St. Klemens Maria Hofbauer als Schutzpatron Wiens, Gemälde von August Wörndle von Adelsfried
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer
Prêtre rédemptoriste en
Autriche (+ 1820)
Jean Dvorak Hofbauer est né en Moravie. Son père meurt quand il n'a que 7 ans, laissant douze enfants en bas âge. Jean veut être prêtre, mais sa mère est sans ressources : il sera boulanger. Affamé de Dieu, il se fait ermite, dès qu'il le peut, sous le nom de Clément-Marie. Des bienfaitrices lui ouvrent le chemin des études et de la théologie. Il s'y nourrit des livres de saint Alphonse de Liguori. Avec son ami Thaddée Hübl, il se rend à pied à Rome et entre chez les Rédemptoristes. Il a 33 ans. Devenu prêtre, il crée et anime une mission perpétuelle à Varsovie durant vingt ans et suscite de nombreux postulants. Il choisissait les meilleurs orateurs et les meilleurs musiciens. En 1806, Napoléon le fait expulser et disperse sa congrégation. De son petit appartement de Vienne, il sera, jusqu'à sa mort, le guide spirituel des romantiques, des intellectuels, des artistes et des étudiants, car il avait repris à Vienne ce qu'il avait fait dans son église de Varsovie. Sur les instances du pape Pie VII, l'empereur François II signe, le 19 avril 1820, le décret autorisant la congrégation du P. Hofbauer. Saint Clément-Marie était mort le 15 mars précédent. Une nuée de jeunes entre alors dans son institut. Il est le patron de Vienne. Il a été canonisé en 1909.
À Vienne en Autriche, l'an 1820, saint Clément-Marie Hofbauer, prêtre de la
Congrégation du Très Saint Rédempteur, qui travailla de manière admirable à la
propagation de la foi dans des contrées lointaines, et à faire revivre l'esprit
religieux chez les prêtres. Célèbre par son intelligence comme par ses vertus,
il poussa un certain nombre d'hommes distingués dans les sciences et les arts à
revenir à l'Église.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/809/Saint-Clement-Marie-Hofbauer.html
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer
l'apôtre de Vienne
(1751-1820)
Clément-Marie Hofbauer
est né le 26 décembre 1751 à Tasswitz en Moravie et dut le jour à de très pieux
et simples parents. Son père, un boucher était tchèque, sa mère était
allemande. Après la mort prématurée de son père, la mère conduisit
Clément-Marie devant un crucifix et lui dit: "Le Sauveur est maintenant
ton père! Prends soin de marcher sur le chemin qui Lui agrée!"
Apprenti boulanger,
serviteur de couvent et étudiant, il s'efforçait sans cesse de se rapprocher de
son grand but: être prêtre. Au cours d'un pèlerinage à Rome, il fit la
connaissance des Rédemptoristes et entra dans cet Ordre.
En 1785, le Saint fut
ordonné prêtre, et après deux ans d'études supplémentaires, comme il était
impossible sous le régime du joséphisme de fonder un couvent à Vienne, il alla
à Varsovie, où il s'occupa très activement de l'Église nationale allemande de
Saint-Benno de 1787 à 1808, surtout comme confesseur allemand. Dans cette
église, on prêchait une sorte de Mission perpétuelle.
Tous les jours on y
prêchait deux fois en allemand et deux fois en polonais. Il considérait
l'incertitude religieuse, si largement répandue, comme l'obstacle le plus
redoutable au renouvellement intérieur. C'est pourquoi il était infatigable
quand il s'agissait de prêcher la parole de Dieu.
Des collaborateurs
s'empressaient de venir à lui, et avec eux, il put fonder de nouveaux
établissements de son Ordre et multiplier son activité missionnaire. Hofbauer,
le propagateur de l'Ordre du Très Saint Rédempteur de ce côté des Alpes, est
vénéré par l'Ordre comme son second fondateur.
De nombreuses guerres
avaient amené à Varsovie la pauvreté et la misère de la population. Le Saint
déploya une grande activité charitable, fonda un orphelinat, une école
populaire pour 350 enfants pauvres, un lycée.
Sur l'ordre du
gouvernement de Paris, il fut conduit avec ses compagnons à la forteresse de
Küstrin, en 1808, et transféré à Vienne après quatre semaines de détention. Là,
ce n'étaient pas seulement des gens du peuple qui assiégeaient son
confessionnal -- car ils le vénéraient comme le père des pauvres -- mais des
fonctionnaires influents et des hommes d'État du Congrès de Vienne, des savants
connus et des artistes.
C'est avant tout
l'influence de Hofbauer qui fit échouer au Congrès le projet d'une église
nationale allemande détachée de Rome, proposée par Wessenberg, et qui fit
rapporter la législation du joséphisme. Le Saint mourut à Vienne le 15 mars
1820.
W. Schamoni, Le Vrai
Visage des Saints, Desclée de Brouwer, p. 259
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_clement-marie_hofbauer.html
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer, prêtre
Jean Dvorak Hofbauer est
né en Moravie. Son père meurt quand il n'a que 7 ans, laissant douze enfants en
bas âge. Jean veut être prêtre, mais sa mère est sans ressources : il sera
boulanger. Affamé de Dieu, il se fait ermite, dès qu'il le peut, sous le nom de
Clément-Marie. Des bienfaitrices lui ouvrent le chemin des études et de la
théologie. Il s'y nourrit des livres de saint Alphonse de Liguori. Avec son ami
Thaddée Hübl, il se rend à pied à Rome et entre chez les Rédemptoristes. Il a
33 ans. Devenu prêtre, il crée et anime une mission perpétuelle à Varsovie
durant vingt ans et suscite de nombreux postulants. Il choisissait les
meilleurs orateurs et les meilleurs musiciens. En 1806, Napoléon le fait
expulser et disperse sa congrégation. De son petit appartement de Vienne, il
sera, jusqu'à sa mort, le guide spirituel des romantiques, des intellectuels,
des artistes et des étudiants, car il avait repris à Vienne ce qu'il avait fait
dans son église de Varsovie. Sur les instances du pape Pie VII, l'empereur François
II signe, le 19 avril 1820, le décret autorisant la congrégation du P.
Hofbauer. Saint Clément-Marie était mort le 15 mars précédent. Une nuée de
jeunes entre alors dans son institut. Il est le patron de Vienne.
Haslach
im Kinzigtal, katholische Pfarrkirche St. Arbogast, Hochrelieffigur im Langhaus
(von H. Spiegelhalter, Freiburg, 20. Jh.), Hl. Klemens Maria Hofbauer
Saint Clément-Marie Hofbauer (1751-1820)
C’est à Tasswitz en
Allemagne que naît Clément-Marier Hofbauer le 26 décembre 1751. Ce boulanger de
Vienne entreprend ses études théologiques. Il entre chez les Rédemptoristes à
Rome le 24 octobre 1784. Âgé de trente-trois ans, il est ordonné prêtre le 29
mars 1785. Avec son ami, le Père Hübl, il quitte Rome pour Varsovie où il fonde
la mission perpétuelle de Saint-Bennon. Chassé par la Révolution, il se réfugie
à Vienne en Autriche. Clément est le grand responsable de l’expansion des
Rédemptoristes hors de l’Italie. Il est souvent appelé le second fondateur des
Rédemptoristes.
Il est resté pour les
Rédemptoristes le symbole de l’espérance, qui fait sa poussée victorieuse,
malgré des lendemains qui semblent impossibles; tout cela, à cause de sa foi et
de sa grande confiance en Dieu. Tout dans sa vie, dans sa personnalité et dans
son activité pastorale jaillit d’une maturité spirituelle, qui en a fait un
pilier de l’Église en son temps. Il y a chez Clément-Marie une ténacité
exemplaire dans la recherche de sa vocation, dans son activité pastorale à
Varsovie, dans ses efforts pour implanter la Congrégation et la garder toute
fervente et vivante, selon l’esprit propre des Rédemptoristes.
Clément-Marie Hofbauer
meurt à Vienne le 15 mars 1820. Il sera canonisé en 1909, et déclaré Patron de
Vienne en 1914.
« La Gloire de Dieu,
l’intérêt de l’Église et le salut des âmes, voilà ce qui me tient à cœur »
(Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer)
SOURCE : http://www.redemptoristes.ca/st-redemptoristes.html
Das Denkmal für Klems Maria Hofbauer an der Minoritenkirche
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer naquit*, le 26 décembre 1751, à Znaim en Moravie ( aujourd' hui en
république tchèque ) qui faisait partie de l' Empire autrichien. La mort de son
père, lorsqu' il eut huit ans, mit cette nombreuse famille germanophone (douze
enfants ) dans la gêne. L'enfant qui songeait déjà à la vocation devint
apprenti chez un boulanger tout en suivant les leçons d'un vieux chanoine, où
il apprit quelques rudiments de latin. Impossible pour lui de suivre des études
poussées. Il pensa devenir soldat, et puis finalement s'engagea comme domestique
dans une abbaye voisine, où il put suivre des cours et apprendre un peu de
latin en vue de la prêtrise.
A vingt ans, il
travaillait comme boulanger de l'abbaye qui avait de nombreux pauvres à
nourrir. Clément-Marie pensa qu' il pouvait devenir ermite ; aussi il partit
pour l' Italie. Il devait passer un an au monastère de Quintililo, où il prit
le nom de Clément-Marie, afin de se préparer à la vie érémitique. Il n' y resta
cependant que six mois, car il comprit que telle n' était pas sa vocation. Il reprit
son travail de boulanger à l'abbaye, mais rêvait de partir pour mieux servir le
Seigneur. Il fit une tentative de quelques temps de vie solitaire; mais
retourna encore à son métier.
Cette fois-ci il
travailla dans une prestigieuse boulangerie de Vienne, où il fut remarqué par
un homme de qualité. Celui-ci finança ses études de théologie et de philosophie
à l'Université impériale, et non pas dans une Congrégation, car la plupart
avaient été expulsées et leur séminaire fermés : Nous étions entre 1780 et
1784, en pleine époque du joséphisme, du nom de l' Empereur Joseph II qui se
voulait le modèle du " despotisme éclairé ". C'était le temps de ce
qu' on appellera les Lumières qui voulaient faire entrer les sociétés dans la
modernité en les soumettant pour plus d' efficacité au pouvoir d' Etat.
Il accomplit alors un
pélerinage à Rome avec un compagnon. Ce voyage fut providentiel : il fit
connaissance de la jeune Congrégation des Rédemptoristes**. Il y fut
promptement accueilli et ordonné en 1785. Il avait déjà 34 ans !
Il passa quelques temps
d'études à Frosinone, puis repartit pour l'Empire, afin d' ouvrir une nouvelle
communauté en Autriche.
Mais les temps n'étaient
pas favorables : l'Empereur qui avait déjà fermé plus de mille couvents et
monastères ne consentirait certainement pas à l' implantation d' une nouvelle
Congrégation - qui plus est missionnaire ! Saint Clément-Marie se rendit donc
dans le royaume voisin de Pologne qui avait été en 1772 amputé d'une partie de
ses territoires, au profit de la Russie, de la Prusse et de l'Autriche.
Il s'établit à Varsovie,
où il demeura pendant 21 ans. Au début, ils étaient cinq prêtres et trois
frères laïcs. La situation était explosive. Le royaume suscitait la convoitise
de ses voisins et la noblesse se partageait en différentes factions. La disette
frappait le peuple et la franc-maçonnerie divisait l' opinion dirigeante, dont
la majorité était séduite par les souverains " despotes éclairés " à
la frontière polonaise ( Catherine la Grande, Frédéric le Grand et Joseph II ).
Peu de temps après la
fondation, quatre de ses compagnons moururent d'empoisonnement intestinal et un
des frères fut assassiné...
Saint Clément-Marie mit
la main à la pâte, au propre comme au figuré. Il développa son champ
d'apostolat et accueillit de jeunes vocations enthousiastes et de nationalités
différentes. Il mit sur pied une cantine populaire et lui-même passait souvent
ses nuits aux fourneaux pour cuire le pain à distribuer. Des exercices
spirituels et des récollections complétaient la formation spirituelle que les
Rédemptoristes de Varsovie offraient aux Catholiques. Quelques grands seigneurs
furent même convertis. L' influence spirituelle grandissante de la Congrégation
provoquait des jalousies...
De plus le bouleversement
de la révolution en France allait avoir des conséquences dans toute l'Europe.
En 1791, le parti
national imposa la Grande Diète. En 1792, le roi Stanislas II Auguste
Poniatowski renonça à appliquer la Constitution parlementaire et se trouva
alors totalement sous l'influence de la Russie. En 1793, la Pologne est à
nouveau partagée et lors du dernier partage de 1795 entre les trois puissances
voisines, le roi est contraint à l'abdication et termine ses jours à
Saint-Pétersbourg. Varsovie devint alors prussienne...
Le caractère pragmatique
et parfois rugueux de saint Clément-Marie le fit se confronter à ces
bouleversements. Il avait ouvert un orphelinat et s' efforçait de semer des
germes de paix spirituelle et de renouveau de la Foi.
La France, à peine sortie
des affres révolutionnaires, avait une nouvelle carte à jouer et voulait
retrouver son rang de grande puissance qu'elle avait perdu au profit des
Empires et de l'Angleterre. Aussi lorsque Napoléon, fortifié par ses conquêtes
précédentes, devint empereur, il se lança à la conquête de l'Europe. Le Saint
Empire Romain Germanique fut aboli, les trônes vacillaient.
En 1807, les troupes
napoléoniennes firent leur entrée à Varsovie et chassèrent les Prussiens.
Napoléon créa un Grand-Duché de Varsovie, tandis que d'autres parties de la
Pologne restaient sous administration étrangère.
Ce fut la guerre totale
entre les puissances, la Russie et l'Angleterre s'allièrent contre la France
napoléonienne, tandis que des germes de nationalisme naissaient dans les
différents royaumes et principautés germaniques.
