Bishop Schinner (1905-1913)

The first and youngest bishop
to serve the Diocese of Superior

• Introduction
• Early life and ordination to priesthood
• Appointment as bishop of Superior
  • Bishop-elect vists Superior
  • Episcopal consecration
  • Departure by train to Superior
  • Arrival in Superior
• A year of firsts
  • The first official appointment
  • The first priest ordained in the diocese
  • The first diocesan synod
  • The first entry for Suprior in the Official Catholic Directory
• Priest shortage
  • Visits to St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee
• A Pioneering Bishop
  • Exposure to typhoid fever
  • Evanglizing the region's Native Americans
• The Arrival of More Religious Orders of Women
  • Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi
  • Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille
  • Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis
  • The Order of Friar Servants of Mary
• Diocesan community of Sisters of St. Joseph formed
• Resignation as Bishop of Superior
• New Appointment in Spokane
• Final Years
• Born to eternal life

Introduction

Born May 1, 1863, Bishop Augustine Francis Schinner was the first native Milwakeean to be ordained a bishop. At age 42, he also earned the distinction of being the youngest bishop ever to serve the Superior Diocese.

Bishop Schinner attended St. Mary’s School and St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee and was ordained to the priesthood on March 7, 1886, by Archbishop Michael Heiss.

Fr. Schinner served for one year as a pastor of St. Hubertus Parish in the Richfield Township (now the village of Hubertus), before his appointment to the faculty of St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. In 1892, Archbishop Frederick Katzer chose Fr. Schinner to serve as his secretary. He would later become chancellor and vicar general of the archdiocese.

Upon Archbishop Katzer’s death in 1902, Fr. Schinner was selected as administrator of the diocese. His name was mentioned as a successor to Archbishop Katzer, but instead, Sebastian Messmer of Green Bay was appointed Milwaukee archbishop.

In 1905, Fr. Schinner was named bishop of the new Diocese of Superior.

Bishop-Elect visits Superior

One month before his consecration as bishop, Fr. Schinner paid a visit to his new diocese. He spoke briefly to a Superior Telegram reporter on June 9, 1905, about his visit to that city.

"I am perfectly delighted with the city. I feel at home already and would like to settle down right now and go to work. The priests of the city please me very much."

Episcopal Consecration

He was consecrated bishop of Superior at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee on Tuesday, July 25, 1905. Over 400 priests and bishops attended the event. A banquet at St. Francis Seminary followed the 10 a.m. consecration.

The new bishop was showered with numerous gifts that would assist him in his new role as shepherd. "The most expensive bishop's staff or crosier is the gift of the priests of the Superior stated the Catholic Citizen. His home parish of St. Mary gave him a pectoral cross, which is worn by bishops.

Departure by train to Superior

Bishop Schinner would spend six more days in his hometown before departing by train to Superior on Monday evening, July 31. His last visit was to Calvary Cemetery Monday afternoon, where he visited the graves of his parents, Michael and Mary Schinner. While the new bishop was saying his final farewells, Catholics in Superior were preparing for the arrival of their new bishop. A new residence built by W.J. Conan for his family in the 1890s was purchased by Superior's Catholics overlooking the bay of Lake Superior. The impressive abode at 1108 East Second Street was purchased for $6,500.

Bishop Schinner traveled to northern Wisconsin in the private railroad car of H.F. Whitcomb, president of Wisconsin Central Railroad, accompanied by an entourage of over 60 priests from Milwaukee. He arrived in Ashland about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday morning and was greeted by about 125 residents and over 50 priests from around the diocese and the state.

Shortly after the new bishop was welcomed to Ashland, he and his guests boarded boats and traveled to the Apostle Islands, courtesy of the Ashland Knights of Columbus. Following the boat trip, Bishop Schinner and his guests returned to the train station to continue the journey to Superior.

Arrival in Superior

With the Superior Marine band performing a special arrangement for the occasion, Bishop Schinner was escorted by acting Superior Mayor George Hislop to a horse-drawn carriage. The destination would be to Sacred Heart Church, which had been designated the pro-cathedral. Joining Bishop Schinner in the carriage was Fr. Walter Fardy, rector of Sacred Heart pro-cathedral.

