Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn

Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn served as the twelfth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1797 to 1808.

Johannes Jacobus van Rhijn
Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
Church	Old Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Utrecht
In office	1797-1808
Predecessor	Walter van Nieuwenhuisen
Successor	Willibrord van Os
Orders
Consecration	July 5, 1797 by Adrianus Johannes Broekman & Nicolas Nellemans

Early Ministry

Before serving as Archbishop of Utrecht, van Rhijn served as a parish priest in Utrecht.

Archbishop of Utrecht

Following the death of Walter van Nieuwenhuisen, Archbishop of Utrecht, on Good Friday, April 14, 1797, van Rhijn was consecrated Archbishop of Utrecht by Bishop Adrianus Johannes Broekman of Haarlem and Bishop Nicolas Nellemans of Deventer. He was subsequently excommunicated for the act by the Roman Catholic Church.

Death

C.B. Moss suggests that, perhaps linked to the fact that “Napoleon, who was now the real ruler of the Netherlands, [and] was determined to put an end to the independence of the Church of Utrecht,”[1] van Rhijn died suddenly on June 24, 1808. Neale suggests that van Rhijn was poisoned.[2]

References

1. Moss, p. 155.
2. Neale, p. 344.

Moss, C.B. (1948). The Old Catholic Movement: Its Origins and History. Berkeley, CA: The Apocryphal Press. ISBN 9780976402596.

Neale, Rev. John Mason (1858). A History of the So-called Jansenist Church of Holland. Oxford: John Henry & James Parker. pp. 252–260. ISBN 978-1602066571.