SCHLARMAN, JOSEPH HENRY

Archbishop; b. Breese Township, Ill., Feb. 23, 1879;d. Peoria, Ill., Nov. 10, 1951. He was the tenth child of Bernard Joseph and Philomena (Keyser) Schlarman of Clinton County, Illinois. He attended St. Francis Solanus College (now Quincy College), Quincy, Illinois; the University of Innsbruck, Austria; and the Gregorian University, Rome, where he earned doctorates in philosophy and canon law in 1907. He was ordained in the cathedral of Brixen in the Tyrol, June 29, 1904, for the diocese of Belleville, Illinois, and was named (1907) diocesan chancellor and assistant pastor of St. Peter's Cathedral. Later he became vicar-general in matrimonialibus, diocesan consultor, member of two curias, and, in September 1921, domestic prelate. On June 17, 1930, Schlarman was consecrated as bishop of Peoria. During his episcopate he established the Clergyman's Aid Society in his diocese, remodeled the cathedral, commissioned a diocesan edition of the Register, and developed the liturgical and catechetical apostolates. He prepared the constitution for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), of which he was president from 1943 to 1945. He was a founder and director of the rural life institutes established at Montezuma Seminary, New Mexico, to assist in the training of Mexican seminarians. In addition to translating the ritual for rural blessings, Schlarman published a pamphlet, Why Prisons? (1938), based on his experience on the Illinois Commission for the Study of Prison Problems. He also wrote a pamphlet on mixed marriage, Why Six Instructions? (1938); a history of French-American exploration, From Quebec to New Orleans (1929); and Mexico, a Land of Volcanoes (1949). In 1950 he was given the NCRLC award for distinguished service and was named assistant at the pontifical throne by Pius XII. He was made archbishop ad personam in June 1951.

Bibliography: m. b. hellriegel, "He Loved the Church," Worship 26 (1952) 82–83. American Catholic Historical Review 37 (1952) 486.

[j. j. swaner]