The "Immaculate" Connection Part II

John Francis Noll (from Kneipp Springs History Jan. 7) was born Jan. 25, 1875, in Fort Wayne, one of 19 children. He was baptized at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and attended grade school in the building next door. He entered the preparatory seminary at St. Lawrence College, Mount Calvary, Wis. at the tender age of 13, and went on to Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati for his theology and philosophy studies.

The diocese had a great need for priests at this time, and his mentor, cathedral rector Fr. Joseph Brammer, was gravely ill and worried that he would not live to see the first boy from his parish ordained. Consequently, John Noll was ordained at the cathedral at the age of 23 on June 4, 1898 shortly before the passing of Fr. Brammer


John Noll as a seminarian
Within a year, Father Noll was named pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Ligonier, IN at age 24 (a few miles from Rome City). His parish was 30 square miles, which he covered on foot or horseback. He would occasionally make it by the newly established Kneipp Healing Center to visit with Dr. Geiermann and discuss the progress and relative success of this particular venture.

Fr. Noll was moved about the diocese in 1906 to the community of Besancon approximately 30 miles outside Fort Wayne. It was here that he percolated the idea for a parish newspaper whose aim was to spread Catholic doctrine and catechism to the members of his parish who he felt were lacking in these elements. Later on, convinced of this medium’s success and his desire to repel the influence of dispassionate newspapers like The Menace, a periodical devoted to propaganda against the Catholic Church, Fr. Noll started the first National Weekly Catholic Newspaper and called it “Our Sunday Visitor”. It was not long before Our Sunday Visitor Inc. would become one of the world’s largest Catholic publishers.

At the age of 46, the title of monsignor was conferred on Father Noll in 1921. He was named the fifth bishop of Fort Wayne in 1925, after the death of Bishop Herman Joseph Alerding (also a long-time advocate of Kneipp Springs, but he will be discussed in the coming months).


Bishop Noll
Bishop Noll immediately became an influential leader among U.S. prelates. He was named secretary of the fledgling National Catholic Welfare Conference (now the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), and was a longtime member of that body's administrative committee. In his role with the bishops' conference, Bishop Noll demonstrated remarkable foresight about the coming information age, helping to launch Catholic News Service and the "Catholic Hour" on NBC radio. He would have been a big proponent of the internet and would undoubtedly have used it to great advantage in his work.

During the summer months and vacation get-aways, Bishop Noll would often retreat 35 miles north of Fort Wayne to his lake cottage on Bishop’s Island in the middle of Sylvan Lake which was directly across the road from Kneipp Springs. He would say Mass in the beautiful Our Lady Mother of Mercy Chapel and sometimes seek the benefit of the therapeutic treatments offered at the facility. It became a time and place of recreation and relaxation in his otherwise hectic work schedule.