Herman Koeckemann

{{Short description|German bishop}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific-prefix = The Most Reverend | name = Bernard Hermann Koeckemann | honorific-suffix = SS.CC. | native_name = | native_name_lang = | title = Vicar Apostolic of Hawaiian Islands | image = Herman Koeckemann.jpg | image_size = 230px | alt = | caption = | church = Roman Catholic | archdiocese = | province = | metropolis = | diocese = | see = Titular Bishop of Olba | elected = | appointed = | term = 1882-1892 | term_start = 11 June 1882 | quashed = | term_end = 22 February 1892 | predecessor = Louis Maigret | opposed = | successor = Gulstan Ropert | other_post =  | ordination = 31 May 1862 | ordained_by = | consecration = 21 August 1881 | consecrated_by = Joseph Sadoc Alemany | cardinal = | created_cardinal_by = | rank = Bishop | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1828|01|10}} | birth_place = Ostbevern, Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|1892|02|22|1828|01|10}} | death_place =  | buried = Honolulu Catholic Cemetery | nationality = German | religion = | residence = | parents = | spouse =  | children = | occupation = | profession = | previous_post = | education = | alma_mater = | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = Coat of arms of Bernard Hermann Koeckemann.svg | coat_of_arms_alt =  | feast_day = | venerated = | saint_title = | beatified_date = | beatified_place = | beatified_by = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | attributes = | patronage = | shrine = | suppressed_date =  | other = }} 180px|thumb|left|Episcopal arms of Msgr. Koeckemann, and inset of Father Damien de Veuster in a window at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Honolulu. [[File:Honolulu-CatholicCemetery-vicarsapostolic-tombstone.jpg|thumb|Tombstone for Bishops Koeckemann and Boeynaems at the Honolulu Catholic Cemetery]] '''Herman Koeckemann''', formally '''Bernard Hermann Koeckemann''', SS.CC., (January 10, 1828 – February 22, 1892), served as the second vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands — now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu — from 1881 to 1892.

== Biography == Born in Ostbevern, Westphalia, Germany,<ref name="Weber1994">{{cite book|author=Francis J. Weber|title=Catholic California Essays: Some Historical Reflections|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwTiAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archives|page=78}}</ref> he was baptized as Bernard. At the age of 14, his father, a farmer, sent him to the Gymnasium of Münster. Koeckemann was an excellent student and excelled in classical studies. During his seven years of college, his progress in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French and in philosophy and science was so well marked that at the graduation, his examiners dispensed with the oral examination as superfluous.

Believing himself called to religious life, he went to Leuven and entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. After a novitiate of eighteen months, he was admitted to religious profession on April 11, 1851, taking the name Herman. After three years of theologate, he was sent by his superiors to the Kingdom of Hawai{{okina}}i for work as a missionary. He arrived in Honolulu on November 13, 1854, and was subsequently ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on May 31, 1862, at the age of 34.

Koeckemann served as pastor to the fledgling Catholic community of native Hawaiians. When Msgr. Louis Maigret fell ill, Father Koeckemann was appointed coadjutor vicar apostolic to fulfill some of the bishop's regular duties. On August 21, 1881, Father Koeckemann was ordained at Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, California, as a bishop of the titular see of Olba at the age of 53, with a papal mandate to serve as coadjutor<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HxjQAgAAQBAJ&dq=herman+Koeckemann+bishop+of+the+titular+see+of+Olba&pg=PT77 Google Books, ''Hawaii's Religions'', by John F. Mulholland]</ref> Vicar Apostolic with right of succession.

Upon Msgr. Maigret's death, Msgr. Koeckemann succeeded as vicar apostolic<ref>[https://www.catholichawaii.org/about-us/our-bishop/ Catholic Hawai'i website, ''Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu'', article published in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, Volume 68, No. 16, July 15, 2005]</ref> on June 11, 1882. During his episcopate, the massive migration of Portuguese workers for the sugarcane plantations from Madeira Islands and the Azores began. With the subsequent increase in population from these migrations, Msgr. Koeckemann made Catholic education a priority of the Vicariate and built many schools with the Marianist brothers.<ref>[https://www.catholichawaii.org/about-us/our-bishop/ Catholic Hawai'i website, ''Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu'', article published in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, Volume 68, No. 16, July 15, 2005]</ref>

He died in Honolulu in 1892 and was buried at the Honolulu Catholic Cemetery in downtown Honolulu.

==Order of Kalākaua== King David Kalākaua bestowed on Herman the honor "Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua" in 1881.<ref>[http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/liliuokalani/hawaii/hawaii.html# Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, CHAPTER XV]</ref>

==Sources== {{Reflist}}

{{S-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{Succession box | before=Louis Maigret | title=Vicar Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands | years=1882–1892 | after=Gulstan Ropert}} {{S-end}} {{Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koeckemann, Herman}} Category:1828 births Category:1892 deaths Category:Apostolic vicars of the Hawaiian Islands Category:Picpus Fathers Category:Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Hawaii Category:Recipients of the Royal Order of Kalākaua Category:Burials at Honolulu Catholic Cemetery Category:American missionaries