Joseph Jessing

The Reverend Fr. John Joseph Jessing (November 17,1836 – November 2, 1899) a German-American immigrant, was a pioneer in Catholic orphanage work and Catholic education. He was the founder of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio in 1888.

Birth and Childhood

In the early 19th century, a young German named John William Jessing married Anna Maria Schlusemann of Stadtlohn near the Dutch boundary. Anna was John's second wife. She was the daughter of Engelbert Schlusemann, a shoemaker, the trade in which her husband also was engaged. Three children were born of this union. Among them was John Joseph, born at No. 4 Kleiboltengasse in Muenster, Germany on (November 17, 1836). A daughter, Wilhelmina Frances lived (December 31, 1839 - September 4, 1940) and a posthumous son, Bernard Anthony William lived (August 12, 1841 through May 1869. In 1840, Joseph's father, John William, died leaving a very young family.

Early years and Prussian military service

As a boy, Jessing worked in a print shop to provide for his mother and two siblings as his father had died when Jessing was only four years old. The young boy devoted what little spare time he had to reading and study. When he grew to manhood, Jessing did what many young boys did when he enlisted in the Prussian army, an organization known for its severe training regimen and discipline. In the army, Jessing, who served as a quartermaster sergeant, proved himself a successful fighter as well as a logistician and was decorated by William I of Prussia for bravery at the Battle of Dybbøl, earning many decorations and medals for his service in the Seventh Westphalian Artillery during the First and second wars with Denmark over the Schleswig-Holstein Question. Despite all these military achievements, Joseph's dream of the priesthood remained his true ambition.

By 1867, Jessing left his home in Münster, Westphalia, to pursue his lifelong vocation of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Unbeknownst to Jessing, this was the first step of the many steps Jessing would take toward the founding of an orphanage, a college and a seminary in the United States.

Immigration to the US and ordination

In 1867, young Joseph emigrated to the United States and began his studies at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1868. He was ordained a priest by the first bishop of Columbus, Ohio, Sylvester Rosecrans, at St. Patrick Pro Cathedral in Columbus on July 16, 1870, and was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in Pomeroy, Ohio.

Founding a German-language newspaper, and boys orphanage

Soon after arriving at Sacred Heart, Jessing became deeply concerned about the orphan boys in his parish. With the assistance of the Brothers of Saint Francis, he provided these needy children with shelter, food, and schooling. This work led to his establishing the Saint Joseph Orphan Asylum. The orphanage was funded primarily through Jessing's German-language newspaper, "The Ohio" (later called "Ohio Waisenfreund", meaning "Ohio Orphan's Friend"), with Jessing as chief writer and publisher. Jessing used the proceeds from the small newspaper to fund his work with the orphans so that it would be self-sustaining.

Operation relocates to Columbus Ohio

In 1877, Father Jessing wrote a letter to Columbus Bishop Sylvester Rosecrans asking permission to bring his newspaper and the orphan's asylum to a larger city. In that letter, he explained that he needed to be closer to the railroad in order to distribute his paper. Since he wanted the work to be self-sustaining, he also discussed an industrial school that he wanted to start in connection with the orphan's asylum where boys could learn a trade to support themselves as adults. Rosecrans approved Jessing's plan, and the newspaper and orphan's asylum were moved to Columbus later that year and was closer to the railroad. Besides the industrial school, Father Jessing started various trade opportunities for the orphans including the Josephinum Church Furniture Company where the boys could be taught a trade.

Founding of Collegium Josephinum seminary

When four older boys expressed a desire to study for the priesthood, Jessing advertised in his paper that he would sponsor two boys who wished to become priests but who lacked the financial means to do so. Of the forty applicants, Jessing accepted twenty-three and the first academic classes began on September 1, 1888. In memory of the original St. Joseph's Orphanage, this seminary was called, in Latin, the Collegium Josephinum or Josephinum College.

As those first students progressed through the seminary program, the institution initially provided six years of primary education ("minor seminary," four years of high school and two years of college) and six years of secondary seminary education ("major seminary," another two years of college/pre-theology and four years of theology/ seminary).

The seminary becomes the Pontifical College Josephinum

To ensure that the Josephinum would continue after his death, Jessing asked that the fledgling institution be placed under the protection of the Holy See. Pope Leo XIII granted the request in 1892, thus making the Pontifical College Josephinum the only pontifical seminary outside of Italy. From that time to the present, the institution has been under the direction of the Congregation for Seminaries and Institutes of Study, with the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States as its Chancellor. The seminary is financially independent from both the Holy See and the Diocese of Columbus.

Six seminarians were ordained to the priesthood in June 1899. Monsignor Jessing witnessed this before he died a few months later in early November, 1899.

Relocation to Worthington Ohio and going forward

In 1931, Father Jessing's seminary, the Josephinum, moved to its present location in Worthington, Ohio, eleven miles north of Columbus on a landmark one-hundred-acre campus. The academic structure changed over time during the 1940s and 1950s from the "six-six" format to four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of theology/seminary (though the distinctions were gradual and unclear). The first official College commencement occurred in June 1953; the College and Recreation buildings were dedicated in 1958; and the high school closed in 1967.

The Josephinum was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio in 1894; its Constitution was first approved by Pope Pius XI in 1938 and was most recently revised and approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education in 1996.

Since 1899, when six of the original twenty-three students were ordained, more than fifteen hundred priests have received their education at the Pontifical College Josephinum; more than three hundred and fifty graduates of the College of Liberal Arts have completed their studies for ordination at other theologates.

Father Jessing's seminary, the Josephinum was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio in 1894; its Constitution was first approved by Pope Pius XI in 1938 and was most recently revised and approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education in 1996.

For the first few decades of its existence, the Josephinum focused its efforts on educating priests to work with the large population of German immigrants in the United States. After World War I, that focus shifted to preparing priests for dioceses that lack their own seminary. In recent years, the Josephinum has been blessed with a number of candidates from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa who come to the seminary to be educated for service in their native lands.

Since 1899, when those six of the original twenty-three students were ordained, more than fifteen hundred priests have received their education at the Pontifical College Josephinum; more than three hundred and fifty graduates of the College of Liberal Arts have completed their studies for ordination at other theologates.

Father Jessing, tough Prussian soldier, young immigrant, tireless advocate of orphans and founder of the only Pontifical College in North America had gone a long way on his journey from the Old World to the New. He was an American pioneer, but in a far different sense than that term is usually understood. As the old hymn goes "Onward Christian Soldiers, marching off to war, with the Cross of Jesus going on before."

See also

* Pontifical College Josephinum
* Leonard J. Fick

Biography

* http://www.pcj.edu Pontifical College Josephinum Site
* http://www.pcj.edu/aboutus/history.html Historical Sketch of Msgr. Joseph Jessing
* http://worlddmc.ohiolink.edu/OMP/NewSearch?results=10&fieldname=collection&sort=title&searchstatus=1&hits=10&searchmark=1&searchstring=Monsignor+John+Joseph+Jessing+Collection&format=list&searchtype=exact&count=1 OhioLink Digital Research Center

Publications

Msgr. Jessing edited and published the "Ohio Waisenfreund", German for "Ohio Orphan's Friend"

External links

* http://www.pcj.edu/intro/intropage.html/ Pontifical College Josephinum official site