Comme d'autres
communautés religieuses, les Rédemptoristes furent rapidement souçonnés d' être
favorables aux ennemis de la France. Qui plus est saint Clément-Marie, sujet
autrichien, était un suspect tout trouvé. Malgré le respect et la
reconnaissance que lui vouaient les Polonais pour son oeuvre spirituelle et
caritative, il fut arrêté avec ses confrères et convoqué devant le tribunal.
Les Rédemptoristes furent aussitôt expulsés du Grand-Duché.
Saint Clément-Marie
Hofbauer continua donc, avec l'accord de ses supérieurs, son oeuvre à Vienne.
Il devint recteur dans différentes paroisses et surtout prédicateur parmi la
jeunesse, alors ouverte au mouvement romantique.
Il ne faisait pas de
" miracles " extraordinaires. Sa justesse de ton et sa simplicité
frappaient les esprits viennois, réduits dans leurs ambitions politiques par
l'expansion napoléonienne. Il se tourna aussi vers l'élite étudiante et
convertit même deux illustres professeurs protestants qui devinrent par la
suite évêques : Zangerle et Ziegler !
En 1813, le Grand-Duché
de Varsovie*** sera envahi par la Russie qui y nomma un gouverneur, tandis que
le reste du pays restait ou prussien ou autrichien, mais saint Clément-Marie ne
retourna pas là-bas...Il s'opposait plutôt à Vienne aux dernières velléités du
joséphisme.
Il mourut le 15 mars 1820
à Vienne, sans avoir vu naître la Congrégation des Rédemptoristes en Autriche ;
pourtant l'Empereur, plutôt ouvert désormais à la politique de la
Sainte-Alliance, lui avait concédé la permission, dans une perspective
d'apaisement avec Rome, d'ouvrir une maison à Vienne...
Clément-Marie, ancien
boulanger, homme pacifique, mais parfois ombrageux, fut béatifié par Léon XIII
pour son esprit de concorde et de charité en 1888 et canonisé par saint Pie X
en 1909.
En 1914, à la veille de
la Grande Guerre, il fut proclamé par ce même Pape, l'un des saints patrons de
Vienne.
* De son nom de baptême
Jean l'Evangéliste.
** Fondée en 1732 par saint
Alphonse-Marie de Liguori (1696-1787).
***Cet Etat (le
Grand-Duché de Varsovie), créé après le traité de Tilsit et la défaite des
Prussiens, sera en droit gouverné par le Roi Frédéric-Auguste de Saxe, fidèle
allié de Napoléon, qui laissera le pouvoir au gouvernement de la Diète en 1812,
lors de la retraite de Russie des Français. En fait, Napoléon étant le
protecteur du Grand-Duché, Varsovie sera un Etat vassal de la France, un
résident français supervisant les décisions du gouvernement local, tandis que
les troupes- notamment celles dirigées par le Prince Joseph Poniatowski - sont
fidèles à la France.
En 1809, après la défaite
des Autrichiens, le Grand-Duché s' agrandit d' une partie de la Galicie.
La situation se renverse totalement à partir de 1812. Varsovie est envahie en
1813.
Le Traité de Vienne en
1815 confirme les possessions de la Prusse, de l' Autriche et de la Russie qui
cède la Posnanie à la Prusse. Cracovie devient pour un temps une république
libre et le Grand-Duché se transforme en Royaume du Congrès, vassal de l'
Empereur de Russie.
SOURCE : http://ut-pupillam-oculi.over-blog.com/article-17738645.html
.jpg)
Buntglasfenster
in der Kirche von Oberkreuzstetten, Gemeinde Kreuzstetten, Niederösterreich,
Österreich
Stained-glass
window at the parish church of Oberkreuzstetten, municipality Kreuzstetten,
Lower Austria, Austria
Also
known as
Apostle of Vienna
Clemens Mary Hofbauer
Johannes Hofbauer
John Dvorák
Klemens Maria
Second Founder of
the Redemptorists
Profile
Ninth child of
a butcher who
changed the family name from the Moravian Dvorák to
the Germanic Hofbauer.
His father died when
Clement was six years old. The young man felt a call to the priesthood,
but his family was too poor to
afford his education. Apprentice and
journeyman baker at Premonstratensian monastery at
Bruck, Germany. Hermit.
When hermitages were
abolished by Emperor Joseph
II, Clement worked as a baker in Vienna, Austria. Hermit in Italy with
Peter Kunzmann, taking the name Clement. Made three pilgrimages to Rome.
During the third, he joined the Redemptorists at
San Giuliano, adding the name Marie. He met some sponsors following
a Mass,
and they agreed to pay for his education. Studied at
the University of Vienna, and at Rome. Ordained in 1785,
and assigned to Vienna.
Missionary to Warsaw, Poland with
several companions from 1786 to 1808,
working with the poor,
building schools and orphanages;
the brothers preached five
sermons a day. Spiritual teacher of Venerable Joseph
Passerat. With Father Thaddeus
Hubl, he introduced the Congregation
of the Most Holy Redeemer to Poland.
From there he sent Redemptorist missionaries to Germany and Switzerland.
Clement and his companions were imprisoned in 1808 when
Napoleon suppressed religious orders,
then expelled to Austria.
Noted preacher and
spiritual director in Vienna. Chaplain and
spiritual director of an Ursuline convent.
Founded a Catholic college in Vienna.
Worked with young men, and helped revitalize German religious
life. Worked against the establishment of a German national
Church. Worked against Josephinism which
sought secular control of the Church and clergy.
Born
26
December 1751 at
Tasswitz, Moravia (in
the modern Czech
Republic) as John Dvorák
15
March 1820 at Vienna, Austria of
natural causes
14 May 1876 by Pope Blessed Pius
IX (decree of heroic
virtues)
29
January 1888 by Pope Leo
XIII
Vienna, Austria (named
by Pope Saint Pius
X in 1914)
Additional
Information
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of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
The
Holiness of the Church in the 19th Century
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Roman Martyrology
other
sites in english
Perpetual Mission of Saint Clement at Saint Benno’s
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
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i norsk
Readings
Religion in Austria has
lost its chief support. – Pope Pius
VII on hearing of Saint Clement’s death
MLA
Citation
“Saint Clement Mary
Hofbauer“. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 October 2022. Web. 13 March 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clement-mary-hofbauer/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-clement-mary-hofbauer/
Wien, Kirche Maria am Gestade, Reliquienaltar, Marmor, von Oskar Höfinger, 1987 (mit Schrein mit den sterblichen Überresten des hl. Klemens Maria Hofbauer), im Hintergrund das ehem. Grabrelief des Heiligen (von Josef Gasser)
Maria
am Gestade Reliquienschrein
Oskar
Höfinger,
Autel-reliquaire
de saint Klemens Maria Hofbauer 1987, église Notre-Dame-du-Rivage, Vienne.
St. Clement Maria
Hofbauer
Redemptorist preacher and
reformer. He was born on December 26,1751, at Taswitz, Moravia, the ninth child
of a butcher and his wife and was baptized John. His family name was originally
Dvorak, but was changed to the German Hofbauer. He was apprenticed as a baker
in his youth, and later became a hermit near Bruck, Austria. As part of his
so-called Josephinist policies, Austrian Emperor Jo¬seph II abolished
hermitages, and Clement went to Vienna, where he and a friend, Peter Kunzmann,
received permission from Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli, Italy, to live in a
hermitage. Bishop Chiaramonti later became Pope Pius VII. After studying at the
university of Vienna, Austria, and in Rome, Clement and another friend, Thaddeus
HubI, entered the Redemptorist Order and were ordained in 1785. They were
stationed in Vienna, but Emperor Joseph II closed religious foundations, so
they were sent to Courtland. Peter Kunzmann joined Clement as a lay brother,
and the three were sent to St. Benno’s Church in Warsaw, Poland, to begin two
decades of missionary labors. Clement preached, built orphanages and schools,
and established a vast Redemptorist presence in the city. Napoleon suppressed
all religious institutions, and Clement and the Redemptorists were imprisoned
in 1808, each one then exiled to his own native land. Clement went to Vienna,
where he became the chaplain of the Ursulines and pastor of the adjoining
parish. He became known for his holiness and zeal. He founded a Catholic
college and began to reform and revitalize the Catholic faith of Austria and
Germany. Prince Rupert of Bavaria aided Clement in defeating a move to
establish a German national Church. Clement also fought against Josephinism and
was about to be expelled from Austria for his opposition to such secular
control, when, surprisingly, Emperor Joseph’s successor, Emperor Francis I,
defended him. Clement died in Vienna on March 15. He was canonized in 1909.
SOURCE : http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2677
Bilder der Wallfahrtskirche "Maria in der Tanne" in Triberg Schwarzwald
Blessed Clement Mary Hofbauer
(JOHN DVORÁK)
The second founder of
the Redemptorist Congregation,
called "the Apostle of Vienna",
born at Tasswitz in Moravia,
26 December, 1751; died at Vienna 15
March, 1821. The family name of Dvorak was better known by
its German equivalent, Hofbauer. The youngest of twelve children, and
son of a grazier and butcher, he was six years old when his father died.
His great desire was to become a priest,
but his family being
unable to give him the necessary education he
became a baker's assistant, devoting all his spare time to study. He
was a servant in the Premonstratensian monastery of Bruck from
1771 to 1775, and then lived for some time as a hermit.
When the Emperor
Joseph II abolished hermitages he went to Vienna,
where he worked once more as a baker. After two pilgrimages to Rome he
again tried a hermit's life (1782-3),
this time under the protection of Barnaba Chiaramonti, Bishop of Tivoli,
afterwards Pope
Pius VII, taking the name of Clement, by which he was ever
afterwards known. He once more returned to Vienna,
where at length by the generosity of benefactors he was enabled to go to
the university and
complete his studies; In 1784 he made a third pilgrimage on
foot to Romewith
a friend, Thaddäus Hübl, and the two were received into the Redemptorist novitiate at San
Giuliano on the Esquiline. After a shortened probation they were professed
on 19 March, 1785, and ordained priests a
few days later. They were sent, towards the end of the same year, to found a
house north of the Alps, St.
Alphonsus, who was still alive, prophesying their
success. It being impossible under Joseph
II to found a house in Vienna,Clement and Thaddäus turned
to Warsaw,
where King Stanislaus Poniatowski, at the nuncio's request,
placed St. Benno's, the German national church, at their
disposal. Here, in 1795, they saw the end of Polish independence. The
labours of Clement and his companions in Warsaw from 1786
to 1808 are wellnigh incredible. In addition toSt. Benno's, another
large church was reserved for them, where sermons were
preached in French, and there were daily classes of instruction for Protestants and Jews.
Besides this Clement founded an orphanage and
aschool for
boys. His chief helper, Thaddäus Hübl, died in 1807; In the next
year, on orders from Paris,
the house at Warsaw and
three other houses which Clement had founded were suppressed, and
the Redemptorists were
expelled from the Grand Duchy. Clement with one companion went
to Vienna,
where for the last twelve years of his life he acted as chaplain and
director at an Ursuline convent.
During these years he exercised a veritable apostolate among all classes in the
capital from the Emperor Francis downward. Unable to found a
regular house of his congregation, which was however established, as he had
predicted, almost immediately after his death, he devoted himself in a special
way to the conversion and training of young men.
"I know but three men of superhuman energy", his
friend Werner had said, "Napoleon, Goethe,
and Clement Hofbauer." "Religion in Austria",
said Pius
VII, "has lost its chief support." Indeed it was
to Clement Hofbauer perhaps more than to any
single individual that the extinction of Josephinism was due. He
was beatified by Leo
XIII, 29 January, 1888; (See AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN
MONARCHY, II, 129.)
Sources
His life in German by
HARINGER, translated into English by LADY HERBERT (New York, 1883). Another
life by O. R. VASSALL PHILLIPS (New York, 1893); BERTHE, Saint Alphonse de
Liguori (Paris, 1900), tr. Life of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Dublin,
1905).
Magnier, John. "Blessed
Clement Mary Hofbauer." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
4. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1908. 15 Mar.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04044a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to
the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04044a.htm
Clement Maria Hofbauer, C.SS.R. (RM)
(ne John Dvorák)
Born in Tasswitz, Moravia, December 26, 1751; died in Vienna, Austria, March
15, 1820; canonized in 1909 by Pius X, who named him patron of Vienna in 1914.
"O My Redeemer, will that terrible moment ever come when but few
Christians shall be left who are inspired by the spirit of faith, that moment
when Your indignation shall be provoked and Your protection shall be taken from
us? Have our vices and our evil lives irrevocably moved Your justice to take
vengeance, perhaps this very day, upon Your children?
"We beg You, the Beginning and the End of faith, with contrite hearts, not
to let the light of faith be extinguished in souls.
"Remember Your mercies of old, turn Your eyes in compassion upon the
vineyard planted by Your own right hand, and watered by the tears of the
Apostles, by the precious blood of countless martyrs, and made fruitful by the
prayers of so many confessors and innocent virgins.
"O divine Mediator, look upon those zealous souls who raise their hearts
to You and pray without ceasing for the maintenance of that most precious gift
of Yours, the True Faith. Keep us safe in the true Catholic and Roman Faith.
Preserve us in Your holy faith, for if we are rich with this precious gift, we
shall gladly endure every sorrow and nothing shall ever be able to change our
happiness. Without this great treasure of faith, our unhappiness would be
unspeakable and without limit.
"O Good Jesus, Author of our faith, preserve it pure within us; keep us
safe in the bark of Peter, faithful and obedient to his successor, and Your
vicar here on earth, so that the unity of the holy Church may be maintained,
holiness fostered, the Holy See protected in freedom, and the Church universal
extended to the benefit of souls.
"O Jesus, Author of our faith, humble and convert the enemies of Your
Church; grant true peace and concord to all Christian kings and princes and to
all believers; strengthen and preserve us in Your holy service to the end, that
we may live with You and die in You.
