Bishop Franciszek Hodur (1866–1953) was the founder and the first, and longtime,[1] Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church.
Hodur was born on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1866, to Jan and Maria Hodur in the village of Zarki, 35 miles from Krakow, Poland. He enrolled as a seminarian in Krakow and studied at Jagiellonian University. He left Europe in December 1892 for the United States of America, where he hoped to serve Polish immigrants. Hodur made his way to the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and was sent to the seminary at St. Vincent's Benedictine Archabbey in Latrobe. On August 19, 1893, he was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church by Bishop William O'Hara.[2]
When issues of contention arose between Polish Catholic immigrants in Scranton, Nanticoke, Wilkes-Barre, Plymouth, Duryea, and Dickson City, and their Irish-American bishop, Father Hodur traveled to Rome in January 1898 to seek redress from the Holy See. Without finding satisfaction, he returned to the United States. After meeting with the parishioners he represented on that voyage, he made known his decision not to remain under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church.[3]
Franciszek Hodur was consecrated a bishop on September 29, 1907, by Gerardus Gul, the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, Holland, assisted by Bishop Jan Van Thiel of Haarlem and Bishop Peter Spitz of Deventer.[4] He then served as the first Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church and consecrated other bishops, ensuring the maintenance of apostolic succession.[5] Prime Bishop Hodur died on February 16, 1953, in Scranton.[6] His funeral was attended by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Charles L. Street, suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago, and Bishop Frederick J. Warnecke of the Diocese of Bethlehem, along with other prominent Episcopal Church leaders.