Deymann, Clementine
DEYMANN, CLEMENTINE
First commissary provincial of the California fran ciscans; b. Klein Stavern, Diocese of Osnabrück, Hanover, Germany, June 24, 1844; d. Phoenix, Ariz., Dec. 4,1896. He was christened John Henry, receiving the name Clementine after he immigrated to America (1864) and entered the Franciscan Order in Illinois (1867). He was ordained in 1872 and served the Sacred Heart Province of his order in the Middle West for 13 years. In 1886 he was assigned to Watsonville, Calif., where he spent most of the remainder of his life. Because of the distance between the provincial headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., and the West coast houses of his order, Deymann was appointed provincial visitor for the California area. He served two terms as definitor (councilor) for his province and was instrumental in obtaining Franciscan parishes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento. Shortly before his death the Far West was made into a partially self-governing division of the province (1896), and Deymann was named first commissary provincial. He is buried in Santa Barbara, Calif. His works include lives of St. Francis Solanus, Crescentia Hoess, Junípero Serra, and Magín Catalá. A number of devotional works, most of which were written during the 1880s, are also ascribed to him.
Bibliography: m. a. habig, Heralds of the King: Franciscans of the St. Louis-Chicago Province 1858–1958 (Chicago 1959).
[e. burnett]