"O Jesus, Author of our faith, let me live for You and die for You.
Amen."
--Saint Clement-Maria Hofbauer
John Dvorák was the youngest of the nine children of a Czech butcher and a
German mother. His father changed the family name from the Moravian Dvorák to
the German Hofbauer. John was raised in a humble, pious family. As a baker's
apprentice and then as a journeyman baker, as a servant at the
Premonstratensian Klosterbruck, and as a student, he strove to draw nearer to
his constant goal: the priesthood. However, neither he nor his family could
afford the cost of educating him for service to the Church. Unable to attain
his goal of the priesthood, he became a hermit. When Emperor Joseph II
abolished hermitages in Austria, Hofbauer became a baker in Vienna.
On a pilgrimage to Rome, he received the habit of a hermit at the hands of the
Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli, the future Pope Pius VII, who changed John's name
to Clement. Thus, he again became a hermit with a friend, Peter Kunzmann, but
found that he was more suited to an active life than to that of a recluse. One
day after Mass, Hofbauer struck up a friendship with two ladies who agreed to
pay for his studies at the University of Vienna and in Rome.
During this second pilgrimage to Rome, Hofbauer and his friend, Thaddeus Hubl,
became acquainted with the Redemptorist order and entered it in 1784, while
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was still alive. At that time Hofbauer took the name
Maria.
In 1785, he and Hubl were ordained; and, after two years of further study, they
were sent to Vienna to found a Redemptorist house, but under the regime of
Joseph II it was impossible to found a monastery in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. During all of Clement's life, the influence of the Enlightenment and
Joseph II's anti-papal Erastianism were at their height. So, the two friends
were sent to Courland.
En route Clement's old friend Kunzmann joined them as a lay brother. At the
request of the papal nuncio, they went to Warsaw, Poland, and, in 1787, founded
the first Redemptorist house beyond the Alps. Hofbauer's untiringly zealous
work in Warsaw from 1787 to 1808 in the German national church of Saint Benno
was profoundly effective, although it was somewhat retarded by the Napoleonic
Wars. Five times each day he and his companions preached in Polish and German.
During his stay in Poland he established other houses, initiated many
charitable and educational (including a free school for 350 poor children, and
a high school) enterprises, preached so well that both Jews and Protestants
were converted, and sent Redemptorist missionaries to Germany (the first house was
built at Jestetten near Schaffhausen in 1802) and Switzerland.
In 1808, the French government had him removed and imprisoned with his
companions at the fortress of Kuestrin, and after four weeks each was sent to
his homeland. Thus, Hofbauer ended up back in Vienna, where he spent the last
12 years of his life firmly planting the Redemptorist Institute in Germanic
lands. His work led to the establishment of the order in Belgium, Ireland,
England, and the Commonwealth. Hofbauer, the propagator of the Order of the
Most Holy Redeemer north of the Alps, is venerated by his order as a second
founder.
In Vienna the saint became the center of a group of German romantics, who gave
a decisive impulse to the 19th century. To this circle belonged men like Adam
von Mueller, Friedrich von Schlegel, and Zacharias Werner. The saint had no
advantage of birth or general education, but he earned a great reputation for
wisdom in religious and social matters.
He worked unobtrusively in the Italian quarter and later was chaplain to
Ursuline nuns and rector of their church. Again, he became widely known as a
preacher and director of souls. Hofbauer's confessional was crowded not only
with humble folk, who venerated him as the father of the poor, but also with
men and women of the highest rank, influential government officials, statesmen
of the Congress of Vienna, leading scholars and artists.
In Vienna, Hofbauer founded a Catholic college and became enormously
influential in revitalizing the religious life of the German nations. Hofbauer
and Prince Rupert of Bavaria even thwarted a plan at the Congress of Vienna to
set up a German Church independent of the papacy. Clement also fought the whole
concept of Josephinism, that is secular domination of the Church and hierarchy
by the secular ruler. Hofbauer was accused by the Austrian chancellor of being
a Roman spy, but the archbishop of Vienna supported him, knowing the value of
Hofbauer's contribution to the Catholic revival, so Emperor Francis I forbade
his expulsion. Hofbauer also tirelessly cared for the sick and the dying and
showed sensitive consideration to devout and conscientious Protestants because
he had a deep understanding of the causes of the Protestant Reformation and its
religious motives among the German peoples.
In 1819, he was mortally ill of several diseases. He died the next year after
participating in the funeral of a notable benefactor. His funeral in Vienna's
St. Stephen's Cathedral was attended by thousands. Soon afterwards the cause
for which he had long labored, the founding of Redemptorist houses in Austria,
became a reality. His friend Werner said that he knew only three men of
superhuman energy--Napoleon, Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer (Attwater,
Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Hofer, Schamoni).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0315.shtml
Eggenburg
( Lower Austria ). Redemptorist church - Stained glass window ( 1935 ) showing
Saint Gerard Maiella, Saint Clemens Maria Hofbauer and beatified Johann Baptist
Stöger,
Eggenburg
( Niederösterreich ). Redemptoristenkirche - Buntglasfenster ( 1935 ) mit
heiligem Gerard, heiligem Clemens Maria Hofbauer und seligem Johann Baptist
Stöger.
The
Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century – Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer
The religious state gives testimony to the Holiness of
the Church by its extraordinary fruitfulness in holy lives during the
nineteenth century. The first and, up to the present (1916),
the only canonized saint of the last century is the Apostle of Vienna, Saint
Clement Mary Hofbauer. We find in him the genuine type of the saint. He was a
man enflamed with divine love, inspired by the ardent zeal of an apostle and
endowed with an heroic constancy in the Faith. The source of his strength was
his intercourse with God. All who came into contact with him were swayed by the
power of his personality. But it was not the influence of natural gifts, it was
the grace of God which he possessed in rich abundance. He had studied little,
yet he spoke with great security and clearness on the profoundest truths of
religion which in his time were much obscured by the so-called
“Eclaircissement.” His sermons were simple, without rhetorical adornment and in
defective German, still he attracted all and moved their hearts. Providence had
sent him to show the world how Christianity must become a living fact in us.
The chief features of his
eventful and highly interesting life will make clearly manifest to us his
providential mission.
Hofbauer was born at
Tasswitz, near Znaim, in Moravia, on 26 December 1751, the son of plain country
folk. The family was numerous and of small means. The father died early and our
saint was obliged to learn a trade, though it was his dearest wish to become a
priest. He served his apprenticeship in a bakery at Znaim and then became a
baker in the Premonstratensian chapter-house at Bruck. Here, at the age of
twenty, he found some opportunity to learn a little Latin in his leisure
moments. But he found the greatest delight in spiritual occupations, so he betook
himself at the age of twenty-five to a hermitage near the place of pilgrimage
called Muhlfrauen. On account of the unsettled state of the times, the
hermitage was closed a year afterwards, and Hofbauer found himself thrust back
into the midst of the world. In search of work he now turned his steps toward
the capital, Vienna, which city was to become the principal scene of his
apostolic labors. Here Providence brought him into companionship with a
like-minded good young journeyman baker, Peter Kunzmann, a native of
Unterfranken. The following year they made a pilgrimage together to the tomb of
the Apostles.
After some years of work,
they again recrossed the Alps, but with the intention of remaining in the
Eternal City for the rest of their lives. On their way they came to the
hermitage of Tivoli and resolved to remain there. The bishop of Tivoli,
Barnabas Chiaramonti, afterward Pope Pius VII, gave them the habit of the
Hermits. But, although Hofbauer felt much delight and consolation in this
solitude, the desire to become a priest ever grew stronger. So six months later
he returned to Vienna to prepare himself by study for the priesthood. He found
friends who helped him.
In the following year he
again went to Rome, this time in company with his friend Thaddeus Hubl, to
continue his studies. On this occasion both became acquainted with the
Redemptorists and applied for entrance into the novitiate. They were the first
Germans who entered the Congregation. The saint did not forget his Fatherland.
He asked his superiors to be permitted to practise there his apostolic
vocation. His petition was granted. After their ordination in 1786, the two
friends returned to Vienna. But here the dominant spirit of Josephinism placed
the greatest obstacles in their way. They journeyed, therefore, to the north,
seeking a free field for labor. They found a friendly reception in Warsaw and
were given the German church of Saint Benno. The city soon learned what a
treasure it had gained.
The amiable father at
Saint Benno’s drew all hearts to him. His sermons were more eagerly attended
day by day, his confessional was besieged. Besides this he went out to preach
in the public squares and gathered the young around him for religious
instruction. It is particularly noteworthy that the young applied to him for
entrance into the Congregation that they might share his labors. A convent of
the Redemptorists was established at Warsaw. In 1793, Hofbauer was made
vicar-general of the Congregation north of the Alps. His renown spread far
beyond the confines of Poland and accessions came even from Germany and France.
With Warsaw as center, he undertook the foundation of new establishments of his
Congregation in Germany and in Switzerland.
The year 1808 brought the
labors of the saint in Warsaw to a sudden end. By command of Napoleon the
convent was closed and the Redemptorists taken to the fortress of Kiistrin,
which was then in possession of the French. After a confinement of four weeks
they were individually sent to their native country, Father Hofbauer bent his
footsteps toward Vienna. His residence at Vienna forms the glorious period of
his apostolic activity. Although he was seized by the police immediately after
his arrival in the city and imprisoned for three days as a suspect and was
therefore under almost continual surveillance, against the power of a saint
even the police are powerless. The modest room of the former baker’s apprentice
became the focus of ecclesiastical life in Vienna. Rich and poor, learned men,
artists, politicians, nobles, sons of princes, simple tradesmen and citizens,
priests both secular and regular, and above all the young, went in and out
getting instruction, advice, and consolation and receiving the spirit of
genuine Christianity. Through the saint’s help innumerable persons found the
happiness of faith. Many Protestants and Jews owed their conversion to him. It
is enough to name only a few of those who came under his influence – Frederick
August von Klinkowstrom, Zacharias Werner, John Frederic Schlosser, Frederick Schlegel
and his wife Dorothea Mendelssohn, Emanuel Veit, Philipp Veit, Adam von
Miiller, Josepf Othmar Rauscher and others. Frederic Leopold von Stolberg,
Clement Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff also had intercourse with Clement
Hofbauer in Vienna.
The saint gained undying
merit by “the promotion of a good press. In this his friends faithfully
seconded him. Whoever really knows the Church must love her. It was therefore
the saint’s endeavor to spread by means of books and periodicals a true
enlightenment among the people, who had been getting only a caricature of the
Christian religion from a rationalistic and irreligious literature. Joseph
Anthony von Pilat, an editor, made a general confession of his life to Hofbauer
and from that time forth his influential paper, “The Austrian Observer” (Der
Osterreichische Beobachter), was consecrated to the service of the good cause.
Especially at the time of the Vienna Congress this paper was a trenchant weapon
in defense of the rights of the Church. That the plan of Wessenberg to
establish a German national church failed, was chiefly due to Clement Hofbauer.
The saint was a true
reformer. He made the world conscious of what it means to act and to think as a
Catholic. His admirable life and the example of his heroic virtue was a
tangible argument of the divine power of our Faith. He died on March 15, 1820,
at midday, while the Angelus bells were ringing. His burial was like a
triumphal march such as Vienna had rarely witnessed. By his solemn canonization
on May 20, 1909, Pius X gave the great son of Saint Alphonsus to the world as
an example of how all things are to be renewed in Christ.
– this text is taken
from The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth
Century: Saintly Men and Women of Our Own Times, by Father Constantine
Kempf, SJ; translated from the German by Father Francis Breymann, SJ; Impimatur
by + Cardinal John Farley, Archbishop of New York, 25 September 1916
2001
bronze plaque of saint Klemens Maria Hofbauer by Zdeněk
Maixner on the house in Znojmo where he was an apprentice in a bakery. The
plaque is in both in Czech and in German language.
Bronzová
pamětní deska na domě, kde se svatý Klement Maria Hofbauer učil pekařem.
Desku vytvořil v roce 2001 Zdeněk Maixner.
TUESDAY, 31 MAY 2011
German
Life of St Clement Online
Papa Stronsay Texts now
links to the Papa Stronsay Library where you can download the German Life of St
Clement by Fr Michael Haringer, C.SS.R. in PDF format. Click on the linked
picture below or use the same image in the left sidebar of this blog to call up
a dialogue box with which you can begin downloading the book, ready to print
out or convert to text!
Prayer of St Clement
O Dearest Jesus, Whose Most Amiable Heart Excludes not even the greatest
sinners when they turn to Thee, Grant, I beseech Thee, to me and to all
penitent sinners, a heart like unto Thine, that is an humble heart, which even
in the midst of temporal honours loves a hidden life, a life little esteemed by
men; A meek heart, which bears with everyone, and seeks to be revenged on no
one; A patient heart, which is resigned in adversity and happy even in the most
trying circumstances; A peaceful heart, which is ever at peace with others and
with itself; a disinterested heart, which is always contented with what it has;
A heart which loves prayer, and prays often and cheerfully; A heart whose only
desire is that God may be known, honoured and loved by all His creatures, which
grieves for nothing except when God is offended, despises nothing but sin,
wishes for nothing but the Glory of God and its neighbours' salvation; A pure
heart, which in all things seeks God alone and desires to please Him; A
grateful heart, which does not forget, but duly values the benefits of God; A
strong heart, which is daunted by no evil, but bears all adversity for the love
of God; A heart liberal to the poor and compassionate to the suffering souls in
Purgatory; A well-ordered heart, whose joys and sorrows, desires and aversions,
nay, whose every motion is regulated according to the Divine Will. Amen
_IMG_0226.jpg)
Klemens
Maria Hofbauer, Büste am Minoritenplatz in Wien
Clemens
Maria Hofbauer- Denkmal, Minoritenplatz Wien
Das Denkmal für Klems Maria Hofbauer an der Minoritenkirche
THURSDAY, 19 MARCH 2009
St
Clement Mary Hofbauer, C.SS.R.
by Rev. Fr Oliver. R. Vassall, C.SS.R.
