Diocese Copenhagen Buried Vestre Cemetery Predecessor Josef Ludwig Brems Appointed 29 April 1953 Nationality Dane Consecration January 15, 1939 | In office 1953-1964 Name Johannes Suhr Ordination April 1, 1933 Rank Bishop Successor Hans Ludvig Martensen | |
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Born January 24, 1896
Nyborg, Denmark ( 1896-01-24 ) Died March 10, 1997, Aabenraa, Denmark Place of burial Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen, Denmark | ||
Johannes Theodor Suhr, OSB (24 January 1896 in Nyborg – 10 March 1997) was a Danish Roman Catholic bishop and the first Danish Roman Catholic bishop since the Reformation.
Contents
Early life and conversion to Roman Catholicism
Johannes Theodor Suhr was the son of landowner Carl Emil Suhr (1861-1928) and his wife Laura Marie Miller (1859-1919), graduating from Odense Cathedral School in 1913. After that, he was an agricultural student and emigrated after World War I to Argentina where he was a farmer. Some years later Suhr went back to Denmark, where he became increasingly preoccupied with life's basic questions. During a visit to Rome in 1925, Suhr was intrigued by Catholicism, and on 17 January 1926 he converted to the Roman Catholic Church. Then Suhr traveled to Benedictine Monastery of Clervaux in Luxembourg and entered in the Benedictine Order later in the same year. Suhr studied philosophy and theology in Luxembourg and Rome, was ordained on 1 April 1933 and was appointed prior of the newly established abbey of San Girolamo in Rome in 1935.
Ecclesiastical career
On 14 December 1938 Theodore Suhr was appointed by Pope Pius XI to Apostolic Vicariate of Denmark and became titular bishop of Balecio, however Suhr had poor pastoral experience and concerns. Suhr became bishop and took place in San Girolamo on 15 January 1939 when St. Ansgar's Cathedral in Copenhagen was inaugurated on 3 February 1939. Suhr on 29 April 1953 became the first "Bishop of Copenhagen" for the newly Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen when Pope Pius XII had created via an apostolic letter on the same date. He resigned in 1964 because of failing health and the Jesuit Hans Ludvig Martensen became his successor. In the 1960s Suhr was a member of the Second Vatican Council's preparatory commission as head in Rome, and in 1960 the Nordic bishops organized in the Scandinavian Bishops Conference, and Suhr was the first president.
Death
Despite his departure, Bishop Theodore Suhr died in 1997 at the age 101 years. He is shown in silhouette by Kirsten Wiwel in 1939, portrait painting by Ivan Opffer from 1940, and photographs.
Prizes
Suhr was Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1958.