LUERS, John Henry, R. C. bishop, born near Munster, Westphalia, 29 September, 1819; died in Cleveland, Ohio, 29 June, 1871. His childhood was spent in great poverty, to escape which he came with his parents to the United States in 1833. His family settled on a farm at Piqua, Ohio, and John became clerk in a store. He showed a tendency to lead a wild life, and became neglectful of religion for a time, but in 1835 he experienced a complete change. An accidental meeting with Archbishop Purcell decided him to become a priest, and, after studying by himself and in the Seminary of St. Francis Xavier, Ohio, he was ordained on 11 November, 1846, and appointed pastor of St. Joseph's church, Cincinnati. He completed the church, freed the parish from debt, and built several schools. In 1857 the diocese of Fort Wayne was created, comprising the northern part of Indiana, and Father Luers was selected as its first bishop, and consecrated by Archbishop Purcell, 10 January, 1858. The new diocese comprised about 20,000 Roman Catholics and fourteen priests. There were twenty churches which were not able to accommodate half their congregations, while many places had neither churches nor priests. Bishop Luers, under these circumstances, endeavored to make up by his own ministry for the want of priests. In two year's he had ordained eight and had also eight ecclesiastical students in various seminaries, built the present cathedral at Fort Wayne and many churches, and in 1863 he held a synod at the University of Notre Dame, at which statutes were enacted that resulted in the abolition of the system of lay trustees. He visited Rome in 1864, where he obtained power to separate the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United States from the mother-house in France, and to draw up a new constitution and order for the American branch. On his return he founded the Academy of St. lgnatius at Fort Lafayette, and introduced the above-named sisterhood, who have charge of St. Mary's home in Jay county. In 1865 he purchased land in the suburbs of Fort Wayne, and afterward at Rensselaer, and in 1868 erected there an asylum for soldiers' orphans. He also established the Catholic clerical benevolent association for pensioning aged priests. Bishop Luers attended the provincial councils of Cincinnati, and was present at the plenary council of Baltimore in 1866. At his death there were sixty-nine priests, ninety-one churches, and six religious institutions in his diocese, besides a hospital, a college, and an orphan asylum, while the Roman Catholic population exceeded 50,000.