Chapter 1
From his birth in 1751 until his ordination in 1785
“The Lamp, despised in the thoughts of the rich, is made ready for the time
appointed.” Job xii. 5.
The Blessed Clement Mary Hofbauer, like St. John Berchmans, St. Vincent de
Paul, St. Benedict Labré and so many of God’s greatest Saints, was the son of
poor but respectable parents. They were thoroughly God-fearing people, and
possessed the priceless treasure of the true Faith in all its purity — a
treasure, which they bequeathed to their sons and daughters, as something far
more precious than all the gold and silver that this world can bestow on its most
favoured children.
If then Father Clement was accustomed, in his later life, to say that with all
his faults, he was a Catholic from the crown of his head to the soles of his
feet — “Sum Catholicus totus quantus,” — he would also add that great indeed
was the debt which he owed to his parents for the truly christian training
given him by them; while, like St. Augustine and St. Alphonsus, he loved to
dwell with especial affection on the memory of his mother, whose one anxiety it
had been to instil into his young heart and mind, even from the first dawn of
reason, the doctrines and principles of holy religion.
Our Saint was the ninth of twelve children. He was born on the 26th of
December, St. John’s Eve, in the year 1751 at Tasswitz in Moravia, whither his
father had migrated from the town of Budweis, changing at the time his
Sclavonic name of Dworzak into its German equivalent of Hofbauer. It was not
nineteen years since St. Alphonsus Liguori had laid the foundations of the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in the Grotto of Scala, and but two
years had passed since the great Pope Benedict XIV had approved the Rule of the
new Italian Institute, of which the little Moravian peasant-child was, in the
designs of Divine Providence, destined to be the Father and Propagator in the
countries north of the Alps.
According to the excellent custom of his people, he was baptized on the very
day of his birth, receiving at the Font the name of John in honour of the
Beloved Disciple. It was not until the year 1782 that he assumed at Tivoli the
name of Clement, in order to place himself under the special protection of the
glorious Martyr St. Clement of Ancyra. As, however, it is by this latter name
that he is always known, we shall venture to anticipate matters somewhat, and
shall call him Clement even from the beginning of our narrative.
St. Alphonsus calls the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ “the Devotion of
Devotions,” and indeed not only do all the practices of Catholic piety
terminate in the supreme love of God, but also this is the one great end, to
the attainment of which all that occurs in the life of a Christian should ever
be subordinated and faithfully referred as a divinely appointed means.
The Blessed Clement Hofbauer was but a child when he learned this lesson in a
practical way. He was not more than six years of age when he lost his father.
We are told that the widowed mother at once took her little boy by the hand and
led him to a Crucifix; then pointing to the Image of the Son of God dying in
agony for the sake of sinful men, this brave woman said to her son: “See! He is
now your father. Look to it that you walk on the path, which is pleasing to
Him.” These words remained for all time engraved deep in the very recesses of
Clement’s heart. He never forgot them, and from that hour to his latest breath
his one desire was to serve and love his Crucified Lord with all the powers of
his soul. The love of Jesus Christ became to him, as to St. Alphonsus and to
all the Saints, a passion which took possession of his whole nature, so that he
might have truly said with the Apostle, that for him “to live was Christ,” and
that “Christ lived in him.”
This absorbing love for the Most Holy Redeemer brought with it an intense love
for Her, whom the child well knew to be the nearest and dearest to Our Divine
Lord of all His creatures, the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mother, whom he
knew also to be his own true Mother in right of his brotherhood with God made
Man. He was likewise blessed from his earliest years with a special love for
those in want and misery, since he had been taught that Jesus had proclaimed
all such His visible representatives upon this earth. Devotion to Mary and to
the poor were to distinguish the Blessed Clement to the day of his death.
It is interesting to learn that the Saint, who was in the days of his
Priesthood to use the Holy Rosary as the great means of obtaining graces, and
especially conversions from Almighty God, the Saint, who was a second Dominic
in the zeal with which he propagated this beautiful Devotion amongst the
Faithful, loved his beads even as a little boy and was always saying them. In
this indeed the child was father to the man.
There was yet another thing in which he was, while yet quite young, to show by
what spirit he should be animated when arrived at a man’s estate. Great was his
anxiety, even from his tenderest years to practice a virtue, of which the best
children usually know but little — the virtue of corporal mortification. His
mother fostered this desire by every means in her power — and yet she did so
most prudently. Through fear lest it might otherwise lead to pride, she
insisted that Clement should fast only as a reward at the end of any week
during which he had been particularly good. Accordingly the poor boy used to do
his utmost to keep in check the impetuosity of character, that was his great
natural defect, in order to be allowed to go without his breakfast on Saturday.
When he had once obtained the coveted permission, he knew how to show at the
same time his practical devotion towards his Heavenly Mother, and towards those
who were even more wanting than himself in this world’s goods. He would offer
up his fast in honour of Our Blessed Lady, and then give either the food, or
the few pence, which it would have cost, to any of his playmates whom he
suspected to be hungry.
Such was the Blessed Clement in the early morning of his life, full of love for
God and men, thoughtful and prayerful beyond his years, the delight of his
mother, and the favourite of his parish Priest, who permitted him frequently to
serve Mass, a duty which the boy discharged with the greatest alacrity and
devotion. Thus time passed on until Clement was sixteen, and it was his one
earthly desire to be a Priest. His mother had told him as a child, that God
would eventually bring this about in His own way, if only he himself continued
to be good.
At present, however, merely to contemplate such a thing must have seemed to
many to indulge in the very idlest of dreams. He had indeed attended the elementary
school of his native place, but his knowledge was well-nigh limited to the
little learning which he had been able to pick up on its rude benches.
Moreover, Poverty is a hard taskmistress, and the boy and his mother were very
poor. Thus it was reluctantly agreed between them that he must say good-bye for
the present to all his hopes, and go out into the rough world to earn his daily
bread. Accordingly, Clement now left his home for the neighbouring town of
Znaim, where he determined to follow the trade of a baker, resigning himself
unreservedly into the Hands of Divine Providence, and leaving it to God to
enable him to be a Priest hereafter, should such indeed be His Holy Will.
At Znaim he won all hearts. Especially remarkable was the love borne him by his
master’s little boy of five years old. This child was so devoted to Clement as
to insist on accompanying him on the daily rounds, which he made to deliver
orders to the customers of the house. But, as may be easily imagined, Clement’s
companion could not walk very fast or very far, so in order not to be late at
his destination, the baker’s apprentice would put his little friend on one arm,
his bread on the other, and thus proceed cheerily on his way. When people saw
them they would cry out, “There goes St. Christopher!” But Clement did not know
the legend. So the first time he heard the words “St. Christopher,” he turned
round to see the Saint, only to be thus greeted, “You are St. Christopher.” On
returning home, he asked his mistress what it all meant. When he was told the
story, and learned how St. Christopher had carried the Child Jesus on his
shoulders, the blessed servant of God, giving vent to the secret longings of
his heart, exclaimed aloud, “Oh that I were St. Christopher and could carry my
Lord in my hands.” An aspiration that was one day to be happily fulfilled, but
not yet.
After Clement had been some three years thus employed at Znaim, he went to act
as baker at the neighbouring Abbey of Bruck, which belonged to the Norbertines.
He had not long been settled here, when a terrible famine reduced the people of
Bohemia to the greatest misery, so that, from all parts of the country,
starving crowds flocked to the doors of the monastery to be fed. In this
emergency Clement so distinguished himself by his self-denying charity and
industry, that he attracted the notice of the venerable Abbot Gregory Lambeck,
who after the famine was over, appointed him refectorian, and at the same time
permitted him to attend the grammar school attached to the Convent. Clement
availed himself of these opportunities with eagerness, only regretting that his
duties and studies between them left him with but little time for intercourse
with God. Indeed he felt this drawback so much, that on the death of his
benefactor, the gentle Abbot of Bruck, he withdrew from the monastery, and
determined to serve Our Lord in solitude as a hermit.
To Mühlfrauen then he turned his steps, a place famous as a pilgrimage, and
also for its beautiful church, built by Abbot Lambeck, and dedicated to Our
Lord bound to the Pillar, a mystery towards which Clement was, in later years,
to propagate devotion in Warsaw. With the help of his elder brother Hermann, he
built himself a little cell in a wood not far from the church, where for a year
he lived in the most intimate union with God, supported by the charity of the
pilgrims, to whom he gave good advice in return for their alms, and for whom he
made small wooden crosses to be carried by them in the spirit of penance and
humility to the church hard by.
Clement himself frequently visited the shrine, his shoulders laden by no means
with a small but very heavy cross. On this account he was commonly called in
the neighbourhood “The Bearer of the Cross.”
Soon, however, the irreligious government of the notorious Joseph the Second
abolished all hermitages in the Empire, and thus Clement found himself once
again cast adrift upon the world. He now betook himself to Budweis, his
father’s native city, where he learned Bohemian, a Sclavonic language, the knowledge
of which helped him much, when it became his duty to study Polish, in order to
exercise the sacred ministry at Warsaw.
From Budweis our Saint went to Vienna, that he might, in that great city, find
means of subsistence as a baker. Here it was that full of the love and devotion
to the Holy See, which characterised him throughout life, he conceived the
first idea of a Pilgrimage to Rome, in order to reanimate his piety at the very
tombs of the Apostles.
Clement had formed a friendship with a certain Peter Kunzmann, who was employed
in the same bakehouse as himself. To him he confided his intention, and they
agreed to make the pilgrimage together. As we shall see in the sequel,
Providence had determined to associate these friends to a great extent in the
conduct of their after lives; but little did they dream of the future when they
undertook, on foot, their weary journey to the Holy City. The little money,
that was strictly necessary, they had acquired by the sale of their best
clothes, which were ornamented, according to the custom of the country, with
quaint old silver buttons.
They relieved the monotony of the journey by singing pious canticles, caring
nothing for the ridicule, which they were sure to encounter from time to time
on the road. They arrived safely at Rome, where they spent all day visiting the
Holy Places, and frequently strengthened their souls with the devout reception
of the Sacraments. At length they returned to Vienna, inspired with a new faith
and courage by the thought of the countless Martyrs and Saints, whose relics
they had been permitted to venerate in the metropolis of Christianity, — that
wondrous city where every stone speaks of the triumph of the Cross of Christ
over the powers of darkness, and seems to chant the pæan of the Church of the
Living God over the idols of a dead and buried Paganism.
The visit to Rome did not produce merely passing results in the soul of
Clement: it bore immediate fruit in the holy life which he led in Vienna. He
took up his abode in a house called “The Iron Pear,” close to that Ursuline
Church, of which he was to become rector in 1813. We are told by one of the
witnesses for the Beatification that he had himself heard from the mouth of the
venerable servant of God, that it was his great consolation at this time to
have a church so near to him, and thus to be able again and again to salute his
most loving Redeemer, who there resided day and night in the august Sacrament
of the Altar. Moreover, he went each morning to serve Mass in the metropolitan
church of St. Stephen.
Still, this life, exemplary though it was, could never fully satisfy the ardour
of Clement’s soul. He was consumed with the desire of the Priesthood, but as it
seemed well-nigh impossible for him to become a Priest, he now determined to
follow the counsels of perfection as a hermit. In forming this resolve he was
doubtless attracted by that mysterious love of silence and solitude, which has
so often drawn the hearts of the saints to the all-engrossing love of God. As
then a hermit he could not be under Joseph the Second’s rule in Austria, he
determined to go a second time to Italy to realise his desire. He told Kunzmann
of his new resolve, and begged his friend to share his lot. Clement met with no
refusal, and the two young Germans now turned their backs, as they both hoped
for ever, upon the bakehouse, and a second time did they trudge along the road
to Rome.
After they had fully satisfied their piety by visiting afresh the seven
Basilicas and other shrines of the Holy City, they proceeded to Tivoli, and
casting themselves at the feet of the Bishop, Mgr. Barnabas Chiaramonti,
subsequently Pope Pius VII, they begged his blessing, and asked permission to
establish themselves as anchorites in his diocese. The holy and learned prelate
explained to them the difficulties inseparable from the eremitical life, and
spoke seriously of the obligations of this vocation: but the men who had left
all things for the sake of God were not to be daunted by difficulties, and
professed their readiness to embrace every suffering for the love of Jesus
Christ.
Accordingly Mgr. Chiaramonti, on seeing their good will, granted them the
necessary permission, and after clothing them in the hermit’s habit, gave to
Peter Kunzmann the name of Emmanuel, while John Hofbauer was for the future to
be called Clement Mary, in honour of St. Clement of Ancyra, and of our Blessed
Lady. It was under Our Lady’s special protection that they were both to be
placed, as it was now their duty to care for a shrine of the Holy Mother of
God, situated in the midst of an olive grove, and known as the “Madonna di
Quintiliolo.”
Here dwelt six hermits, each having a little garden attached to his hermitage,
in which he cultivated the vegetables which served him for fare, thus putting
practically into execution the old monastic motto, “ora et labora.” When any
persons passed by, these recluses would knock at the windows of their cells, or
call out loudly. Then on being asked, “Who is there?” they would answer gently,
“La Madonna di Quintiliolo.” At this reply all fears of brigands might of
course be dismissed, and the tired travellers often entered to offer a little
prayer at the feet of the Blessed Mother of the wayfarer, before proceeding
further on their journey.
In this peaceful home Clement lived for some happy months, but God, who alone
is the Sovereign Master of vocations, destined our Saint, not for the
contemplative, but for the active life. The retreat at Tivoli was to do for the
future apostle of Vienna the same work, which the ten years in the catacombs
had done for St. Philip Neri, the apostle of Rome, — the work, which the three
years in the Arabian desert had done for the great Apostle of the Gentiles, —
and when that work was accomplished in Clement’s soul, the Holy Spirit spoke to
his heart, telling His servant that as he had already honoured our Divine Lord
by the imitation of His retirement into the desert, so in the future he should
imitate the Sacred Ministry, to which the forty days’ fast of the Son of God
had been preparatory; — in a word, Clement now learned that after all God
intended him to be not a hermit but a missioner. Therefore he was forced to
tear himself away from his friend, Emmanuel, from his cell, and from our Lady’s
shrine. He did not delay, but after the great Procession which was customary on
the Feast of the Assumption, we find him once again on the road to Vienna.
