Emmanuel Boleslaus Ledvina


Emmanuel Boleslaus Ledvina was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Corpus Christi from 1921 to 1949.

Biography

Emmanuel Ledvina was born in Evansville, Indiana, to George Emmanuel and Mary Ledvina. His father was a native of Bohemia, and worked as an architect and construction engineer. After attending parochial schools in Evansville and St. Louis, Missouri, he returned to Indiana and entered St. Meinrad's College in 1883. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Silas Chatard on March 18, 1893. Ledvina then served as a curate at in Evansville and afterwards at in Indianapolis. From 1895 to 1907, he was pastor of in Princeton. He became vice-president and general secretary of the Catholic Church Extension Society in 1907. He was later named a Domestic Prelate in 1918, and an honorary canon of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1919.
On April 30, 1921, Ledvina was appointed the second Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas, by Pope Benedict XV. He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 14 from Bishop Joseph Chartrand, with Bishops Cornelius Van de Ven and Joseph Patrick Lynch serving as co-consecrators. He was installed at Corpus Christi on July 12, 1921. During his tenure, he increased the number of priests from 32 to 160, and erected over 50 churches, 53 mission chapels, and 47 rectories. He was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne in 1931. He constructed Corpus Christi Cathedral in 1940, and a chancery office in 1947. He invited the Benedictine monks of Subiaco Abbey to establish a community in the diocese and staff a new high school. He also became known for his efforts among Mexican American Catholics in South Texas and for his opposition to the Ku Klux Klan.
After twenty-seven years as bishop, Ledvina resigned due to poor health on March 15, 1949; he was appointed Titular Bishop of Pitanae on the same date. He later died at age 84, and is buried in a crypt under the main altar of Corpus Christi Cathedral.

Episcopal succession