High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Joseph Casimir Plagens (January 29, 1880 March 31, 1943) was a Polish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Sault Sainte Marie-Marquette (1935-1940) and then Bishop of Grand Rapids (1940-1943). Joseph Plagens was born in Czeszewo, near Pozna , to Andrew and Constance (née Grygier) Plagens. At a young age he came to the United States, where he settled in Michigan. He earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Detroit in 1899, and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland in 1903.