James Blenk was born in
Edenkoben,
Rhenish Palatinate, to James and Catherine (née Wiedemann) Blenk. Born and raised in a Protestant family, he was the youngest of seventeen children and also a
twin but his twin brother died at six months. In 1866 he and his family emigrated from Germany and moved to
New Orleans,
Louisiana, in the
United States. His parents died only some weeks later and the orphan James Blenk was brought up in a Catholic family. Converting to
Catholicism at age 12, Blenk was
baptized at
St. Alphonsus Church in 1869 and later
confirmed by Archbishop
Napoléon-Joseph Perché. After completing his
primary education in New Orleans, he entered Jefferson College (in
Convent, Louisiana), eventually joining the
Society of Mary (more commonly known as the Marist Fathers) 1878. He was then sent to the Marist House of Studies in
Belley,
France, and completed his probationary studies at the
novitiate in
Lyons before being sent to further his studies at the
Catholic University of Ireland in
Dublin. Blenk was
ordained to the
priesthood by Archbishop
Francis Redwood on August 16, 1885. Upon his return to Louisiana in October 1885, he served as
professor of
humanities,
rhetoric,
philosophy, mathematics, and
natural science at his
alma mater of Jefferson College, where he later served as
president from 1891 to 1897. In 1896, at the invitation of the
superior general of the Marist Fathers, he visited all the houses of that
religious institute in
Europe. He returned to New Orleans in February 1897, and was named
rector of the Church of the Holy Name of Mary in
Algiers. When Archbishop
Placide Louis Chapelle was chosen as
Apostolic Delegate to
Cuba and the
Apostolic Nunciature to the Philippines in 1899, Blenk became
auditor and
secretary of the
Apostolic Delegation. ==Bishop of Puerto Rico==