Johannes Theodor Suhr

Johannes Theodor Suhr
The Most Reverend; Johannes Theodor Suhr; O.S.B.
	Bishop of Copenhagen
Diocese	Copenhagen
Appointed	29 April 1953
In office	1953-1964
Predecessor	Josef Ludwig Brems
Successor	Hans Ludvig Martensen
Orders
Ordination	1 April 1933
Consecration	15 January 1939; by Pietro Fumasoni Biondi
Rank	Bishop
Personal details
Born	January 24, 1896; Nyborg, Denmark
Died	March 10, 1997 (aged 101)
Buried	Vestre Cemetery
Nationality	Dane

Johannes Theodor Suhr, OSB (24 January 1896 in Nyborg – 10 March 1997)[1] was a Danish Roman Catholic bishop and the second Danish Roman Catholic bishop since the Reformation.

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.

References

External links

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