Peter Henry Lemke

Peter Henry Lemke (or Lemcke) (b. at Rhena, Mecklenburg, 27 July1796; d. at Carrolltown, Pennsylvania, 29 November1882) was a German Roman Catholic missionary in the United States.

Life

From a Protestant preacher he became a Catholic on 21 April, 1824, and was ordained priest by Bishop Sailer at Ratisbon on 11 April, 1826. In 1834 he came as missionary to the United States and after being stationed a short time at Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, he was sent as assistant to the aged and infirm Prince Gallitzin at Loretto, Pennsylvania.

He took up his residence in the neighbouring town of Ebensburg, from where he attended to a portion of Father Gallitzin's district, about fifty miles in extent. In 1836 he bought some land on which two years later he laid out a town which, in honour of the first Catholic Bishop in the United States, he called Carrolltown. He succeeded the deceased Father Gallitzin as pastor of Loretto in 1840.

Father Lemke was instrumental in bringing to the United States the first Benedictines, under the leadership of Father Boniface Wimmer, the future Archabbot of St. Vincent's, in Pennsylvania. Father Lemke himself joined the new Benedictine community in 1852.

In 1855 he went as missionary to Kansas, and prepared the way for the foundation of St. Benedict's Abbey at Atchison. From 1861 to 1877 he was stationed at Elizabeth, New Jersey; the remainder of his life he spent at Carrolltown.

Works

He is the author of a life of Prince Gallitzin: "Leben und Wirken des Prinzen Demetrius Augustin von Gallitzin" (Münster, 1861).