The Rt. Rev. John Henry Luers, D. D., was born on September 29, 1819, near the city of Munster, in Westphalia, a province of Germany.  His parents were devoted Catholics.  Poor in the goods of this world, and desirous of bettering their condition in life, the family emigrated in 1833, landing in New York on June 7th.  Piqua, Ohio, located on the Miami river, and being the terminus of the Miami canal, connected Cincinnati on the Ohio river with Toledo on the Lakes.  It was here, on a farm in the neighborhood of Piqua, that the Luers family settled down.  John, however, became clerk and assistant salesman in a store in town.  He was noted for strict integrity and attention to business, but alas! he began to neglect the exercise of his religion.  When on one occasion the young clerk was paying his parents a visit, the father was amazed to find that his son John had forgotten his prayers.  The Bishop himself in after life, alluding to this incident, often remarked: "The subsequent interview between my father and myself was such a striking nature, that I received sufficient reasons to promise to relearn, what I had forgotten.  It was a sore lesson, but one which I never forgot."
     Having been called by God to serve Him in the sanctuary, John soon experienced a great change in his thoughts and feelings.  His ardent desire was to become a priest.  But how could he ever hope to acquire the education required, for this exalted station in life.  Providence, however, had given him the vocation for the priesthood, and Providence also would provide the means for attaining this end.  It is related, that when Archbishop Purcell was on his way to Piqua, in order to administer Confirmation, he overtook our John walking in the same direction.  The Archbishop on inquiry found, that the boy was going to Mass, and invited him to mount and ride with the priest, accompanying him.  The Archbishop soon discovered what was the great desire of the boy's heart, and [31] encouraged him saying:  "Fear not, my son; if God has destined you for the sanctuary, and has given you a vocation, He will in His wisdom provide the means.  But you must pray, that God's will may be done."  From that moment the boy's desire, to devote himself exclusively to the service of God, became stronger and stronger.  General M. D. Morrison on of his companions, afterwards a member of congress in Indiana, relates:  "Bishop Luers, when quite a boy with us in Piqua, suddenly stopped playing with the boys, and this being something unusual we often asked, what has become of John Luers?  He never comes around with us any more.  The reply given was:  Why, he's got hold of some old Latin books, and he is studying them; he is going to be a Catholic priest.  The next thing I heard of him was, that he had gone off somewhere to school."
     St. Francis Xavier's Seminary, in Brown county, Ohio, conducted by the Lazarists, was the only Alma Mater of Bishop Luers.  It was Archbishop Purcell, who sent him here as a candidate for the priesthood.  Bishop Luers did not posses a quick or brilliant mind, but rather, what is preferable, a profound mind.  The reports sent, by the superiors of the seminary to the Archbishop, were most satisfactory.  He thoroughly mastered the sciences he applied himself to, and in addition he fostered solid piety, and developed an ardent zeal and a generous desire to serve God, for the good of his neighbor.  Archbishop Purcell ordained him subdeacon, in the Cathedral at Cincinnati, on All Saint' day, 1846; deacon on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, and on November 11th, of the same year, in the twenty-seventh year of his age, he was ordained a priest of God.  He was the last priest ordained in the old seminary in Brown county, which is now St. Martin's Convent of the Ursuline Nuns.