He went away quietly, not telling anyone of his hopes. In very truth had he
been asked how he expected to realise these hopes, he would not have known what
to answer. Absolutely deprived of human resources, how was he, an unlettered
man, more than thirty years of age, to obtain the necessary education for the
Priesthood? His confidence was in Divine Providence alone, and from the story
of Clement’s life we learn again the old lesson, which seems ever fresh and
new, with such force does it come home to each one of us, that Providence never
fails those who, like this holy man, and like all the Saints have their gaze
ever fixed on the Eternal Hills, with the firm assurance that help will come to
them from the Hands of the Heavenly Father, who cares with special tenderness
for His children, when they repose all their trust in Him.
We have said that it was Clement’s custom to go to Saint Stephen’s Cathedral to
serve Mass; this same church was frequented by three rich and pious sisters,
named Maul, who lived not far off. One day these ladies were kept standing in
the porch by a violent downpour of rain, at a moment when Clement happened to
come out. Seeing their difficulty he politely asked if he should fetch them a
carriage. They thanked him, and on the arrival of the vehicle they insisted on
his sharing it with them. They had already noticed his devotion in the church,
so they asked him whether he did not wish to be a Priest. Poor Clement answered
sadly that such indeed had been his lifelong desire, but that lack of means
seemed to make its realization impossible. The ladies replied that money should
be no obstacle — they would see to that — and they were as good as their word.
From that day forth they generously supplied Clement with all the means which
were necessary for the prosecution of his studies, and thus enabled him at
length to follow the manifest call of Heaven.
Many years later, when Father Clement was living in Vienna, he would often go
to see these good ladies, and always regarded them as benefactresses, given him
directly by God. We may well imagine with what a holy joy they would listen to
the burning sermons, which were preached in the church of Ursulines by one,
whom their charity had introduced as a Priest into the Sanctuary of the Most
High.
Nor was Clement the only poor student helped by these truly Christian women: he
soon brought them a certain Thaddeus Hübl, who was like himself poor, but full
of talent and of desire for the Priesthood, with the result that Thaddeus also
was enabled to devote himself to ecclesiastical studies by these generous
friends. We shall hear much more of Thaddeus Hübl: he was sent to Clement by
God to take the place of Emmanuel Kunzmann, and from this time to the date of
Father Hübl’s death, as a martyr of charity in Warsaw, the two friends had but
one heart and one soul. At the period of which we are now writing, they renewed
in Vienna the memory of St. Basil and St. Gregory in the schools of Athens.
They were ever together, and seemed to know only two roads, those which led to
the church, and to the Lecture Hall.
However, in a certain sense it may be said that Clement’s difficulties had only
begun, now that his material needs were provided for. The university of Vienna
was open to him, but that university was infected with all manner of heretical
and rationalistic error. On one occasion he felt it his duty publicly to
correct a lecturer for statements, that were opposed to the purity of Catholic
Doctrine, and at length, as he found it impossible to breathe freely in the
pestiferous atmosphere, which had been created in Germany by Joseph the Second
and his Jansenist allies, he determined once again to wend his way to the
Eternal City in order to satiate his thirst for sound learning in the centre of
Christendom, where Peter still lives and rules in his See, ever ready to break
the bread of truth to those who are willing to receive it at his hands.
For Rome accordingly Clement set out, accompanied by his friend Thaddeus. They
reached their destination in the October of the year 1784, after a difficult
journey, during the course of which they had been visibly protected by Divine
Providence.
At this time the Noviciate House of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
was attached to the church of St. Giuliano on the Esquiline. When Clement and
Thaddeus arrived in Rome, weary and footsore after their journey, they took a
lodging near the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and consequently near also to the
little Redemptorist church, of which, however, at the time, they knew nothing.
Late as it was, they agreed to go next morning to the first church, of which
they should chance to hear the bells, on waking. The hand of God directed them
to St. Giuliano, where they found the assembled Religious making their morning
meditation in common. Attracted by the sight, Clement asked a child at the
door, who these Priests might be, and now, as God had in the past deigned to
point out His servant Ambrose to the people of Milan by the voice of a child,
as He had spoken of His will concerning the Seven Blessed Founders of the
Servites of Mary by a child, so once again would He, through an innocent child,
speak to Clement Hofbauer. “They are Priests of the Congregation of the Most
Holy Redeemer,” Was the reply, “and you too will become one of them.”
Clement must have been deeply moved by this unexpected answer, for he
immediately asked to see the Fr. Rector of the house, and inquired of him what
was the nature of his Institute: on learning that it was a congregation of
Priests founded by Mgr. Alfonso de’ Liguori, and pledged to labour by means of
missions for the most abandoned souls, great was his delight. This was the work
for which his spirit had been yearning for so many years; now at length did he
recognise the voice of God saying within him, “Hœc requies tua, hic habitabis
in æternum,” — “This is thy resting-place, here shall thou dwell for ever.” He
immediately begged for admission into the Congregation. The Superior on his
side was not slow to discern the divine Vocation, and at once received him into
the Noviciate.
Meanwhile what was to become of Thaddeus? He was, as might be expected under
the circumstances, somewhat annoyed at finding himself thus unexpectedly
abandoned, and loudly declared his conviction that his friend’s sudden decision
was the result of mere impulse rather than of the guidance of the Spirit of
God. Clement said not a word in reply to all these complaints, but spent the
succeeding night in prayer within St. Mary Major’s. His faith was amply
rewarded, for next morning Thaddeus informed him quite spontaneously that he
too wished to become a Redemptorist. The new postulant was likewise accepted by
the Superiors, and soon the two foreigners found themselves safely housed in
the Roman Noviciate, which was then under the guidance of the Rev. Fr. Landi.
This good Religious had been on of the earliest disciples of St. Alphonsus, and
was thus able so to form his new spiritual children, that they might hereafter
carry across the Alps the principles and devotions insisted upon by their
Father and Founder in the early days of the first beginnings of his
dearly-loved congregation at Naples.
While yet in Germany Clement had been much attracted to the holy Bishop of St.
Agatha of the Goths by some of his ascetical works. These books had in the
first instance been lent him by a member of the suppressed Society of Jesus,
the Rev. Fr. Diesbach, who disseminated them far and wide, both as the best
antidote to the baneful system known after the Emperor of the name, as
Josephism, [Vide p.24 infra.] and as a great means of reviving the piety of the
faithful, more especially towards the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar, and the
Immaculate Mother of God.
St. Alphonsus did not go to his eternal reward until the year 1787. He had long
since resigned the Bishopric of St. Agatha, and returned to the midst of his
brethren. He rejoiced greatly on hearing of the entrance of Clement and
Thaddeus into the Congregation; nay more, when some of the Italian Fathers
seemed incredulous as to the possibility of founding a house at that period in
Austria, the aged Saint gave utterance to the following prophetic words — “God
will not fail to promote His glory by their means in these countries —
countries nearly abandoned since the suppression of the Jesuits. Their mission,
however, will be different from ours. In the midst of the Lutherans and
Calvinists, among whom they will be placed, the catechism will be more
necessary than preaching. These good Priests will do a great work, but they
will have need of greater light.”
Very few details have been preserved to us of the B. Clement’s Novitiate; but
the little that we are told concerning it, is most edifying. His fervour and
that of Thaddeus may be gathered from the single fact that they were judged
worthy to make their profession on the feast of St. Joseph 1785, although they
had only been clothed in the Religious habit on the preceding feast of St.
Raphael 1784. The B. Clement showed throughout his whole life the most
unbounded devotion towards the glorious spouse of Mary, whom he was accustomed
to call “the Father of the poor,” and to whom, in accordance with the advice of
St. Theresa, he had recourse in every difficulty. Surely then it was an
additional joy to this great client of St. Joseph that he should have
consecrated his life to the service of his Divine Lord by the three vows of
Religion on the day when the Universal Church celebrates the feast of him, who
was chosen to be our Divine Lord’s foster-father and guardian upon this earth.
The grace of ordination was to follow closely upon the grace of profession. On
the feast of the Annunciation Clement and Thaddeus were ordained Priests as
Alatri. The next day Father Clement said his first Mass in the convent chapel,
and so attained at length the ambition of his life, being at the time
thirty-four years of age. Thus marvellously was justified not only his own
confidence in God, but that expressed by his poor mother, when she told her
child that, should he but remain faithful to grace, Our Blessed Lord would know
how to make him a Priest in his own good time and way.
When we think of the story of his early life we cannot but feel assured that
our Saint will rejoice to help from his throne in Heaven all those who feel
themselves called by God to the sacred ministry, however unpropitious their
outward circumstances may appear, if they will invoke His aid and strive to
imitate the example which he has set them. Prayer, unfailing confidence in
Providence, perseverance in the face of every temptation to discouragement –
these were the means employed by the Blessed Clement Hofbaeur to realise his
purpose. These means have never failed yet, nor will they fail in the future,
those who put their trust in them, after the pattern shown them by him, who was
in his youth a humble baker’s apprentice, then an obscure and unlettered
recluse, but who finally became, contrary to all human expectation, a Priest of
God, and the apostle of two great cities.
On the day of his ordination, our Saint could make his own the words of
inspired Scripture, and say with the Holy Writer, that he “had loved Divine
Wisdom and sought her out from his youth, and had desired to take her for his
Spouse and had become a lover of her beauty.” Amply was his confidence repaid.
If only we, like the B. Clement, are content to repose in the arms of God’s
kind Providence, and strive simply to do His Holy Will, we also shall be able
to bless Him with full and grateful hearts, when we look back on our past
lives, from any of those halting places that are to be met with upon the way. †
(End of Chapter 1. More chapters to follow.)
SOURCE : http://papastronsaytexts.blogspot.com/search/label/St%20Clement%20Hofbauer
Stained
glass window portraying St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, parish
church of Liesing, by Martin Häusle [de] (2006)
Catholic Heroes… St. Clement Mary Hofbauer
March 13, 2018
By CAROLE BRESLIN
It has been said that the
four characteristics of good prayer are that it must be sincere, it must be
humble, it must be confident, and it must be persevering. This can also be said
of the Christian life and a person’s approach to seeking to do the will of God:
humble, sincere, confident, and persevering. St. Monica was certainly all of
these: she prayed for the conversion of one of the greatest theologians in the
history of the Catholic Church for 33 years.
Examining the life of St.
Clement Mary Hofbauer reveals another soul who was humble, sincere, confident,
and persevering in his pursuit of doing God’s will despite the numerous
setbacks he endured during his lifetime of service.
Born on the Feast of St.
Stephen, December 26, 1751, Johannes Hofbauer was the ninth of twelve children.
His parents, Paul Hofbauer and Maria Steer, lived in Znojmo of the Moravian
region, which was part of the Czech Republic. After three more children were
born, Paul died, leaving the family destitute.
Nine years old at the
time, Johannes already had aspirations to the priesthood. His father’s death
left little hope for him to receive the education necessary for the seminary or
to become a member of any religious order.
His pastor recognized the
boy’s potential and took Johannes under his wing and gave Johannes Latin
instruction, but after five years, the pastor died and the tutoring ceased.
Thwarted in his goal
again, Johannes knew he must learn a trade to help his mother. Thus when he was
16, he went to Znojmo to work as an apprentice in their bakery. Then in 1770 he
went to the White Canons in Bruck to work in their bakery. His assistance was
very useful at this time since war and famine had left many families homeless
and hungry.
Johannes had a special
yearning to help these souls and worked day and night to serve the needy by
baking more bread. After five years he decided to pursue the eremitical life.
It wasn’t long before these plans were also ruined when Emperor Joseph II (the
Holy Roman Emperor) outlawed all hermitages, and made so many changes that his
people eventually rebelled against his autocracy.
Next Johannes made two
pilgrimages to Rome and in 1782, he settled in Tivoli, Italy, in the hermitage
at Our Lady of Quintiliolo. Bishop Barnabas Chiaramonti (the future Pope Pius
VII), clothed Johannes in the hermit’s religious habit as he took the name of
Clement Mary.
Clement spent much of his
time in prayer for himself, but also for those in the world who did not pray.
However, after six months, his long held desire to become a priest resurfaced
and he left. He reasoned that while praying was good, he could help souls more
as a priest.
He made his way back to Bruck
where he again became a bread maker. At the same time he restarted his study of
Latin. He also assisted at Mass in the cathedral where he met two pious and
devoted women. These women, learning of his desire to become a priest, became
his patrons as he entered the University of Vienna. He had to attend the
university since Emperor Joseph had closed all the seminaries.
Because of the secular
influence at the university, there were few classes suitable for the
priesthood. Those classes he did attend were laced with anticlerical bias.
Thus, once again, he was frustrated in his quest for Ordination. Furthermore,
no religious orders were allowed to accept new candidates.
In 1784 Clement, with his
friend Thaddaus Hubl made a pilgrimage on foot to the Redemptorist novitiate at
the Community of San Giuliano in Rome. Both men professed their vows as
Redemptorists on March 19, 1785 and were ordained on March 29.
The superior general, Fr.
Paolo, called the two men to his office where he informed them of their
assignment: to return to their homeland beyond the Alps and establish the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in northern Europe.
No easy task, Fathers
Clement and Thaddaus were well aware of the animosity Emperor Joseph II held
for religious. Rather than go to his land where over 1,000 monasteries had been
closed, the two priests decided to begin their assignment in Poland. A former
fellow pilgrim and baker with Clement, Peter Hunzman, also joined the priests
as the first non-Italian lay brother of that order.
