Nicolas Adames

Nicolas Adames (29 December 1813 – 13 February 1887) was the first Bishop of Luxembourg.

Life

He was born in Troisvierges in 1813, In December 1869 he participated, as one of 744, in the First Vatican Council in Rome.

On 27 June 1870, the Apostolic Vicariate of Luxembourg was elevated to a diocese, and Nicolas Adames became the first Bishop of Luxembourg. His enthronement was on 25 December. The Church of Notre-Dame became the episcopal see, and thus, a cathedral.

When his successor, Jean Joseph Koppes, was appointed in 1883 by Pope Leo XIII, Nicolas Adames retired to the Redemptorist monastery on the Place du Théâtre. He died on 13 February 1887. For political reasons he was buried on 17 February in the Glacis chapel, which had been built at his instigation.

Work

As pro-vicar, Adames had seen it as his goal to promote a real religiosity through popular missions. For this reason, he called the Redemptorists to Luxembourg in 1849, who settled around the Saint-Alphonse Church.

Although he had not yet been consecrated a bishop, he received permission in 1859 to administer the sacrament of confirmation. In 4 years, he confirmed around 57,000 people on his many parish visits. This created a strong awareness of the church amongst the population. He was also not afraid to officially condemn the reading and spreading of anti-clerical texts.

For the second centenary of the election of Mary the Comforter in 1866 the shrine image was ceremonially crowned, at the wish of the Pope, by Cardinal Karl von Reisach and 7 other bishops on 2 July 1866. The Muttergottesoktav or Virgin Mary octave was thus strengthened.

Nicolas Adames took an oath in case Luxembourg remained unharmed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and retained its internationally recognised neutrality. He had pledged to build a chapel to the Virgin Mary with his own money in front of the former city walls on the Glacis. On 8 September 1885, the Glacis chapel was consecrated by his successor, Bishop Koppes.

He showed his loyalty to the Pope in defending papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council.

Elements of Adames's administration of his new bishopric still exist today, such as the Kirchlicher Anzeiger für die Diözese Luxemburg.