     Archbishop Purcell, much impressed with the evident zeal of the young priest, gave him charge of St. Joseph's Congregation, in Cincinnati, which was engaged in the work of the erection of a church, the walls of which were half up, but was paralyzed by a heavy debt.  His advent infused new life into the enterprise.  It was not long after, when St. Joseph's Church was completed, and all the debt paid off.  Father Luers was indefatigable and untiring in his labors, to build up [32] the parish.  He experienced in his own person, what, as Bishop later on, he often told his priests:  "I have somewhere read, that more men rust out than wear out; a piece of mechanism is more apt to get out of repair, when not employed, than when performing its accustomed labor."  So convinced was he of the importance of Catholic schools, that a substantial school house soon arose under his inspiration and direction, and it was his custom to visit the schools every day.  The Catholic Telegraph, under date of July 6, 1871, has this to say:  "Under his active, zealous care, this large church is rapidly finished, and the large debt as rapidly paid.  It soon became under his pastoral guidance, on the the largest and most important German congregations in the city.  In labor, Bishop Luers, during the years of his priesthood, was indefatigable.  At St. Joseph's he has left a most eloquent testimony to his great worth.  Though he parted form the scenes of his labors years ago, his former parishioners treasure, in undimmed remembrance, his name and good work, and speak of him, as if he were still walking reverent among them.  Several, whom he baptized and prepared for their first Communion, are now worthy priests of the dioceses of Cincinnati and Fort Wayne."  During twelve years of most successful pastoral labor, Father Luers won the esteem of his Bishop and love of his people, and it is not surprising, that when the diocese of Fort Wayne was established, he should be made its first Bishop.
     Nobody was more surprised than Father Luers himself, when he was informed, that the choice had fallen upon him for episcopal honors and labors.  But with characteristic humility and simplicity he bowed his head, exclaiming:  "Behold, They servant, O Lord!"  He was consecrated a Bishop in the same cathedral, in which he had been ordained priest, on January 10, 1858.  Archbishop Purcell was the consecrating prelate, and the Right Rev. Maurice de St. Palais, Bishop of Vincennes, and the Right Rev. George Aloysius Carroll, Bishop of Covington, were the assisting prelates; Very Rev. E. T. Collins, V. G., was archdeacon, and the Revs. J. C. Albrinck, of Pomeroy, and C. H. Borgess, of Columbus, afterwards Bishop of Detroit, were the deacon and subdeacon of the Pontifical Mass.  The Right Rev. Martin J. Spalding, Bishop of Bardstown, preached the sermon.  In the afternoon of the day of his conscration, Bishop Luers was invited to visit St. Joseph's Church, of which he had been the efficient pastor.  We quote again from the Catholic Telegraph:  "The sanctuary was brilliantly illuminated, the church thronged to overflowing.  A frame work erected in the sanctuary bore, in the midst of light, appropriate tests of Scripture; the choir commenced the proceedings with a hymn.  The Rev. Stehle, aided by the Rev. Somers, who were afterwards charged with the care of the congregation, arranged rich offerings appertaining to the episcopal chapel and office, on a credence table, and an address was read to the new Bishop.  The little boys and girls of the school, handsomely dressed, the girls in white and wearing bright crowns, the young unmarried men and ladies, the fathers and mothers of families, the officers of religious societies, and all the German Catholics of Cincinnati, through their able representative Father Otto, had a word and a gift for their Right Reverend friend, the delivery of which was interspersed with music from the choir.  It was a heart-offering from all present ot eh merit and virtues of the faithful pastor now leaving them.  The Archbishop and the Bishops of Vincennes and Covington, who were in the sanctuary, were deeply affected by this exhibition of an entire people's gratitude and faith."  Another witness of these impressive scenes has written:  "It was a touching sight to see St. Joseph's congregation on last Sunday afternoon, when the Bishop of Fort Wayne came to say farewell.  Not a dry eye could be seen in the crowded edifice, and sobs were frequently heard breaking the solemn stillness of the church.  After the exercises were over in the church, the newly consecrated prelate visited the schools, and here, to see and hear the tokens of sorrow every where visible, became perfectly painful; and it was only after repeated assurances, that he would often visit them, could their grief be restrained.  Kneeling to receive his blessing, with a thousand wishes for his welfare, the impressive scene closed."
     Anxious to enter upon the work, assigned to him by the Holy See in the new diocese of Fort Wayne, he set out for the town of Fort Wayne in a day or two after his consecration.  "He arrived towards evening, alone and unannounced, carrying his traveling bag in his hand, at the door of the residence of Very Rev. Father Benoit."  What John A. Wilstach, Esquire, [34] wrote in his sketch of St. Mary's Church, of Lafayette, in the year 1893, will certainly prove of interest to our readers:  "It would seem that one of the first cares of Bishop Luers, in his new diocese, was to select his episcopal city.  This had received a designation in his commission from the Vatican, because Archbishop Purcell, in the multifariousness of his duties, had suggested Fort Wayne, but an application to Rome by Bishop Luers would have immediately produced the change in the designation.  Now it so happened, that from his first visit to the Star City of the West, Bishop Luers had desired to write after his name, Bishop of Lafayette.  Here he found our beautiful situation, our shining river with its amphitheatre of crowning heights on either side.  Here he found a body of educated Catholics willing to make, under his leadership, any sacrifice in his behalf, and here also, he found handsome and beautiful church and school improvements greatly superior to those existing in Fort Wayne.  He selected, with an eye which taste and prophecy both guided, the plat of land now occupied by the Lafayette Public Library, and the buildings to the south of it and the Opera House to the east, as the seat of the Cathedral, an episcopal residence, school, convent and hospital.   This unsurpassable tract of land, almost in the center of the city, was to be obtained, partly by purchase and partly by gift.  The gift was to be from the city, and the project was voted down in the city council by one vote, and that the vote of the member from the first ward.  History and tradition have consigned, or should consign, his name to oblivion, and there let it rest."
     Bishop Luers found his Cathedral, at Fort Wayne, to be a small frame church in a dilapidated condition, and the episcopal residence was a brick structure, erected by Rev. A. Bessonies, who had charge of the parish during the absence of Father Benoit in Louisiana.  He also found, that his diocese comprised forty-two counties extending north from the northern boundaries of Fountain, Montgomery, Boone, Hamilton, Madison, Delaware, Randolph and Warren counties, a distance of 120 miles, and from the Ohio State Line to the Illinois State Line, a distance of 170 miles.  Having appointed Father Benoit his Vicar General, he set out to visit his diocese, and it can be said truthfully, that he was hardly ever to be found at home, in [35] Fort Wayne.  He manifested great affection for his priests, encouraging them in their arduous labors, and sharing these labors with them whenever and wherever he could.   He traveled the length and breadth of his diocese, over and over again, anxious to be where he might be of service.  In all his travels, however, which were both night and day, he always managed to have the opportunity for celebrating Mass.  He used to say:  "God derives more glory from the celebration of one Mass, than from all the praises of the angels in heaven.  Ought not priests to give God that glory no matter at what personal inconvenience?"  It is related of him, that, when knocking at a priest's house for admission at a rather early hour, the window was thrown up, and a voice was heard to say:  "Be off to ---- out of that!  Don't you know, that his reverence is sick, and can't go on sick calls?  A pretty time of the day you are calling."  The window closed amid a shower of abuse on the unknown Bishop.  He quietly walked, valise in hand, to the convent, where he met with a cordial reception.  He said:  "There was a man down at Father ---'s house who ordered me to rather warm quarters, but I thought it better to come and say Mass."  Another quotation from Mr. Wilstach's production will give us an insight into the Bishop's character and work:  "He spared himself no labors official or menial, religious or domestic, of the house or of the field, of the city or of the country.  Well is it remembered by those, who were present on one autumn Sunday in St. Mary's church; at Lafayette, how his face and his hands were so bronzed by the labor of the field's harvest work at the orphan farm near Rensselaer, that he hardly passed for white.  His hands hung down black over the front of the pulpit (a favorite attitude with him), and his face rose above the purple cape as black as his hands."  From all of which we conclude, that Bishop Luers was, in very truth, a pioneer bishop preparing the way for the elegance and comforts of the bishops of later generations.
     During his administration biennial retreats of the clergy were held at the University of Notre Dame, an accommodation which has ever since been a great advantage to the diocesan clergy.  At the conclusion of these spiritual exercises, synods were held to regulate the affairs of the diocese, both as to temporalities and spiritualities.  Among other things, the [36] Bishop checked effectually the pernicious system of overzealous lay trusteeism.