They arrived in Warsaw in
February 1787. With 160 churches and 20 monasteries to serve a community of
124,000, they saw numerous opportunities to assist God’s people. Illiteracy,
poverty, homelessness, and apostasy were prevalent. The Masons had damaged the
Church by drawing many away from the practice of Catholicism.
The country also suffered
from successive political upsets, particularly the partitions. Sadly, the land
rarely experienced any time of peace.
The Redemptorists’ first
endeavor focused on boys living in the streets, taking them in, cleaning them
up, teaching them a trade, and catechizing them. They founded the Child Jesus
Refuge — feeding the boys by the bread Clement helped make in the nearby
bakery.
To support their
ministry, they begged with admirable perseverance. According to one story, when
patrons of a pub responded to Clement by spitting in his face, he calmly wiped
the spit away and began again by saying, “That was for me. Now what do you have
for my boys?” A fruitful encounter, yielding over 100 silver coins.
Within four years of
their arrival, the school for boys was expanded and became a boarding school, a
school for girls was opened, and with only five priests and three lay brothers,
they opened the Perpetual Mission. Day and night they heard Confessions, prayed
three daily Masses and the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, offered Eucharistic
Adoration, and preached five sermons each day in both German and Polish.
Reception of the
sacraments grew over by over 500 percent. Soon the number of priest grew to 21
and there were nine men preparing for Holy Orders.
In 1795, they saw the end
of Polish independence.
With conflict surrounding
them, they preached peace and before long the civil authorities attacked. In
1806 they passed a law forbidding the Redemptorists to preach parish missions
and soon forbade them even preaching at their center in St. Benno. In 1808 a
decree of expulsion was signed and they were put in jail until they were forced
to leave the Grand Duchy.
Fr. Clement went to
Vienna where he remained for the rest of his life. When Napoleon subdued that
city, the priest worked as chaplain in the hospital. At the request of the
archbishop, he pastored an Italian parish and then in 1813, he became chaplain
of the Ursuline Sisters.
Fr. Clement became an
influential priest in the Viennese community, converting the rich and powerful
as well as the poor and needy. Repression came once again when Clement was
again forbidden to preach and was threatened with expulsion for simply
communicating with his superiors in Rome. Providentially, Emperor Francis
learned during his visit to Rome about the great work Fr. Clement was doing and
allowed the priest to nurture the Redemptorist presence in Austria.
Before he could witness
such a wonderful expansion, he died on March 15, 1820. His feast is celebrated
on March 15.
SOURCE : https://thewandererpress.com/saints/catholic-heroes-st-clement-mary-hofbauer/
"CARITAS CHRISTI URGET NOS!"
"The love of Christ compels us!" (2 Cor 5: 14)
an excerpt from the life
of the great Apostle, St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, C.Ss.R. and an account of
pastoral zeal and creativity in the face of difficulties--perhaps similar to
some we face today...
To St Benno's in Warsaw
Arriving in Warsaw in
February, the tiny Redemptorist band found that priests were really not lacking
in the city. The small band found their way to St Benno's, in disrepair
and poor in every way. There was a school and orphanage attached and St Clement
had to go door to door begging for funds for these poor students and
orphans. The fathers and clerics lived in poverty and depended completely
on Divine Providence, and they didn't have enough money for the candles in the
church! (The Polish people were very suspicious about these German religious).
Warsaw was sunk in a
cesspool of immorality and corruption. As for all the priests Hofbauer had
first observed when arriving, their presence was of no value. Many, in fact,
were leading scandalous lives themselves.
"Scandal and vice," reads one of Hofbauer's letters from this
period, "have reached their climax here, and one can hardly see how
matters can be remedied. From the clergy down to the poorest beggar, society is
rotten to the core. It is to be feared that God will remove the candlestick from
this place."
Mission Emerges
The challenge now facing
Saint Clement, therefore, was not merely to save St. Benno's, but the city of
Warsaw itself.
It was by such examples that, gradually, more and more Germans and even Poles
started attending church at St. Benno's and providing financial support. Now,
with the school and orphanage on better footing, the saintly Superior could
confront his next challenge--that of converting the city.
Spiritual Rebirth of
Warsaw
Drastic maladies, Clement
reasoned, require drastic remedies. If in Warsaw evil and moral perversity
abounded in the extreme, then dosages of Catholicity in the extreme—if indeed
there can be such a thing—were needed to correct them. The
government at that time forbade the preaching of Missions, the major work of
the Redemptorist congregation.
To extraordinary needs
extraordinary remedies must be applied. This was the simple logic which gave
birth to the "Perpetual Mission " at St. Benno's. The Fathers
were not permitted to go about from place to place or from church to church
giving Missions. Sermons in public places, according to the Italian custom, on
market days, which were essayed by Hofbauer, were expressly forbidden by the
Prussian Government.
Another way of laboring
for the salvation of the people in the city, had to be devised he curtly and
dryly remarked in a report to Father General. He made St. Benno's his
headquarters, and endeavored to compensate the people for the loss of the
occasional mission by conducting a " Perpetual Mission" in his
own church. Here we have one of the greatest examples of pastoral zeal
and creativity in the Church's history.
The Perpetual Mission at
St Benno's
The spiritual labors of
the Fathers at St. Benno's were remarkably fruitful during these years of
political changes. The sentiments of the people had gradually undergone a
complete transformation. They were soon convinced that the foreign Religious at
St. Benno's entertained no national or political aims, but were concerned only
about the salvation of neglected youth. Once the people became convinced of
this, their changed attitude was soon in evidence.
The great turning point
in the history of St. Benno's, however, dates from the days of terror in 1794.
Hofbauer mentions in one of his letters that their church was overcrowded from
day to day. Soon the Fathers were in greater demand by the Poles than by
the Germans, although at that time only Podgorski, an angelic young priest,
delivered short Polish sermons to the people. At this time, too, more Poles
were applying for admission into the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
At the beginning of 1795,
the Community numbered eight Fathers, all of whom were Germans. Two of the five
clerics, however, and four of the seven novices, were Poles, and there were two
Polish juvenists. The people had come to recognize their apostle. St.
Benno's was no longer, as a few years previously, an almost isolated German
national church: it was now the very heart and center of religious
life, not only for the whole city, but for its environs as well.
The People Respond To
Holiness
No more convincing
evidence of this change can be cited than the unusual and sudden increase in
the number of Communions in a year - from two thousand in the first year to
twenty thousand, in 1796, and over one hundred thousand since 1800.
The church, which seated
about one thousand persons, was greatly overtaxed on Sundays. Those who could
not find place within the church stood praying outside in the cemetery or in
the street. New devotions and services, such as frequent novenas, were
introduced. Hardly a day in the week passed without a High Mass and special
sermon. The Poles are fond of long and solemn services. Hofbauer had his
reasons for complying generously with this wish of the poor and downtrodden
people. In 1800, the development of the order of divine services at St. Benno's
reached its climax in the so-called " Perpetual Mission," which
became renowned far beyond the limits of Warsaw.
Sublime Extravagance
Details were arranged,
not haphazardly, but with due consideration for the temperament of the people
and the needs of the hour. Solemnity and magnificence were of prime
importance. The means flowed in abundantly. The days when Hofbauer had to
complain that candles, oil, and wine could hardly be provided for the church,
were now to be no more. The rich and the poor contributed to the church with
openhanded liberality, and the donations kept pace with current expenses. And
these expenses were by no means slight, for the lively faith of the Saint
considered no expenditure too great, no splendor superfluous, when there was
question of enhancing the beauty of divine service or observing the prescribed
liturgy of the Church.
Instead of moving from
place to place, Clement decided that at St Benno's he would offer the Mission
continuously, all day, every day. An incredible work began;
something unrivalled in the history of the Church perhaps....certainly one of
the most creative and most innovative and daring ventures, yet so firmly rooted
in the faith and the Tradition of the Catholic Church!
We shall let St. Clement,
the founder of this glorious work, speak for himself. In a report prepared for
the Nuncio at Vienna, in 18O2, Hofbauer briefly states the order of the
divine services:
"On all Sundays and
holy days there is a sermon at five o'clock in the morning for servants,
who cannot attend the divine service at a later hour. For their
convenience Holy Mass is said immediately after the sermon.
Every day at six o'clock
there is a Mass of Exposition, during which the people chant hymns. After the
Mass an instruction is given in Polish. During these instructions and sermons
Masses are constantly being said, so that those who do not understand Polish or
German, or who have not the time to remain for a sermon, may not be deprived of
the Holy Sacrifice.
Every day at eight
o'clock there is a High Mass with Plain Chant, after which there are two
sermons—the first in Polish and the second in German. Then the school children
come to the church, and the Solemn High Mass with musical accompaniment is
celebrated.
In the afternoon at three
o'clock the confraternities chant the Office of the Blessed Virgin. At four
o'clock there is a German sermon, followed by Vespers solemnly chanted, and
followed in turn by a Polish sermon. Finally there is a visit to the Blessed
Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin publicly made with the faithful.
Every day at five o'clock
there is a German sermon. Then follow in order, a Visit to the Blessed
Sacrament, a sermon in Polish, the Way of the Cross, and congregational singing
of hymns in honor of the Passion of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Lastly there is an
Examination of Conscience for the people, the Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity
are made, a short sketch of the life of the saint whose feast is celebrated on
the morrow is read, and then the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is recited,
after which the people are dismissed and the church is closed."
This was the daily routine
at St. Benno's for years! Imagine the continuous feast of the Word of God
and the Sacraments and of Prayer and Devotion, every day for 10 years! Imagine
the immense outpouring of grace and of the Holy Spirit in this continual,
perpetual Mission!
The Beauty of Holiness
On the more solemn feasts
processions were held. A contemporary enthusiastically describes these
impressive ceremonies:
"Most
magnificent," he writes, " was especially the Corpus Christi
procession. . . . It differed in no way from other processions of this kind,
except that there was no booming of cannon. But the stirring sermons that were
delivered on this occasion in both languages not only resounded in the ears,
but sank into the very souls of the hearers.
The church and its
surroundings were literally covered with candles and flowers; twelve acolytes
carried censers and incense, a host of boys clad in white and gold, strewed
flowers before the Blessed Sacrament. The priests, who walked immediately
before the Blessed Sacrament, wore their richest vestments.
The outstanding feature
of the solemnity, however, was the canopy, which was carried by six men of the
nobility. Princesses and other ladies of the noblest families had worked it. It
was embroidered with flowers and with fires symbolic of the Holy Eucharist. Its
gold ornamentation alone was valued at three thousand florins.
A troop of young men,
clad in silver and gold, and representing the cherubim of heaven, followed
after the canopy, under which the celebrant held aloft in view of the
worshiping throngs the God of our altars. On account of the limited space, only
fifty of the most devout and respectable members of the Young Ladies' Sodality
were chosen to take part in the procession. Many of these had taken the vow of
chastity. They were clothed in white, wore red sashes, were without vain
ornaments, carried lighted candles, and marched under the Sodality banner borne
by one of the members.
During the Mass these
young women, with lighted candles in their hands, received Holy Communion
from Father Hofbauer, who always conducted the entire ceremony himself. The
procession was preceded by a sermon and the High Mass, and followed by a short
exhortation, whereupon the Te Deum was chanted and Benediction given.
At the Blessing all bowed
down to the ground, holding only their candles aloft, and the national colors
were dipped in a triple salute to the Blessed Sacrament."
Popular Piety and
Devotion
All this display of pomp
and splendor was inspired chiefly by considerations of a pastoral nature. The
Saint remarked on one occasion later on, that if one wishes to win over a
people to God, ignorant of so many basics of the faith, one should surround the
divine services and all public devotions with all possible grandeur and
solemnity. "The public ceremonies of the Church," he would
say, "draw the hearts of the people by their pomp and
magnificence, and by degrees win them over in spite of their prejudices; the
people hear with their eyes more than with their ears: they are at first
captivated, then captured by the sight. This I experienced again and again at
Warsaw.
Indeed he did! From the
highest ranks of nobility to the poorest classes of society, they thronged St.
Benno's—Germans and Poles alike. And not only Catholics, but Protestants, and
Jews as well, whose conversions came in remarkable numbers.
Repentance and the Word
of God
The pulpit and the
confessional he always regarded as the principal arena of the priest's
activity. During all the divine services, therefore, Fathers were to be found
in the confessionals, which were invariably thronged with penitents. Many of
these persons journeyed for twenty hours to St. Benno's, in order to make their
peace with God.
Catechetical instructions
formed the very soul of the "Perpetual Mission" Hofbauer's zeal
manifested itself particularly in the pulpit. He never wearied of preaching.
The admonition of St. Paul, to "preach, exhort, in season and out of
season," he obeyed to the very letter; for he was firmly convinced,
that in many of the Christian countries of Europe the Gospel had to be preached
anew.
The sermon-topics at St.
Benno's were arranged according to the seasons of the ecclesiastical year, so
that in the course of a year the entire field of Catholic teaching on faith and
morals was covered. Most of the sermons, amounting to about two thousand in
the course of the year, allowed thorough and detailed treatment of their
subject-matter. And sermons in those days were long and full, and not
like so many of the "sermonettes" we hear today......(St Clement may
well have known the truth of the saying "sermonettes make for
christianettes!" St Clement, as a true Redemptorist, in the spirit
of St Alphonsus Liguori, knew the centrality of the Word of God in any
authentic Christian life).
As these sermons were
delivered in both languages, German and Polish, a double mission was in
progress throughout the year. To many of the people, however, St. Benno's
served as a mission in the stricter sense of the term, becoming to them a spiritual
awakening, a season of extraordinary grace, and a rare opportunity of making
sure their election and salvation.
Beyond Minimalism!
This was especially true
of those who came from a distance and remained in the city for a short time.
These, after attending the exercises for three, five, or eight days, returned
to their homes renewed in spirit. The people of the city who visited St.
