By Christina Hermoso
The Catholic Church honors today the memory of Saint John Neumann, the first American bishop to be canonized.
Hundreds of pilgrims and devotees are expected to gather at his shrine, the National Shrine of St. John Neumann in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States, where he served as bishop, to offer masses and novena prayers in his honor.
The founder of several seminaries, churches and schools in the US, St. John helped organize Catholic education in the United States. During his tenure as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized a diocesan Catholic school system. Having studied and mastered the Italian language, he established the first Catholic church for Italians in the US at a time when there was no priest to speak their language.