Walter Hermanus Jacobus Steins SJ (1 July 1810 – 7 September 1881) was a Dutch

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

and Catholic prelate, who became

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

(1860–1867) and

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

(1867–1877) in India, archbishop ''ad personam'', and third Bishop of Auckland (1879–1881).

Early life

Walter Steins was born in 1810 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Netherlands. He was educated there, at

St Acheul Saint-Acheul is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It is not to be confused with Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens after which the Acheulean archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic is named. Geograph ...

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

and at

Fribourg, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () ...

. In 1832 he entered the Belgian province of the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, was ordained a priest on 8 September 1842 (in

Louvain Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

), and made his final profession as a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

in 1849.

Vicar Apostolic in India

Steins obtained permission from his superiors to proceed to

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

(at that time part of a Dutch colony) but went instead to

where he exercised his priestly ministry until 29 June 1861 when he was consecrated a Bishop and assumed the office of Vicar Apostolic. He founded the college of St Francis-Xavier In 1867 he was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

to become Vicar Apostolic of West Bengal, based in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. He brought to Bengal the French religious order of the

Daughters of the Cross The Daughters of the Cross of Liège (french: Filles de la Croix) are Religious Sisters in the Catholic Church who are members of a religious congregation founded in 1833 by the Blessed Marie Thérèse Haze, F.C. (1782–1876). The organizatio ...

, founded the St Vincent's home refuge and many schools and orphanages. He began also the Bengali mission and missions to the

Santals The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and A ...

and other eastern tribes. Because of ill-health caused by a fall he was advised to return to Europe and he spent time recuperating at

Conflans-sur-Seine Conflans-sur-Seine is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. Demography See also *Communes of the Marne department The following is a list of the 613 communes in the French department of Marne. The communes cooperate in ...

, the novitiate of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Paris.G H Scholefield (ed), ''A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'', "Walter Steins Bisschop", Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1940, Vol 2, p. 327.

Bishop of Auckland

Steins recovered sufficiently to request a further appointment and on 16 May 1879 he was appointed as Bishop of Auckland. He arrived on 3 December 1879 and was 15 months in the country. He died on 7 September 1881 in Sydney, as he was, once again, returning to Europe. Archbishop Steins " ... was a distinguished theologian and linguist; broadminded and tolerant". He attended the

First Vatican Council The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecu ...

in 1870.

Honorific eponyms

Steins Avenue in

Hillsborough, Auckland Hillsborough is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is under the local governance of the Auckland Council. Hillsborough is a leafy suburb of 20th-century houses. The area is serviced by two shopping areas; Onehunga and Three Kings. The area is ...

was named after Bisschop in the early 1980s.

Notes

References/Sources

* E.R. Simmons, ''A Brief History of the Catholic Church in New Zealand'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland, 1978. * E.R. Simmons, ''In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848 – 1980'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland 1982.

External links

''Archbishop Walter Herman Jacobus Steins SJ'', Catholic Hierarchy website
(Retrieved 12 February 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Steins, Walter 1810 births 1881 deaths 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in India 19th-century Dutch Jesuits People from the Auckland Region Clergy from Amsterdam 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand Roman Catholic bishops of Auckland New Zealand Roman Catholic archbishops