Benno's daily, there received safe and systematic guidance in the spiritual
life and in the ways of perfection, for the Fathers were not content to see the
people observing merely the absolutely essential precepts of Christianity; they
were concerned about, and as earnestly inculcated, also those lesser practices
which make for the upbuilding of the interior man and are the stepping-stones
to the devout life.
Accordingly, the faithful
were trained to a deep religious, interior piety. Not only was the daily
examination of conscience made with them, but during the Ember Days one day was
set aside as a day of recollection or retreat, and once a year the Spiritual
Exercises were held for eight days.
If the whole city was to
be renewed in spirit, it was not sufficient that only individuals here and
there should again be brought to the fulfilment of themost necessary duties of
a Christian, but a class of Catholics must be created, who would in turn, as so
many Apostles, be able to influence those with whom they came in contact.
The people were wont to
say: " At St. Benno's the year passes by like a single day."
What Hofbauer intended by
this abundance of sermons and devotions was very laudable and necessary,
namely, the thorough and lasting conversion of a city people that had become
morally and religiously perverted. There may be diverse opinions about details,
but in the main the " Perpetual Mission " at St. Benno's
will ever remain a classical example of pastoral work in the care of souls in
large cities.
In this radical departure
from the antiquated and traditional order of divine services, which may meet
the demands of the patriarchal conditions of a small country parish but does
not come up to the requirements of a large city; in this praiseworthy endeavor
every day and every hour to render it convenient for classes of people in
cities so variously employed, to attend instructions in the faith and to
receive the sacraments: will be seen nowadays, more than in those times, the
ideal for the cure of souls in large cities--an ideal that is impracticable
only on account of conditions in general.
In the final analysis,
the Saint, with a deep knowledge of his times, did nothing more than adapt his
pastoral work for the care of souls to those times. He set up an extraordinary
program of spiritual aids to meet the needs and dangers, altogether new, of
more recent times in church and religious matters. Where there was question of
eternity and the salvation of souls, he knew no conservatism and no misplaced
affection for old customs, but was ever ready for timely innovations.
The "Lay
Apostolate", the "Apostolate of the Pen"
To expand and perpetuate
this spiritual rebirth in Warsaw, Hofbauer not only organized sodalities and
confraternities, but he established the Congregation of Oblates, who would
carry the apostolic missionary spirit of the Institute into all segments of
society. Its members were selectively chosen from the most exemplary and
devoted followers, and were permitted to wear habits and participate with the
Religious Community in the Divine Office.
With the help of these
Oblates, a small printing plant was also operated at the Institute. Religious
writings were published and disseminated as a means of further increasing the
community's outreach.
And reading the life of
this apostolic saint, we see many other means employed, inside the church
itself and outside "in the world" to bring all things together in
Christ, springing from a heart compelled by the charity of Christ.
Fruitful in Vocations
And, of course, there
were new vocations. By 1802, the religious community had grown to
fourteen priests, six clerics, four lay brothers, and two novices. The most
notable of these was Joseph Constantine Passerat, who had fled revolutionary
France to join with our saint. Extraordinarily holy amongst even the most
extraordinarily holy Religious at St. Benno's, Father Passerat lived in a state
of constant prayer and meditation, which Saint Clement himself stated he envied.
Now honored by the Church as Venerable, his cause for canonization was
introduced at the beginning of this century.
Thus, within eight years
of the Redemptorists' arrival in this decadent city, Warsaw witnessed a
stunning revival of spiritual life in many portions of its society. And the
center of all this new spiritual vitality was St. Benno's. And largely
thanks to the pastoral zeal and love of St Clement Mary Hofbauer, an apostle
with a steadfast, childlike faith and a soaring vision, and a creativity of the
Spirit, bringing out of the great Catholic storehouse treasures both new and
old.
Perhaps this saint should
be better known and could be one of the major patrons of the "new
evangelization." St Clement Mary said that in the countries of Europe
"the gospel must be preached anew!" May this saint inspire many
to follow in his path: zeal, creativity, and great fidelity to Christ and His
Church!
For more on this
remarkable apostolate of this great saint, see St
Clement Maria Hofbauer: the Preacher.
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20050307043311/http://www.praiseofglory.com/redemptorist/stbenno.htm
Socha
sv. Klementa Maria Hofbauera u kostela Navštívení Panny Marie v Hlubokých
Mašůvkách, okr. Znojmo.
Statue
of Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer near Church of the Visitation of Our Lady in
Hluboké Mašůvky, Znojmo District.
ST. CLEMENT HOFBAUER AND
THE CATHOLIC MOVEMENT
THE CATHOLIC MOVEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
FOUNDING OF THE KLINKOWSTROEM EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE (1818)
(from St. Clement
Maria Hofbauer: A Biography translated from the German original written by
Rev. John Hofer, CSSR. Sub-Headings added by webservant)
An anti-Catholic
environment: the state's "Josephism" applied many anti-Catholic
principles, the "Illuminati" rejected Catholic teachings
The Hofbauer Circle, by
reason of the active part it took in solving the problems of the German Church,
came very near assuming an aspect that was at once political and
ecclesiastical. The Szechenyi Club, if we may be permitted to call this group
by the name which the police-reports gave it, in consequence of its concerted
action in the interests of religion, may indeed be designated as the first
modest attempt at forming a Catholic political party in Austria, in so far as
one can speak at all of distinct political parties at that time.
For the formation of such
a party, it was quite sufficient to band together such men of principle and
energy as Schlegel and Pilat. Metropolitan Vienna, accustomed as it was to
seeing religion scorned and flouted by the "Illuminati" and the
supporters of Josephism, must have stood aghast with amazement on finding such
men of rank and distinction stepping forth into the public arena as the
champions of religious principle and the rights of the Church.
It is not surprising,
therefore, to learn that the flippant Metternich ridiculed the men who flocked
about Hofbauer and Penckler as "ecclesiastical Chateaubriands." An
interchange of letters between Gentz and Pilat during the year 1815, reveals
very clearly what the learned circles of Austria generally thought of the
ecclesiastical fervor of these men. Gentz was at this time with Metternich in
Paris, taking part in the peace negotiations. Pilat had written to consult him
upon certain questions of an ecclesiastical nature. Gentz showed the letter to
Metternich, who merely pitied the religious eccentricity of Pilat. Gentz,
however, frankly voices his apprehension.
"When I consider how
far you are driving these things," he writes, "and when I see that
nothing else seems to interest you, I begin to have my serious fears for
you. It is, I admit, a great blessing to have found a safe anchor to which the
soul can cling in the midst of the wild waves and violent tempests of the
world. Nevertheless, I fear that this blessing will ultimately prove a fatal
misfortune for you; for so tenaciously are you clinging to that which should
ennoble, sweeten, and sanctify life, that life itself not only must become a
burden to you, but is evidently slipping away from you. Why trouble yourself
continually with affairs that concern the Church? Do not misunderstand me. I am
far from trying to tear you away from religion -- God forbid that I should! But
it is none the less true, that the layman, no matter how religious he may be,
should leave the Church, as such, in the hands of those whose duty it is to
take care of it. . . . You are not in this world to spend all your energies for
the Church, at least not for the visible Church. If the Church is to continue
to exist, it will surely exist without you; all your efforts to support and
preserve it will be vain and unnecessary. The fact is, that no one listens to
your utterances, and your indiscretions are forever placing your friends in the
painful alternative of drawing the veil over everything you say, write, or do
in these matters, or of exposing themselves to ridicule and bitter
contempt."
Gentz was a freethinker;
but what he here wrote is precisely the view-point which the educated Catholic
with a leaning toward the tenets of the " Illuminati " took of things
at that time. An incredible flouting of the essential visible character of the
Church and of the authority of its Head, the Pope, especially among educated
classes; crass ignorance of their own duties and of the purpose of their
existence, while outwardly and nominally they adhered in a general way to the
Christian religion -- these things appear to us to have been typical of those
who passed for Catholics in the Josephist era. In trying to avoid this
precipice Pilat may have exceeded the bounds of prudence in an opposite
direction, as is frequently the case with fervent converts; beyond this, it is
needless to comment further on the principles which Gentz here enunciates.
Pilat was correct when he
complained to the Countess Fuchs: "Gentz would gladly cling to religion in
certain solemn moments, but thereafter cast it aside again for weeks and
months. He thinks that nothing more than this is required. But this will not
do. In this sacred matter more than in any other are those words true: 'He that
is not with Me is against Me.' To regard religion as a festive garment
which one wears an Sunday and then lays aside for the rest of the week, is the
great misfortune into which so many persons fall even many who are naturally
drawn to religion."
A wholistic approach to
Religion
No better proof than
these words is needed to show that the ideal genuine Catholic life, as Hofbauer
constantly strove to inculcate it, and as his friend Adam Mueller with
admirable clearness and irrefutable logic defended it in the literary field,
was beginning to be grasped by a small select group of the laity. That ideal,
briefly, was: Religion must not be restricted to the sphere of the individual
only, but must pervade and leaven everything and everybody -- the individual,
the State, society, and mankind in general.
This little Catholic
group could not, of course, reckon upon achieving external, tangible results at
once. A spiritual regeneration, making the State once again Christian and
restoring sympathetic relations between Church and State, was undoubtedly
Austria's most urgent need in those days; but that was still a far-distant
prospect. The Josephist Bureaucracy was still too firmly entrenched in power.
The following report which Severoli sent to Consalvi, the Papal Secretary of
State, on October 10, 18l5, throws some light on the situation:
"I have bad a long
conversation with Pilat. The doctrines now being endorsed and set forth at the
University, which are more vitiated and dangerous than ever before, formed our
principal topic. He assured me that he himself, both in his private capacity as
an individual citizen, and as a statesman, had written to the Emperor
concerning this very vital matter, placing before His Majesty not merely the
general facts of the case, but the particulars bearing upon it. Again and
again, he tells me, he very frankly warned the Emperor of the necessity of
restraining, by means of concerted action with the Holy Father, the arrogance
of these teachers, who are now glorying in the triumph of falsehood. He is of
the opinion that the only real remedy for the evil we deplore is to be found in
a visit of the Emperor to Rome. Pilat declares that no better heart than
His Majesty's beats in any man's breast. If he is deaf to the remonstrances of
all those who happen to differ from his counselors, it is because he has been
prejudiced by wrong impressions, and because even the utterances of the Bishops
resemble a hopeless confusion of tongues. . . . But His Majesty's reverence for
the Holy Father is remarkably deep and sincere, and Pilat hopes that the credit
for opening the Emperor's eyes to the light will go to His Holiness."
But a meeting with the
Pope, on the occasion of the Emperor's journey to Italy, in 1815, was
frustrated, and for many years thereafter the leading personages surrounding
the Austrian monarch's throne continued to be confirmed Josephists.
The Catholic Movement
around Hofbauer
A Catholic Movement, in
the political sense, did not become possible in Austria until the year 1848;
nevertheless, the beginnings of such a movement in other departments were
distinctly noticeable during the last years of Hofbauer's life. To summarize
here what remains to be told of our narrative, we need merely direct the
reader's attention to four outstanding facts.
At the University of Vienna
a strong undercurrent of Catholic thought and activity was undeniably at work
since the time of the Congress, not only in a portion of the student body, but
even among the Professors. Simultaneously, an unmistakable Catholic tendency
was revealed in the literature of Austria. Furthermore, Hofbauer, through the
kind offices of his friends, succeeded in establishing for the sons of the
nobility an Educational Institute which was conducted according to strictly
Catholic principles -- a project which had been attempted with such disastrous
results under Adam Mueller.
Finally, this period
witnessed the first step toward the virtual repeal of the Josephist legislation
against the conventual life, when Hofbauer obtained legal approbation for the
admission of his Congregation into Austria. All these and other things which in
the aggregate constituted the Catholic movement of those days, cannot, of
course, be attributed exclusively to the credit of our Saint.
No detailed account of
Catholic intellectual life in the Vienna of those days can pass over in silence
the names of those who labored with Hofbauer; and no such account can ignore
certain conditions that concurred toward the success of his undertakings.
But unquestionably it was he that had the greatest part in starting the
movement; while all such tendencies toward this movement as leaped into
existence without his direct cooperation gravitated toward him as to their
natural center.
It was Hofbauer that kept
these tendencies and the whole movement alive, fostering, strengthening, and
uniting them into one mighty impulse of uniform and concerted action. What
Frederick Werner, who became a Catholic without Hofbauer's aid, said of himself
-- "I became truly Catholic only through Father Hofbauer" --
may be said of the entire Catholic movement in those years. Laudable tendencies
toward such a movement existed in Austria at the time; but it was Hofbauer that
fostered and developed them and gave them the first fruits of success.
Awakening among some
students
What has just been said
applies particularly to the movement, alluded to in the foregoing paragraph,
among the student-body in Vienna. Similar phenomena occurred in various other
Universities of those days, as well as in the University of Vienna. The
thrilling events of the War of Independence had shocked many youthful minds
from their lethargy, awakening, inspiring, and ennobling them; and the
philosophy of the " Illuminati," having reached the meridian of its
usurped glory, now began noticeably to decline.
The good common sense and
sound judgment of the faithful people, from whom the young academic students in
large measure were drawn, leaped to the fore and reasserted itself. Dr. John
Ringseis, in his memoirs of the student-body at Landshut, of which he had been a
member, asserts that as they at first had all united in arguing themselves into
unbelief, so now they joined forces to extricate themselves from the maze of
error, and groped their way back again to a Christian concept of the universe.
As at Landshut those of the students who had kept the faith and those who had
returned to it after their wanderings, gathered about Sailer, so also did
Professor Bernard Bolzano, who was Instructor in Religion at Prague, become the
guiding spirit of the Catholic students there.
The Redemptorist, Father
Kral, who studied at the University of Vienna at this time, writes in his
reminiscences of Father Hofbauer: "The young men who during these
years attended the University of Vienna evinced a singular desire to become
thoroughly acquainted with the faith and life of Catholics."
