from attendance at Protestant exercises.

As an educator, he established Niagara Seminary under the Lazarists (1848) and St. Joseph's College in Buffalo (1849), which was unsuccessful until assigned to the Christian Brothers (1861); aided the Franciscans at Allegany; and promoted the American College in Rome. Despite Know-Nothing threats, he dedicated his Cathedral of St. Joseph in 1855, for which he made collections in Europe and in Mexico. In 1862 he published Missions in Western New York and Church History of the Diocese of Buffalo.

His self-sacrificing spirit was apparent in his death from erysipelas contracted during a visit to the hospital. Bishop Francis P. Kenrick preferred him for the see of Baltimore and when he himself was translated to Baltimore urged Timon for Philadelphia. He exerted a marked influence in Rome as a papal prelate and as an invited guest on various occasions.

Achievements

• John Timon has been listed as a noteworthy clergyman by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Missions in Western New York, and Church History of the Diocese of Buffalo

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Conewago : a Collection of Catholic Local History : Gathered From the Fields of Catholic Missionary Labor Within Our Reach

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Politics

During the Civil War he was an ardent militarist who favored waging the war with sufficient energy to enforce an early peace and who took active steps to end the local draft riots.

Personality

Though a retiring, sensitive little man, hardly five feet in height, his zeal for souls enabled him to brave bigoted hostility and dangerous journeys on horseback over the wild country even into Texas.

Timon attracted non-Catholic attention by his unostentatious piety, charity, and civic interest.

Connections

Father:

James Timon

Mother:

Margaret (Leddy) Timon

References

• Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States; Volume 2
• History of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Vol. 2: In Its Various Stages of Development From A. D. 1673 to A. D. 1928; Containing Part Three (Classic Reprint)
• The Life and Times of the Rt, Rev. John Timon, D. First Roman Catholic (Classic Reprint)