June 20, 2004

Retired Bishop James D. Niedergeses celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood May 27 with a Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville.

The native of Lawrenceburg was serving as pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Chattanooga when he was named the ninth bishop of Nashville, succeeding retiring Bishop Joseph A. Durick. He was ordained May 20, 1975, at the Grand Ole Opry House.

At the time of his ordination as bishop, the Diocese of Nashville’s territory embraced all of Middle and East Tennessee. The eastern 36 counties became the Diocese of Knoxville in 1988.
Bishop Niedergeses in 1992

Bishop Niedergeses retired in 1992. Since then he has served as a chaplain at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, continuing an association with the medical center that began in the 1940s.

James Daniel Niedergeses was born Feb. 2, 1917, the first of seven children of Frank and Cecilia Niedergeses. He graduated from Sacred Heart School in Lawrenceburg and Father Ryan High School in Nashville, going on to receive a bachelor of arts degree from St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, and a master of divinity degree from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in Cincinnati. He was ordained to the priesthood May 20, 1944, at Mount St. Mary’s.

He served in a number of assignments in the Nashville area in his first three decades as a priest, including positions as chaplain at the Overbrook School, St. Bernard Academy Convent, and the Tennessee State Prison. He was a professor at Father Ryan High School from 1944 to 1962, serving the last seven years as vice principal. He became pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Chattanooga in 1962—receiving the title of monsignor in 1970—and of Sts. Peter and Paul in 1973.