REVEREND JOHANN FRIEDLAND

St. Joseph’s Church, in its present form, is the creation of two men: Fr. Johann Friedland and the architect Francis Himpler.

Johann Friedland was born 1833, in Friedrichsdorff, near Erfurt in the Prussian province of Saxony. He was educated at the Gymnasium of Paderborn, later at the Catholic University in Louvain, and at the American Seminary at Louvain, which was established to train missionaries to the United States immigrant Catholic communities. This seminary was founded through the efforts of a Detroit bishop, and the rectors at the time of Friedland's attendance were from Michigan. In 1880 there were 88 priests in the Detroit diocese, only 6 of whom had been born in the United States.

Ordained 1861, Friedland arrived in New York in 1862, was assigned to Detroit in March 1862, and became pastor 1863. He found a parish of 300 families, a wooden church, and a debt of $8,000, the equivalent of about $138,577 in 2002 dollars. He was described as a persuasive speaker, an amateur art critic, and an able administrator.

After building a brick rectory (1865), installing a gallery for more seating in the old church (1866) and building the high school (1867) Fr. Friedland secured the purchase of land for a new church (1869), and its cornerstone was laid in 1870. The finished building was dedicated 1873.

By 1883 St. Joseph’s was the largest German parish in Detroit, with a thousand families. Several more parishes were established to serve German Catholics: St. Anthony, under the care of St. Joseph’s; Sacred Heart; and St. Elizabeth’s. St. Albertus parish, the first Polish Catholic congregation in Detroit, began at St. Joseph’s, where its first services were held.

Parishioners remembered Fr. Friedland as a friend of the poor who visited those in need throughout the parish and helped them financially with his own funds. Returning from a sick call in early February 1895, he fell on the ice. He died on September 8, 1896 from injuries resulting from that fall. He had taken out a building permit two weeks prior to his death for the stone rectory. His death occasioned a period of public mourning. Thousands paid their respects as he lay in state in the sanctuary of his church. The funeral mass was celebrated by Bishop Foley, and at least 75 priests attended. A crowd of a thousand stood outside the church during the liturgy. Parishioners installed the Good Shepherd Window in his memory three years after his death (1899).