COLMAR, JOSEPH LUDWIG. — Bishop of Mainz, born in Strasbourg on 22 June 1760, died in Mainz on 15 December 1818. Ordained a priest on 20 December 1783, he was appointed parish priest of the church of S. Stefano in Strasbourg, and during the Revolution and the Terror continued in his ministry, earning from Napoleon his appointment as bishop of Mainz.
He remedied the disorder he found in the diocese through eight months of constant work, succeeding in opening a seminary for clerics and an episcopal grammar school; thereafter, through frequent visitations and ministry, he renewed the religious life of the clergy and the people. He worked for the return of the religious communities, but succeeded only in reviving the institute of the English Ladies. He also founded the institute of the Sisters of Divine Providence. The epidemic of 1813–14 found him among the most zealous and charitable in assisting the sick.
He left a manual of catechetical instruction, Katechismus des Mainzer Bistums (Mainz 1840); and a collection of sermons of solid and profound doctrine (Predigten, 7 vols. [Mainz 1836; Regensburg 1879–84]). His other noteworthy works include: S. Ignati sententiae et effata (Mainz 1808); Statuta dioecesis Magnitinae (there 1811).