MARTY, MARTIN

Bishop, missionary; b. Schwyz, Switzerland, Jan. 12, 1834; d. St. Cloud, Minn., Sept. 19, 1896. He was the son of a shoemaker and church sexton, Jacob Alois Marty, who had him educated at the Jesuit college of Klösterli at Hofmatt, at St. Michael's College, Fribourg, and at the Benedictine College of Einsiedeln. Marty was professed as a Benedictine monk at Einsiedeln on May 20, 1855, and ordained on Sept. 14, 1856. Before volunteering for the American missions, Marty taught at his abbey, Einsiedeln (1856–60). In the United States he served as prior of the St. Meinrad foundation in Indiana and became its first mitred abbot in 1871. After directing his abbey from missions in the Dakota Territory for three years, he was appointed vicar apostolic of Dakota by Leo XIII on Aug. 12, 1879. His episcopal consecration took place at Ferdinand, Ind., on Feb. 1, 1880. Marty at once attempted to secure laborers for his vicariate. Temporary help came with the arrival of the Sisters of the Holy Cross for hospital work in the Black Hills and of Benedictines for mission work at Standing Rock, the Sioux agency in Dakota. The staff at Standing Rock became permanent in 1880 with the arrival of additional Benedictine sisters and priests. Other workers in the vicariate included the foundations of Presentation sisters at Aberdeen and Benedictine sisters at Sturgis; Jesuit fathers and Franciscan sisters at the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian reservations; and Sisters of Charity (Gray Nuns) at Fort Totten. By 1884 the vicariate had 13 parochial schools and 82 churches served by 45 priests.

After the division of Dakota Territory into states, Marty was assigned as bishop to the new Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D. (Nov. 15, 1889). He convened diocesan synods in 1892 and 1893, cooperated with other western bishops in securing Catholic immigrants, and served on the board of trustees of The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and on the Federal Board of Indian Affairs (1893). Marty had a great interest in the Sioux tribe, which had been placed under the care of his abbey in 1876. He established strong missions for the Sioux on their reservations. Tribe members were encouraged to participate in liturgical chants and to take part in discussions in parish societies and the annual Indian congresses that he originated. Although transferred to the See of St. Cloud on Jan. 21, 1895, he retained jurisdiction over the Dakota tribes. He published a revision of Augustine Ravoux's Sioux ritual (1890), as well as a biography of Bp. John Martin Hennie of Milwaukee, Wis. (1888).

Bibliography: m. c. duratschek, Beginnings of Catholicism in South Dakota (Washington 1943). a. kleber, History of St. Meinrad Archabbey, 1854–1954 (St. Meinrad, Ind. 1954). r. f. karolevitz, With Faith, Hope and Tenacity: The First One Hundred Years of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, 1889–1989 (Mission Hills, S.D. 1989).

[m. c. duratschek]