Baraga, Frederic
- James T. Connelly
Extract
Baraga, Frederic (29 June 1797–19 January 1868), first Roman Catholic bishop of Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, was born Irenaeus Frederic Baraga at the castle of Mala vas, on the hereditary estate of his mother, near the village of Dobrnic in Slovenia in the Austrian province of Carniola, the son of John Nepomuc Baraga and Maria Katharine Josefa de Jencic, farmers. Educated in the provincial capital of Ljubljana, Baraga went to Vienna to study law in 1816 and there came under the influence of the Redemptorist priest Clement Maria Hofbauer. Having decided to become a priest, Baraga renounced his claim to the family lands in favor of his brother-in-law and was ordained for the diocese of Ljubljana in 1823. A popular preacher and confessor, he compiled a prayer book in Slovenian that was in use throughout the nineteenth century....
