BARAGA, FRIEDRICH

BARAGA, FRIEDRICH. - One of the greatest missionaries of modern North America and first bishop of Marquette. Born on 29 June 1797 at Kleindorf in Carniola (Austria). Having first devoted himself to legal studies, he later became a priest (1823) and, after some time in ministry in his homeland, departed (1830) for the United States, where he laboured tirelessly among the Indians, first among the Ottawa, then among the Cippewa. In 1853 he was appointed first bishop of Marquette (Michigan), and in that capacity he worked until his death there on 19 Jan. 1868. Besides being an apostle, B. rendered great services to indigenous Christian literature in the Ottawa and Cippewa languages. In addition to many books of prayers, devotion, and religious instruction, he wrote the first grammar and the first dictionary of the Cippewa language, published in English respectively at Detroit in 1850 and at Cincinnati in 1853; these works went through several editions. B. won esteem and affection both from the natives and from the Europeans: several cities and institutions in Michigan, and a street in Marquette, bear his name.