A Play: Saint John Neumann
| CHARACTERS: Maid, Rosalind, Lady L, Lady M, Lady N | |
| (Maid in beautifully decorated Philadelphia home is pouring tea and serving little pastries to fashionably dressed ladies. It is the early 1800s.) | |
| Lady M: | So good of you to have us to tea, Rosalind. Who will be our guest today? |
| Rosalind: | Rosalind: I’ve invited Bishop Neumann. |
| (All three ladies voice their surprise.) | |
| Rosalind: | Why, what is the problem? He’s the archbishop! |
| Lady L: | He’s the worst-dressed, poorest man in all of Philadelphia. |
| Rosalind: | He’s also the holiest. |
| Lady M: | I’m not talking about holiness. I think the archbishop should have polished manners and be fashionable. |
| Lady N: | Well, he is intelligent. He speaks six languages, and in eight years, he has opened more than 100 schools in the city. |
| Lady L: | He’s an immigrant. I know he has visited all the parishes. People give him money, and what does he do with it? Gives it to those who are poor. He lives like a pauper. |
| Lady N: | Sometimes I feel sorry for him. Bishop Neumann seems so lonely. All those responsibilities he has must be terrible. |
| Lady M: | What responsibilities? |
| Rosalind: | He’s the general superior of the Redemptorist priests; he has to beg money for his parishes; he has to get teaching sisters for the schools and build convents; he travels through all kinds of weather to serve the parishes that need a priest. |
| Lady N: | And he doesn’t complain. |
| Lady M: | I heard he just wrote two catechisms and a Bible history in German. |
| Lady L: | I’ve seen his articles in the Catholic press. I can’t criticize him for not being hardworking. |
| Rosalind: | He has faith and prays. The man is always in church. I think he’s a saint. |
| Lady L: | I must admit, despite his dress, all the priests say he is a bishop with whom anyone can talk. |
| Maid: | Madam, the bishop is here. |
| Rosalind: | Good, Bring him in. Ladies, this is a priest I’d like you to meet, Bishop John Neumann. |
Excerpted from Christ Our Life, by Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio