Rev John NEKULA - Biography

************************************************************************
File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:
Jean Smallwood <jeansmal@ix.netcom.com>

USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free
information on the Internet, material may be freely used by
non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied
material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file.

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations
desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain
the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of
the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent.
************************************************************************

Source:  Centennial History of Missouri (The Center State), One Hundred
Years in the Union 1820-1921, Illustrated, Volume V, St. Louis - Chicago,
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 1921

Rev John NEKULA:  The Catholic ministry has many prominent representatives
in St. Louis and among this number is the Rev. John NEKULA, pastor of St.
Wenceslaus' Catholic Church, situated at No 3018 Oregon Avenue.  He was
born in Moravia, in the province of Austria, now the Czecho-Slovakia
republic, on the 3rd of January 1871, and is a son of Jacob and Catherine
(BROKES) NEKULA.  The father died in 1918 and the mother is still living in
the old home at Moravia.

Mr. NEKULA was educated in the Theological Seminary at Brno, Moravia, and
in the Louvain University at Louvain, Belgium.  In 1894 he came to St.
Louis and completed his studies in Kenrick Seminary.  On the 8th of June
1895, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop KANE and was
thereafter appointed assistant priest to St. John of Nepomuk church, where
he served for five years.  In 1900 he was appointed pastor of St.
Wenceslaus parish, over which he has presided for the past twenty years.
The parish has been built up from about ninety families to three hundred
families and the school has an enrollment of about one hundred seventy
children, making this one of the strong and important parishes of the city.
The membership of the church is composed wholly of Bohemian families and
Rev. Mr. NEKULA is proving a most able leader of his flock, working
earnestly for the establishment of the highest Christian principles among
his people and laboring untiringly for the upbuilding of the church.

Mr. NEKULA belongs to the Knights of Columbus and gives his political
allegiance to the democratic party.  He was sent to Europe in November 1919
by the Catholic National War Council of Washington, D. C., to study
conditions abroad and to lecture in the Czecho-Slavakia country.  He spent
seven months traveling throughout that country, also through France, Italy
and Switzerland, and in Rome made a report to the Pope.  He returned home
on the 28th of May 1920.  While in Europe he crossed the battlefields of
France eight times as he traveled from point to point and gained a most
intimate knowledge of conditions which then existed and of events which had
taken place while the war was in progress.

NEKULA  BROKES  Pope(The Holy Father)

Europe
Czecho-Slavakia
France
Italy
Switzerland
Rome
Brno, Moravia
Louvain, Belgium
Austria