Upon arrival at the pro-cathedral, Fr. Fardy officially welcomed Bishop Schinner to the see city of Superior. With Bishop Schinner, fellow priests, laity and civic guests gathered inside Sacred Heart, Fr. Fardy told the new bishop,

"You have been loved by all your associates. What wonder then that we welcome you tonight by this demonstration to be our bishop, our father, our spiritual guide."

In the first public address to his new flock, Bishop Schinner expressed gratitude for their warm welcome.

"My determination is established to use my best efforts without human fear or human favor for the general welfare of this diocese and with the help of God to never swerve from the duty of working out our salvation."

The first official appointment

Bishop Schinner's first official act was to name Fr. Walter Fardy - "my old classmate and life-long friend" - as vicar general of the new diocese. Together they would travel the 16-county diocese, making pastoral visits and giving the bishop a taste of rural life in the Northwoods. Within weeks Bishop Schinner began his visitations. The first reported stop was to New Richmond, where a musical band and delegations from various Catholic organizations warmly greeted the bishop. By the end of his first month in Superior, Bishop Schinner appointed his board of consultors and entertained discussion about erecting a new cathedral.

PHOTO: Bishop Augustine Schinner, bottom center, is pictured with the Diocese of Superior's first Board of Consultors in 1906. From front left clockwise, the board included Msgr. Walter Fardy, Fr. August Babinski, Fr. John Barney, Fr. Fabian Rechtiene, OFM, Fr. Charles Weber, and Fr. Stephen Leinfelder.

The first priest ordained in the diocese

Within one year of his installation, Bishop Schinner ordained the first priest of the new diocese, Fr. John M. Owens attended All Hallows College in Dublin, and St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. He was ordained on June 24, 1906.

The first diocesan synod

One year after his consecration, Bishop Schinner convened the first diocesan synod on August 1-2, 1906, which was held in Bayfield.

The first entry for Superior in Official Catholic Directory

The Official Catholic Directory, published by P.J. Kenedy & Sons, included its first entry for the Superior Diocese in 1906. In a statistical overview, the directory noted that 39 diocesan priests and 17 religious order priests served 38.861 Catholics living in the new diocese. The directory also reports 43 parishes with resident pastors, along with 50 missions and 33 stations. The Catholic school system consisted of one high school, 16 elementary and two boarding schools serving 1,906 students.

When he arrived in Superior, Bishop Schinner was greeted by 39 diocesan and 17 religious order priests eager to help him staff the parishes and missions sprinkled across the 16-county diocese. From the outset of his episcopacy, recruitment of priests became one of Bishop Schinner’s goals. “We need at least 10 additional priests in the diocese,” he told the Catholic Citizen on September 9, 1905.

“Every priest in the diocese has one or more missions in addition to the church of which he is pastor and in some instances there is only one priest to an entire county.”

By the time Bishop Schinner resigned as bishop of Superior in 1913, he saw the pool of priests grow from 29 diocesan priests in 1905 to 62. Little did Bishop Schinner know that a priest shortage in his newly established diocese would continue long after his death and remain a critical challenge for his successors.

Visits to St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee

To help recruit new priests for northern Wisconsin, Bishop Schinner paid visits to St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. One of the young seminarians Bishop Schinner recruited was Ladislaus (Walter) S. Nowacki, a native of Manistee, Mich., who entered St. Francis in 1907. Msgr. Nowacki, who died in 1979, wrote a biography of his life titled "Born With A Smile: Memories of a joyful Life." The 61-page diary was published in June 1972, the priest's 60^th anniversary of ordination. When Bishop Schinner met with the seminarians, wrote Msgr. Nowacki, he told them he would pay their seminary tuition if they promised to serve in the Superior Diocese. During one meeting with interested seminarians, Bishop Schinner described priestly life in the Northwoods. "It was considered a missionary diocese which needed priests," wrote Msgr. Nowacki. "(Bishop Schinner) further explained the poverty, poor transportation, and the great sacrifice which was called for to live in its poor communities. He stated that anyone who would join his diocese would have his tuition paid and pastorship in less than a year. There were 12 of us who volunteered." Msgr. Nowacki was ordained to the priesthood on June 1, 1912, at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Bishop Schinner saw himself as a pioneer bishop. With all of the hardships he had to endure while traveling from parish to parish, it was not a difficult assessment to make. During one of his first visits back to Milwaukee, Bishop Schinner told the Catholic Citizen how his life had changed since becoming bishop of Superior. "The work in the Superior Diocese is totally different from that in Milwaukee," he said in a Dec. 30, 1905, interview. "Several of the counties are but sparsely settled and it takes considerable 'pioneering' to reach the different sections remote from the railway lines."

