Joseph Francis Buh

Joseph Francis Buh ( , ; March 17, 1833 February 2, 1922) was a Slovene Catholic priest ordained in 1858 who arrived as a missionary in Minnesota in 1864.

Early life

Joseph Francis Buh was born in Sadobie, Carniola, Austria (modern day Zadobje, Slovenia) to Mathias Buch and Maria Buch (née Koshier) and baptized Joseph Buch on March 17, 1833, in Lučine. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1858, at the age of 25, in Ljubljana. He served as a priest in the Municipality of Loški Potok for two years before being transferred to Radeče. After expressing an interest in missionary work, Buh was contacted by Francis Xavier Pierz about the possibility. They embarked at Le Havre, France on April 10, 1864, for New York. Frederick Katzer and James Trobec were on the same ship. He eventually settled in Perham. The Vicariate of Northern Minnesota was established in 1875, and the Diocese of Duluth was established from that territory in 1889. Buh, at the time ministering to Slovenes in Northern Minnesota, was called upon by Bishop James McGolrick to be his vicar general. Together with another Slovene priest, Francis X. Bajec, he established a miner's union. He was the first to hold Catholic religious services at White Earth.

Death Buh died on February 2, 1922, at St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth He was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Duluth.

Legacy

After his death, holy cards with a picture of Buh and containing clippings from a shirt of his were distributed by religious sisters. While there were signs of devotion to him, no formal cause for canonization was initiated at that time.

In the fall of 2023, the bishop of Duluth, Daniel Felton, began discussing a cause for canonization for Buh with local clergy. His body was exhumed on July 25, 2024, and reinterred in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth on June 10, 2025. Canonization efforts were approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2026.