Canonization cause officially opens for pioneering Minnesota priest
Msgr. Joseph Francis Buh has been granted the title “servant of God” and a Mass opened his canonization cause on Sept. 22. The Slovenian immigrant priest served as a missionary in northern Minnesota from the 1860s until his death in 1922, establishing up to 57 parishes and ministering to Ojibwa and immigrant communities. Bishop Daniel J. Felton of Duluth celebrated the opening Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, where Buh’s remains were reinterred in 2025. U.S. bishops unanimously approved the cause, giving it official support for advancement within the Catholic Church.
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Monsignor Joseph Francis Buh, a Slovenian-born missionary priest who served Indigenous communities and immigrants in northern Minnesota, has been given the title “Servant of God” as the Diocese of Duluth formally opened his canonization cause on Sept. 22. The diocesan inquiry will now examine his life and reputation for holiness before sending its findings to the Vatican. 1
Bishop Daniel J. Felton celebrated the opening Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth, where Buh’s remains were reinterred in 2025. Representatives of Slovenia, local Indigenous communities and Slovenian Americans attended; the ceremony also included the first session of the diocesan inquiry, in which the officials involved swore oaths to carry out their duties under Church law. 1
In June, U.S. Catholic bishops unanimously supported advancing the cause after Felton presented it to them. The consultation is part of the Church’s canonization process. 1
Born in Slovenia in 1833, Buh arrived in Minnesota in 1864 after serving as a priest in his homeland. Inspired by the missionary work of fellow Slovenian Frederic Baraga, he served Ojibwe people and immigrant communities, traveling by rail, horse, snowshoes and canoe. He helped establish more than 50 parishes; one account says the total may have reached 57. 1
In 1888, Bishop Rupert Seidenbusch entrusted northern Minnesota’s missions to Buh. After the Diocese of Duluth was established in 1889, Buh became its vicar general and chancellor, and the diocese regards him as its “patriarch.” He died in 1922, aged 88, after more than 50 years of ministry. If canonized, he would be Minnesota’s first saint. 1
The diocesan tribunal will gather and examine evidence about Buh’s life, virtues and reputation for holiness and intercessory power. The diocese will submit its findings to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for review. 1
If the pope later recognizes that Buh practiced Christian virtues to a heroic degree, he could be declared “Venerable.” Beatification generally requires confirmation of a miracle attributed to his intercession, and canonization requires a second confirmed miracle.
Felton described Buh as a model of service and said he lived among the people he served, learned their language and sought to understand their hardships before speaking to them about Jesus. In his homily, the bishop also connected Buh’s ministry to what he described as a period of spiritual revival in the early Diocese of Duluth and in the present day. 1
Felton read a letter from Archbishop Stanislav Zore of Ljubljana, where Buh was ordained. Zore welcomed recognition of Buh, describing him as a son of the local Church who left Slovenia in 1864 with missionary zeal.*
Holiness emerges through missionary service across cultural boundaries
Yes—but Christian holiness is not merely the result of crossing borders or doing missionary work. It is a response to God’s call, lived through union with Christ and expressed in charity, witness, and service. The Church teaches that mission and holiness are inseparable: all the faithful are called to both, and missionary service requires a life shaped by holiness.
Across cultural boundaries, this service calls for both love and discernment. Missionaries should recognize and receive what is good in a people’s culture, while the Gospel purifies and elevates it, rejecting what conflicts with Christian life. This process—often called inculturation—is not simply adapting the Gospel to fit a culture; it is the Gospel taking root within that culture.
Such service can form holiness in the missionary as well as bear witness to Christ among those served. John Paul II describes the missionary as a “contemplative in action”: someone whose prayer and encounter with God sustain a life of humility, charity, courage, and hope.