page_title: Hans Schmidt (priest)
section_title: Ordination
hierarchical_section_title: Hans Schmidt (priest) / Ordination
caption_attribution_description: English: Mainz Germany Bishop Georg Heinrich Maria Kirstein This Roman Catholic Bishop supposedly ordained Father Hans Schmidt into the priesthood in Mainz December 23, 1904.
context_page_description: Hans B. Schmidt was a German Roman Catholic priest convicted of murder, and the only priest to be executed in the United States.
context_section_description: Although all who knew him had serious doubts about his moral and mental fitness to serve as a Catholic priest, Schmidt claimed that he was ordained by Bishop Kirstein of Mainz on December 23, 1904. In a later conversation with Manhattan alienists, he recalled, "The Bishop ordained me alone. I do not like to speak of it. The real Ordination took place the night before. St. Elizabeth, she ordained me herself. I was praying at my bedside when she appeared to me and said, 'I ordain you to the priesthood.' There was light during her appearance. I told no one. I thought it best to keep it to myself. They would make fun of me. They always made fun of me for these things. They always expect others to do as they do. God speaks to different people in different ways."
  During parish assignments in the villages of Burgel and Seelingstadt, Schmidt molested altar boys, had affairs with several women, and consorted with prostitutes. Meanwhile, Schmidt's creative way of saying Mass and eccentric sermons led his parishioners and fellow priests to complain about him to the monsignor and the bishop. When it became clear that no further parish assignments would be forthcoming in  the Diocese of Mainz, Schmidt emigrated to the United States in 1909. He was first assigned to St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Louisville, Kentucky. There, a rift with the senior pastor resulted in Schmidt's transfer to St. Boniface's Church in New York City.
caption: Bishop Georg Heinrich Maria Kirstein, the Roman Catholic bishop who supposedly ordained Schmidt to the priesthood in Mainz, Germany, on December 23, 1904
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1280", "Image ImageLength": "1824", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2018:01:19 09:23:42", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4107", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "402", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "596"}