Peter Henry Lemke

Peter Henry Lemke (or Lemcke) (b. at Rehna, Mecklenburg, 27 July 1796; d. at Carrolltown, Pennsylvania, 29 November 1882) was a German Roman Catholic missionary in the United States. He served as assistant to Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin.

Life Peter Henry Lemke was born 27 July 1796 at Rehna in Mecklenburg. His father was a magistrate. His maternal grandfather was the village schoolmaster and lived with the family, as did the elderly village doctor. With the aid of his grandfather and the doctor, who supplied him with story books, he received a good basic education. After the death of his grandfather, Peter ran away at the age of fourteen and applied for admission to the school at Schwerin. His father, who admired his initiative, wished him well, but due to reduced circumstances was unable to provide any financial assistance. Peter supported himself by giving music lessons, supplemented by the charity of the townspeople.

In 1813, at the age of eighteen, Lemke enlisted in the army to fight against Napoleon. He served until the end of the war, after which he enrolled in the Lutheran seminary at the University of Rostock. When not indulging in student dissipation, he read Stolberg's Religion of Jesus Christ, which made a lasting impression. In 1819, he passed his examinations for the ministry and accepted a position as tutor in a wealthy family near his hometown. Having developed religious reservations, he resigned his position and travelled for a while. In Ratisbon, through a former schoolfellow, he met and became friends with Melchior von Diepenbrock. They were of the same age and both war veterans. After Diepenbrock was ordained a Catholic priest, Lemke attended Father Diepenbrock's first Mass. Eight months later, Lemke applied to Bishop Johann Michael Sailer for admission to the Catholic Church. Sailer sent him to the Ratisbon diocesan seminary where he studied under Georg Michael Wittman. On 21 April 1824, he was received into the Church, Diepenbrock standing as godfather.

America On 20 August 1834, Lemke arrived in New York on the ship Florida and took a steamer to Philadelphia, where Bishop Kenrick assigned him as an assistant to Father Guth, pastor of Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, the first German national parish in the United States. On his first night, he was called out to attend a cholera patient. He went every day to the Bishop's residence to instruct Bishop Kenrick and his brother, Peter Richard Kenrick in German, while they, in turn, taught him English. His skill improved through his missionary tours in which he was often forced to communicate in English. Two months later, he was sent as assistant to the aged and infirm Prince Gallitzin at Loretto, Pennsylvania. In 1835, there were only four German priests in a diocese that covered Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

He took up his residence in the neighbouring town of Ebensburg, from where he attended to a portion of Father Gallitzin's district, about fifty miles in extent. He travelled by rail, stagecoach, wagon, and horseback to visit the scattered settlements. Lemke was a fearless horseman and delighted to give to the admiring settlers exhibitions of his skill in riding and subduing wild and untrained colts. In September 1835, he accompanied Bishop Kenrick on a visitation of the western part of Pennsylvania. One Sunday a month he attended the Catholics working on the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad at Johnstown. He and Father Gallitzin were the only priests in the county. In October of that year Lemke became a naturalized citizen.

Benedictine In 1844, he returned briefly to Germany, partly as a vacation and partly to recruit more priests. At Saltzberg he was present at the consecration of his friend Diepenbrock as Prince-Bishop of Breslau. In Munich he met several Benedictines of the Monastery of Metten.

From 1861 to 1877 he was stationed at St. Michael's Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was pastor of what is now Our Lady of Fatima Church from 1869 to 1877. He then moved to Carrolltown Monastery, which was built in 1865 as a priory of St. Vincent's Abbey. After an illness of several weeks, Father Henry died at Carrolltown on November 29, 1882 at the age of 86 years.

Works

He is the author of a life of Prince Gallitzin: (Münster, 1861).