Hodur, Francis

Hodur, Francis (1866–1953) religious founder; born in Zarki, Poland. Emigrating to the U.S.A. as a seminarian and ordained in 1893, he became pastor (1897) of a Scranton, Pa., church independently built by Polish Catholics chafing under a largely German and Irish hierarchy; the next year he was excommunicated. Additional groups joined together to form a Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC), which he led, becoming a bishop (1907). The PNCC adopted a Polish vernacular liturgy, among other changes; at Hodur's death there were 270,000 adherents.