Background
Joseph Dwenger was born on September 7, 1837 near Stallotown (now Minster), Ohio, United States. He was the son of Gerhard Henry Dwenger and Maria Catherina Wirdt.
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Joseph Dwenger was born on September 7, 1837 near Stallotown (now Minster), Ohio, United States. He was the son of Gerhard Henry Dwenger and Maria Catherina Wirdt.
On his father’s death in 1840, Dwenger's mother moved to Cincinnati, where Joseph had his early schooling.
After some time as a student at Mount St. Mary’s of the West, Cincinnati, Dwenger was ordained a priest by Archbishop Purcell on September 4, 1859, as a member of the Congregation of the Precious Blood, of whose seminary at Carthagena, Ohio, he was later the founder and first president, and in which he taught as professor.
In 1867 Dwenger became secretary of the religious congregation to which he belonged, and from that time until 1872 he also filled the role of missionary.
In the year 1872 Pius IX appointed him bishop of Fort Wayne to succeed Bishop John Henry Luers, the first incumbent of this See.
During his administration the diocese of Fort Wayne became renowned throughout the United States for its excellent and well-regulated parochial school system.
Every parish of fifty families and upwards had its own school, examined twice a year by one of ten members of a school board, who exercised a very wholesome influence over the schools, contributing much toward their efficiency and progress.
Following the Council of Baltimore, held in 1884, he was one of the three prelates designated to carry the report to Rome and to speak for the Church’s approbation of the various decrees which this Council enacted.
He died in his fifty- sixth year, and was buried in a crypt or mausoleum under the sanctuary of the Cathedral.
The funeral sermon was preached by Bishop Rademacher of Nashville, who became his successor in the See of Fort Wayne in the following year.
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Dwenger's services were engaged by many priests, because he was a powerful and very effective pulpit orator.