KORUM, MICHAEL FELIX. - Bishop, b. 2 Nov. 1840 at Wickersweier near Colmar, d. 4 Dec. 1921 at Trier. After completing his studies at Innsbruck, he was ordained a priest in 1865 at Strasbourg and taught philosophy and theology at that minor seminary. In 1881 he became bishop of Trier. In 1886 he reopened the Felician Seminary, which he enlarged.
In 1890 he set up a commission of experts to debunk the interpretation put forward in 1876 by Wilmowsky concerning the Holy Tunic, a relic of Christ preserved at Trier. The commission declared that the examination of the relic had led to no result that was in contradiction with the most ancient traditions, and Bishop K. therefore ordered the exposition of the relic itself. More than a million pilgrims gathered on that occasion at Trier, and there were, as K. himself relates, various miraculous healings. When in 1903 a conflict arose between the bishop and the Prussian government over religious instruction, Card. Kopp acted as mediator: K., who saw in this intervention, not entirely favorable to him, a condemnation of his conduct, offered his resignation to the Holy See, but it was rejected. K. played a leading part in the trade-union question, maintaining that it was impossible for Catholic workers to be members of confessionally agnostic associations. At the end of the First World War he worked tirelessly on behalf of the territory of the Saar.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani