Peter Joseph Hurth

(30 March 1857 – 1 August 1935) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a diocesan bishop in British India and the Philippines, and a titular archbishop.

Peter Joseph Hurth was born on 30 March 1857 in Nittel, Prussia (now Germany), across the Moselle River from Luxembourg.

On 26 June 1894 he was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as the Bishop of Dacca in British India (now Dhaka, Bangladesh).

He was consecrated to it on 16 September 1894 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame by the Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee, Joseph Rademacher, with the assistance from two other bishops, Henry Joseph Richter of Grand Rapids, Michigan and James Schwebach of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

He left at midnight for a trip that would take him to New York City, to Rome for an audience with the Pope and eventually to Dacca.

[9] On 7 January 1913, Pope Pius X sent Hurth to the Philippines to be the Bishop of Nueva Segovia in Luzon, the largest of the islands.

One reporter remarked that the Bishop had "the rather melancholy privilege of ruling the most afflicted diocese under the United States jurisdiction".

The conditions were so bad – "verily in ruins" – that at least nineteen congregations did not have any buildings to hold their Masses and house their priests.

But, one Saturday, just days from New York City, he went outside for a walk around the deck and a blast of cold air gave him a "heart shock".

[12] Bishop Hurth even felt healthy enough in 1927 to travel to Helena, Montana, and San Antonio, Texas.

In Helena, he was the principal consecrator at the ordination of George Joseph Finnigan, C.S.C., as the Bishop of that city.

[16] In his birthplace, Nittel, there is a modern memorial plaque in the town's square for Archbishop Hurth.