Name: John Timon
Born: February 12, 1797
Where: Conewago, Pennsylvania
John Timon was born into an affluent family in Conewago, Pennsylvania on February 12, 1797. In 1819 the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Here they prospered until the financial crisis of 1823 in which most of the family fortune was lost. At the age of 26, Timon faced another unfortunate event when the woman he was engaged to marry passed away.
John Timon had been a very religious man all of his life. After all of the hardship and misfortune he had been through and after much contemplation and soul-searching he decided to enter into the priesthood.
In 1823, he entered the seminary of St. Mary of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri. A year later, at the young age of 27, he became a sub-deacon. Then in 1825, he was ordained deacon and then priest.
On October 17,1847, he was appointed as first bishop of the new Diocese of Buffalo, where he built much-needed churches and schools. He collected money for the church wherever and whenever he was able.
What Bishop Timon was in need of most for his new diocese and which he prayed for every day was priests. Nicholas
Devereux, who had been a good friend of the Bishop, was able to help him resolve this problem. In 1854, he and Bishop Timon traveled to Rome to ask Pope Pius IX to establish a community of Franciscans in the Buffalo diocese.
Bishop Timon died in 1867 at the age of 70. During the 20 years that he served as bishop of the Buffalo diocese, it grew from a mere 16 priests and 16 churches to almost 200 churches and 110 priests.
Bibliography
Angelo, Mark V, O.F.M., Ph. D. The History of St. Bonaventure University.
Saint
Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute, 1961.
Hammon, Walter,
O.F.M.
The First Bonaventure
Men. St. Bonaventure: St. Anthony
Guild Press, 1958.
Herscher, Irenaeus, O.F.M. The History of St. Bonaventure University. St. Bonaventure: The Franciscan Institute, 1951.
Pictures: Saint Bonaventure University Archives
This site was created by
Cathy Lapp for History 419, Fall 2006.
For more information please contact the
St.
Bonaventure University Archives
Last edited: 03/26/2007 08:33:30 AM