James Blenk

James Hubert Herbert Blenk, S.M. (July 28, 1856 – April 20, 1917) was a German American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Puerto Rico (1899–1906) and Archbishop of New Orleans (1906–1917).

Biography James Blenk was born in Edenkoben, Rhenish Palatinate, to James and Catherine (née Wiedemann) Blenk. Born and raised in a Lutheran family , he was the youngest of seventeen children and also a twin but his twin brother died at six months. In 1866 he and his family emigrated from Germany and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. His parents died only some weeks later and the orphan James Blenk was brought up in a Catholic family. Converting to Catholicism at age 12, Blenk was baptized at St. Alphonsus Church in 1869 and later confirmed by Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché.

After completing his primary education in New Orleans, he entered Jefferson College (in Convent, Louisiana), eventually joining the Society of Mary (more commonly known as the Marist Fathers) 1878. He was then sent to the Marist House of Studies in Belley, France, and completed his probationary studies at the novitiate in Lyons before being sent to further his studies at the Catholic University of Ireland in Dublin.

Blenk was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Francis Redwood on August 16, 1885. Upon his return to Louisiana in October 1885, he served as professor of humanities, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, and natural science at his alma mater of Jefferson College, where he later served as president from 1891 to 1897. In 1896, at the invitation of the superior general of the Marist Fathers, he visited all the houses of that religious institute in Europe. He received his episcopal consecration on the following July 2 from Archbishop Chapelle, with Bishops Gustave Rouxel and Theophile Meerschaert serving as co-consecrators. He also continued the practice of segregated parishes for African Americans and established several himself, including St. Dominic Parish in 1909. He believed it was through segregated churches that "racial feelings and natural differences can be best adjusted."

Blenk was a friend and mentor to fellow Marist John Edward Gunn, Bishop of Natchez. He also organized the Louisiana State Federation of Catholic Societies (1908), Catholic Societies of Women of Louisiana (1911), Knights of Peter Claver at Opelousas (1912), and Catholic Women's Club (1916). He also wrote the article on New Orleans bishop Luis Ignatius Peñalver y Cardenas for the Catholic Encyclopedia. His final years were marked by the 1915 New Orleans hurricane and the outbreak of World War I. the Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans. John William Shaw became his successor as Archbishop of New Orleans.