Bishop Schinner described a pastoral visit that began in Shell Lake, and included several stops before ending in Spooner. The highlight was a horse- drawn sleigh ride in 18 inches of snow. "We lost the road repeatedly and were compelled to seek guidance several times," said Bishop Schinner. The last leg of their journey, a 30-mile trip to Spooner, was the most difficult. "The snow was so deep and the roads so poor that several times the Indian guide lost his way. ... Our horses were giving out and we were finally compelled to stop at a small timber camp where we slept on benches, on the floor and wherever we could lay our heads. The next day, Thanksgiving Day, we took our dinner at the camp, and it is unnecessary to say we did not eat turkey. A French settler then came to our rescue and secured a team, which took us to Spooner. We traveled over 115 miles by team on this journey. Of course, there are some hardships, but I enjoy the work and the people are cooperating with me in every way."

Exposure to Typhoid Fever

Publicly, Bishop Schinner kept a positive attitude, but the life of a pioneer bishop in the cold climate of northern Wisconsin was not how he truly wanted to live out his ministry. It began to wear on him physically and mentally.

In February of 1906, Bishop Schinner was admitted into St. Mary's Hospital in Superior with typhoid fever. "Since going to the northern field, Bishop Schinner has been subjected to severe exposure in his trips through the woods," said a Catholic Citizen article on March 10, 1906.

Evangelizing the Region's Native Americans

Like the missionaries before him, Bishop Schinner took an interest in evangelizing the region's Native Americans. Of the approximately 39,000 Catholics living in the Superior Diocese in 1905, nearly 4,000 were Native Americans. When a dispute erupted on the Bad River Indian Reservation in Odanah, Bishop Schinner became personally involved. The dispute began when a government agent for the reservation, S.W. Campbell, forcibly removed Catholic students from St. Mary's Industrial School, operated by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and placed them in the government school. Campbell wanted to add students to the government school's enrollment to qualify for additional federal funds.

When Bishop Schinner learned of the unfair practice, he filed a complaint with the Federal Indian Bureau in Washington D.C. In June of 1906, he traveled to Washington D.C. to discuss the matter with President Theodore Roosevelt. "Bishop Schinner ... has issued an official statement to the effect that he has the word of President Roosevelt and the Indian bureau that Indian children may attend any school designated by their parents," the Catholic Citizen reported on July 14, 1906. President Roosevelt not only agreed with Bishop Schinner, "but he favored allowing the Indians to pay for the education of their children in private schools out of their trust funds." Agent Campbell later resigned his post.

The arrival of more religious orders of women

Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi

When the Superior Diocese was formed in 1905, members of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Milwaukee served as housekeepers and homemakers at the bishop's residence. Their primary ministry later became teaching. From 1908 to 1980, they formed the teaching staff for schools in Hurley, Park Falls and Eagle River. Members also taught religious education at parishes in Boulder Junction, Clear Lake, Spooner and Superior.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, Crookston, MN, were invited by Fr. Henry LeGuillon in 1907 to staff St. Louis School in Superior. Six sisters opened the school that fall and the sisters continued there until 1974. During those years, 90 sisters taught at the school. In 1909, the sisters were invited to take over administration of St. Anne School in Somerset. The last community member withdrew from St. Anne Parish in June 1998, ending the sisters' lengthy presence in the diocese.

Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis

The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis (from Stevens Point) arrived in Superior in 1909 to teach at St. Stanislaus School. They continued there until 1968. Other members served at St. Bridget School in River Falls from 1965 to 1984 and at St. Joseph Home and Hospital from 1961 to 1975, when it merged with the city hospital. In 1967, 32 members of the Third Order of St. Francis of Rice Lake merged with the Stevens Point sisters.

The Order of Friar Servants of Mary

The Order of Friar Servants of Mary took charge of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Ladysmith, and St. Anthony de Padua Parish, Tony, in 1910. Fr. Matthew McCann was the first Servite to serve as pastor, followed by Fr. Andrew Bauman. Servite Fathers served the parishes until 1955, when diocesan priests took charge. They also served in Stone Lake from 1914 to 1920, in Superior from 1917 to 1954, and in Bruce in the 1940s.

