Fr. Alexander Hasenburg was born at Cologne, Germany, on May 17, 1872. After studying at Cologne and at the American College in Louvain, Belgium, he managed to complete his courses before reaching the minimum age for ordination. To pass the time, he came to the United States as a professor of languages at Seton Hall College, in New Jersey. Returning to Cologne, he was ordained at the great cathedral of that city in 1897. Fr. Hasenbeurg immediately returned to the United States and spent twenty-three years in mission parishes on the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. In 1921, he was planning to retire and return to Germany, but Bishop Schrembs of Toledo convinced him to move to the Toledo Diocese, where he was appointed pastor of St. Alphonsus. Fr. Hasenburg died on March 19, 1930, an hour after conducting Wednesday Lenten devotions at St. Alphonsus.