     Bishop Luers was distinguished for his devotion to the Holy See.  He had a great desire to visit the Eternal City, and to manifest his loyalty to the Vicar of Christ on earth, in the person of Pius IX.  Accordingly he started upon his pilgrimage to Rome, on May 19, 1864, accompanied by the Rev. A. B. Oechtering, leaving the administration of the diocese in the hands of his Vicar General, Father Benoit.  On his way he visited Louvain, where he secured four young levites for his diocese.  At Rome he was received with great kindness by the Holy Father, and was entrusted with the drawing up of the constitution and rules for the Sisters of the Holy Cross, in America, with a view to having them approved ultimately by the Holy See.  Upon his return, he continued his arduous labors for the advancement of every great interest of his diocese.  It was he, who adopted a plan for the support of aged an infirm priests, under the title of the Catholic Clerical Benevolent Association of the Diocese of Fort Wayne.
     On many an occasion did the earnest Bishop become the public champion and defender of the faith.  In their controversies with him, tricky controversialists met with a great surprise and an overwhelming and silencing defeat.  Having been attacked in the public press because of his attitude in the defense of Catholic Education, he replied in a card, from which we make this extract:  "It is with me a matter of sincere regret, that our non-Catholic friends will not understand the Catholic position upon the so-called public school question.  We do not object to Protestants sending their children to the public schools, nor to their supporting them by a tax, or in any other way they may deem fit.  We have not the slightest intention of interfering with their existence.  They may, perhaps, think they are well adapted to the wants of those who patronize them, but Catholic parents, who realize the sacred obligations of preparing their children, not only for this life but for the life to come, prefer to see their children in schools where religious instruction and moral discipline go hand in hand with secular education.  Many Catholics regard it a hardship, that they should be taxed to support a school system that they do not and cannot approve; but in Indiana it is the [37] creature of the State Constitution, and until that instrument is changed or amended in this particular, Catholics, as law abiding citizens, must continue to bear their share of the burden, as well as assume their share of the responsibility."
     Bishop Luers attended the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, which assembled on the first Sunday of October, 1866; but he was not present at the Oecumenical Council of the Vatican, convened by Pius IX, having been excused, partly on account of the needs of his own diocese and partly that he might serve neighboring dioceses, in the absence of their bishops.  During this time he travelled much, and there is little doubt but that he administered confirmation in every county of three States, and also conferred holy orders in the seminaries.  It was not, however, without regret, that he was obliged to absent himself from the Vatican Council, being most anxious to give his homage to the Vicar of Christ, and to record his approval of the Definition of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility.
     The end of his life is another evidence of the uncertainty of the hour and place and circumstances, when death may call upon us.  On June 19, 1871, he gave Minor Orders to three seminarians and conferred Deaconship on another, in Cleveland.  After breakfast, preferring to walk rather than to ride, on his way to the railway station he intended to make a call at the episcopal residence, when, on the corner of Bond and St. Clair streets he fell, having suffered a stroke of apoplexy.  Having been carried to the Bishop's house, he received absolution, Extreme Unction and the last Indulgence, and within fifteen or twenty minutes he expired.  Clergyment and laymen from both dioceses, escorted the remains from Cleveland to Fort Wayne; even a delegation from the deceased Bishop's old parish, St. Joseph's, at Cincinnati, was present to pay its tribute of love and gratitude.  The funeral took place in he Cathedral at Fort Wayne, on July 4th, and was attended by Archbishop Purcell and the Bishops de St. Palais, O'Hara, Toebbe, McCloskey and Borgess.  Archbishop Purcell preached the sermon, from which we quote a single sentence:  "Bishop Luers presided over the diocese of Fort Wayne with marked zeal and ability."  The remains of the first Bishop of Fort Wayne reset in the Crypt beneath the sanctuary of the Cathedral.