Diocesan community of Sisters of St. Joseph formed

Through friends in Cincinnati, Bishop Augustine Schinner convinced the Sisters Ipf St. Joseph at Fontbonne in Cincinnati to send three sisters to northern Wisconsin. Sisters Mary Evangela Sheehan, Mary Xavier Graney and Edna Joseph Haggerty arrived in Somerset on March 25, 1907. The three received their religious habits the next day from Bishop Schinner and the new diocesan community of the Sisters of St. Joseph was formed. By December 7, there were 11 members.

Because the Catholic community of Somerset was largely French speaking, the sisters found it difficult to serve there. With the permission of Bishop Schinner, the sisters moved to Superior in June of 1908 and established their motherhouse, Nazareth on the Lake.

Over the next 70 years the religious community flourished. They operated a novitiate for aspiring sisters and a junior college. They taught in Catholic schools, operated hospitals in Frederic, Superior and New Richmond, sponsored summer Bible camps, and cared for children at St. Joseph's Children's Home.

The dearth of vocations in the 1970s and 1980s led to a steady decline of new sisters. On April 1, 1986, the 30 remaining Sisters of St. Joseph of Superior were amalgamated with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul, MN.

Even before his 50th birthday, Bishop Schinner had become weary of his duties as bishop. The air of Lake Superior, the climate of northern Wisconsin and the difficulty traveling took its toll on him. In his 2002 book, "In the Richness of the Earth: A History of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee," Fr. Steven Avella, associate professor of history at Marquette University, stated that boredom also affected Bishop Schinner. "He begged Roman officials to deliver him from the burden of the diocese," wrote Fr. Avella. "He even offered to 'de-consecrate' himself as bishop, asking at one point if he could be a simple parish priest."

On February 3, 1913, Bishop Schinner received a letter from the apostolic delegate in Washington D.C. stating that Pope Pius X accepted his resignation as bishop of Superior. He announced his resignation in a letter to priests of the diocese dated February 6, 1913. "The reasons that induced me to petition for a relief partly affect the diocese, and partly are of a personal nature," he said in his letter to the priests. "After having resided in Superior a year, I could no longer escape the conviction that the air of Lake Superior exercised a deleterious action not in undermining my health but in impeding the efficiency of my work. ... One who is not affected by the lake air as 1 am will be more successful, and I also can do more efficient work elsewhere."

Bishop Schinner spent 11 years as bishop of Spokane. He resigned on December 17, 1925, and was made titular bishop of Sala, an honorary title for a diocese no longer in existence.

On September 21, 1926, Bishop Schinner became chaplain to the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, Minn.

He was invited to serve as a missionary in Bolivia in 1928 by Bishop Augusto Sieffert, CSSR, of the Diocese of La Paz. After spending about two weeks in Bolivia, Bishop Schinner returned to the United States. "They were excruciatingly miserable days we spent in La Paz and on the way thither," he wrote to Mother Isidore, the Notre Dame Sisters' provincial, on October 2, 1928. "The fact is that, after being there almost two weeks, the last morning I said Mass I felt so weak and unsafe on my feet."

Health issues continued to plague Bishop Schinner upon his return. Through bouts with pneumonia and bronchitis, he traveled between Mankato and Milwaukee, and even took up residence for a short time in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Superior's third bishop, Joseph G. Pinten, was serving.

Bishop Schinner spent the last five and one-half years of his life as chaplain to the Sisters of the Divine Savior in Milwaukee. He celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest on March 7, 1936.

On February 7, 1937, Bishop Schinner died of pneumonia at St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee.

Bishop Theodore H. Reverman of Superior celebrated the funeral Mass at Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Milwaukee.

Bishop Schinner was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. Ten years before his death, the bishop requested that he be buried at the feet of his mother and father. To satisfy this request, his parents' bodies were moved from Calvary Cemetery to Holy Cross Cemetery.

In December 2002, the Sisters of the Divine Savior presented Bishop Raphael M. Fliss with liturgical vestments and other artifacts belonging to Bishop Schinner, including the chasuble he wore on the day of his first Mass in March 1886.


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Source: Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior, by Sam Lucero, 2005.