In the ranks of the
academicians incidents occurred which indicated how complete a change was
taking place in religious ideas and sentiments. Quite a sensation was created,
for example, when two Instructors highly esteemed in University circles, openly
renounced freethinking and not only became believing Catholics, but even took
up the study of Theology. These two savants were Dr. Emmanuel Veith, the Jewish
Instructor in Medicine, and Dr. John Madlener, the Instructor in Mathematics.
Neither of them has anywhere left us an account of the motives for his
conversion.
Madlener simply
states that his conversion occurred in May, 18I5. Tradition has it (see
Correspondence of the Associatio Perseverantiae Sacerdotalis, XIII,
1892, p.151), that the text from St. John's Gospel account, 20. 28, 29, was the
occasion of his conversion. As he held that Christ was infinitely truthful, and
as Christ did not reject the testimony of the Apostle St. Thomas -- "My
Lord and my God" -- this fact convinced him of the Divinity of
Christ.
Dr. Veith received the
Sacrament of Baptism in 1816. One day in the spring of 1816, the Nuncio
Severoli received a great surprise. Six or seven students of the University
called at his palace and requested an audience. The spokesman of the party
explained how, in endeavoring to find the truth elsewhere than in the Catholic
Church, they had all been led astray by dabbling in false systems of
philosophy. "I thus had occasion," writes Severoli, in his
report to Consalvi, "to admire the wisdom and goodness of God, who
attracts souls to Himself in ways that to us mortals seem not at all apt."
One of these young men,
before taking his departure, asked for a copy of the Life of Alphonsus de
Liguori, who had just been declared Blessed. After a few months the Nuncio was
able to state that the visit of these students did not represent a mere passing
phase of religious enthusiasm. On November 20, 1816, he again wrote to
Consalvi: "I know now that these young men not only are themselves
persevering in righteousness, but are moreover drawing over their colleagues to
the paths of truth and virtue, are openly taking issue with and refuting
the falsehoods of modern philosophers, and are fearlessly combating the spread
of pernicious books which are still being widely circulated."
The Nuncio remarks that
he mentions this incident, because he knows it will fill the heart of
the Holy Father with joy. He does not mention any names. Presumably this group
was made up of a number of students who, according to a police-report of
November, 1815, were wont to meet at the house of the widow Horny, where some
of them lived and others took their meals. Leopold Horny, a son of the widow,
had finished his philosophy, devoted himself for a time to higher mathematics,
and, after escaping from the meshes of the philosophy of the
"Illuminati," finally took up the study of Theology.
Another police-report
praises him for his excellent knowledge of modern literature. From this same
report we learn a number of other interesting facts: that Madlener, who also
belonged to this group, in addition to being an accomplished mathematician, was
passionately devoted to the positive religion of Jesus; that the litterateur
Passy and others were members of this group; that neither Werner nor Hofbauer
was connected in any way with these students, who could not bear the former and
had no particular regard for the latter; that the members in their meetings
often spoke of the sermons of both Hofbauer and Werner, at times praising and
at times severely criticizing their discourses; that besides the members,
others holding different views likewise met at Horny's, giving occasion to warm
disputes, which, however, always ended amicably. Thus far the report.
Blessed be the moment we
met in Hofbauer's Heart!
On September 2, 1821, a
year and a half after the death of our Saint, Anthony Passy preached the
festive sermon on the occasion of the First Holy Mass of Dr. Emmanuel Veith at
Maria-Stiegen. Referring to the beginning of his friendship with Dr. Veith, the
preacher cried out:
"Blessed be that
first moment when in our search for books from which we hoped to learn the
truth, our paths in life met' Blessed be the moment when we met again in that
circle which was misnamed 'learned ' and left us joyless and dissatisfied, so
that we both yearned for an entirely different society -- a society, in
which, as you yourself claimed, there should have to be more silent meditation
than talking, and more prayer than brilliant conversation! Blessed be that
moment when you said: 'I can no longer consider as my friend any one with whom
I cannot pray,' a statement which you later corrected by saying, 'with whom I
cannot pray to Mary! ' Blessed above all be that moment, the happiest of my
life, when we met as in a sanctuary in the heart of him, who, an
Austrian himself, drew so many Austrian youths to the feet of the God-man Jesus
Christ, who dwelt within him ' -- that never-to-be-forgotten moment when
we met in the heart of the deceased Clement Hofbauer, Reverend
Vicar-General of the Redemptorists! "
These words admirably
illustrate how these academicians who sincerely sought after the truth, finally
found in the Director of the Church of St. Ursula's the spiritual guide
destined for them by Divine Providence, and under his wise leadership reached
to the portals of contentment and interior peace. Another disciple of Hofbauer,
Father Kral, who was studying Theology at the time, similarly bears witness to
Father Hofbauer's ability in calming the troubled waters of men's souls. He and
his friends, he tells us, longed to learn from more convincing sources how to
feel and think again as Catholics, but he adds that they found complete
satisfaction nowhere. " Hofbauer," he declares, "was
the only man who satisfied our wants."
In a letter to Cardinal
Litta, dated July 29, 1816, the Saint mentions about ten young men who had been
followers of the modern philosophy, but who had now returned to more wholesome
pastures, and were giving evidence of extraordinary zeal and fervor. Had they
persevered in their errors, he says, they would have caused untold harm to
themselves and to others; but now they do not blush to serve at the altar, they
receive the Sacraments most devoutly, and they are bringing others also over to
their own views.
Some
"disciples" of Hofbauer
Among the first to enter
into closer relations with the Saint were Dr. Madlener and his friend, the
jurist Francis Springer, of Strass, in Lower Austria. The latter had never
fallen into any of the prevailing errors of the day, but on his arrival in
Vienna had occasioned great grief to his pious family by abandoning the
idea of studying Theology. He was held in the highest esteem both by his
colleagues and by his professors. Because of his remarkable ability in
argumentation he was actually feared in debate.
Leopold Horny likewise
became a disciple of Hofbauer's. These, with a few others, formed about
Hofbauer the nucleus of a company of academicians which, though small in 1816,
rapidly increased in number in the course of the next two years. One of them
remarked that he could not understand why so many students and young men
gathered about Father Hofbauer. It reminded him, he said, of the time of
Christ, when each disciple brought another to the Messiah; for so did these
students: as soon as one had learned to know Father Hofbauer, he could not rest
until he had brought some friend or associate of his to the Saint.
Confession with Father
Hofbauer
Several were directed to
Hofbauer by Werner. It is quite possible that many of them experienced what
Anthony Guenther experienced, when as a student of law he came from Prague to
Vienna. Guenther, who later gained renown as a philosopher, relates in his
autobiography, that while still in Prague, he sought advice regarding his
vocation from his Professor, Bernard Bolzano. His parents had set their hearts on
his becoming a priest, but he could not make up his mind to do so, as he could
not convince himself of the necessity of divine revelation. Bolzano finally
confirmed him in his resolution to continue his study of law, remarking sadly
that convictions cannot be changed.
This veiled prediction of
the Professor, Guenther found on his arrival in Vienna, was not to be
fulfilled. "My friend Leopold Horny introduced me to Hofbauer," he
writes; "and as soon as I looked upon this man of God, the thought
flashed into my mind, 'this and no other is the man to whom you should reveal
the history of your past life.' And I was not mistaken. As Horny remarked to
me, Werner had said that he knew of only three truly great men then living:
Napoleon, Goethe, and Hofbauer. I soon understood what Werner meant by
Hofbauer's greatness. He was great in many things, but his real greatness
showed itself as a Confessor for those prodigal sons of the Faith whom shame
caused to hesitate and stammer when telling their sins in the Sacrament of
Penance. In such cases he would simply say: 'Go on, I know what you wish
to say.'
I shall never forget the
words he spoke to me in his exhortation before imparting the absolution:
'Always be mindful of the words of Our Lord: "There shall be joy in heaven
upon one sinner that doth penance more than upon ninety-nine just who need not
penance." (Luke 15,7) Rejoice with those that are in heaven, and you will
in patience bring forth worthy fruits of penance. But remember that the
greatest patience you will be called upon to practice will be patience with
yourself; for, as Our Lord said, "the spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh (is) weak"' (Mt 26,41) From that time forth until his death Hofbauer
remained my adviser in all matters pertaining to my spiritual life."
Many others probably had
experiences similar to Guenther's. It was a singular fact, that one's initial
meeting with the Saint awakened the desire to open one's conscience to him, and
whosoever yielded to this interior prompting and went to confession to him
once, invariably clung to him thereafter.
In this way it gradually
came to pass that fifty young men placed themselves under Hofbauer's special
direction. Dr. Veith, who, since 1818, was also numbered among the Saint's
disciples, himself admitted that he had acquired true fervor in his new-found
faith only from him.
Daily contacts; open
house
The majority of these
young men were University students, for the most part from the Law Schools.
Their individual relations with Hofbauer naturally differed widely. Some of
them came to him only in the confessional. There were, however, twenty or
thirty who were linked to him in a more intimate friendship, and many of these
visited him every day.
Closest to him were
Madlener, Dr. Veith, Springer, and Don Pajalich, a young priest from Dalmatia,
who was preparing for the Doctorate in Theology. Of these, again, Madlener, a
childlike, devout, and ingenuous character, was his favorite disciple.
Hofbauer's home in Seiler Place was always open to his young friends, whether
he happened to be at home or not. As there were besides those of this youthful
group many other persons who came to visit him, he willingly sacrificed the late,
quiet hours of the evening to those who sought him out. The silence and
solitude of his room were gone.
Those dear
"rascals!"
On his day of monthly
recollection, as also during his annual Retreat, nothing remained for him but
to betake himself to the church and spend a few restful hours there. At times
he was even obliged to prepare his sermons in this noisy company. He would then
throw a cloth over his head, in order to create a kind of solitude in which to
gather his thoughts. On one occasion Werner complained bitterly to him, that he
could no longer find him alone. "Those rascals are always here," he
remarked. "Yes," replied the Saint, "and those
rascals are dearer to me than you."
Hofbauer could invariably
be found at home in the evening. This fact is mainly responsible for the
formation of those famous evening socials, which imparted a singularly human
touch and character to the last three or four years of our Saint's life.
Oftentimes, when he came home in the evening, fatigued and worn out, he found
his room already crowded with visitors. "You are a fine crowd," he
was wont to say to them, as he hung his mantle on a nail; and as he turned
about, they would one by one, approach to kiss his hand and receive his
blessing. They had seen Sabelli and Stark do this as marks of reverence toward
their Superior, and imitated them.
Open Table
Each one received some
slight refreshment, which no one was easily permitted to decline-- the rich
were never allowed to refuse, for he wished them to practice humility by
sharing the repast of the poor. In that ample cupboard of his there was always
something to distribute among them -- fruit, cakes, cold meats, or the like. A
number of poor students dined regularly with him, and any one that accidentally
dropped in for a visit when they were at table, had to share the meal. Whenever
he was at home, he himself served at table, while Sabelli and Stark and the
guests enjoyed the meal in peace. As his portion he took the remnants, which he
ate standing.
The principal feature of
Hofbauer's method as a director of youth was well expressed by one of his
disciples: "As Divine Providence governs all things sweetly, so did
Hofbauer endeavor to attract others by mildness." He was averse to
nothing so much as to that method which tries to urge young people by too much
talk. He possessed in an unusually high degree that rare and precious gift of
accomplishing wonders with a few well-chosen words.
Werner once met a crowd
of students just as they were leaving the home of the Saint, and perceiving
that their countenances beamed with joy and enthusiasm, he curiously inquired what
beautiful things Hofbauer had just been telling them. "Oh, nothing in
particular," was the reply "he said merely, 'Be good!'"
Faith and Works in
Hofbauer's Approach: Head and Heart
Especially did he not set
much store upon the direct refutation of the objections raised against Faith;
nor did he believe much in the value of bandying words in philosophical
subtleties, or in disputing about matters of Faith. He censured the Germans for
going too far afield in seeking the truth which God had brought so close to
man. It cannot be denied that Catholic Apologetics at the time was cast over
with a gossamer of rationalism. Thus, when the zealous Father Frint, a priest
at the Castle of Vienna, brought out his "Compendium of Religion,"
objections were raised against the work on the score that it made the young
more acquainted with unbelief than with the Faith.
The book, which was
excessively diffuse, cost the poor students of philosophy the small fortune of
thirty-six florins. The apologetic methods followed by Professor Bolzano in
Prague were regarded as even more dangerous. Instead of lifting up the young
men under his tutelage from the depths of rationalism to the healthy atmosphere
of a strong and lively faith, they did just the reverse by leading them into
the very subtleties of rationalistic doctrine.
While Sailer was
condemned for emphasizing the Catholic doctrine too little, Bolzano exposed
himself to censure by following an equally unfortunate method in his lectures
and exhortations. From a laudable desire to win the youth back again to
religion, he made the mistake of modifying or minimizing the supernatural
character of Christianity too much. Personally, however, Bolzano was not merely
a Mathematician of rare ability and a thoroughly orthodox Philosopher, but a
most worthy and exemplary priest as well, and there can be no doubt that he
accomplished much good among the students.
Many a one owed to
Bolzano his salvation from the snares and pitfalls of vice, which his keen
analysis and judgment knew so well how to dissect and stigmatize. In his Sunday
exhortations he inveighed without mercy against the dissoluteness and
debauchery prevalent among the students at the time, without being in the
least concerned about the hatred which his scathing denunciations might
enkindle. All this must be home in mind, when we attempt to pass judgment on
Bolzano and his apologetic methods.
It is a singular fact of
this historical era in Germany and Austria, that the men who, like Wessenberg,
Boos, and Lindl, drifted entirely into error, or who, like Bolzano, went to
extremes in orthodoxy, were all remarkably clever and well-meaning men. Even
Sailer has been set down by Alban Stolz as a transitionist.
This fact alone suffices
to show the vital importance of the position which Hofbauer held and what he
came to signify in an age, when even the finest intellects within the German
Church were groping about for the truth, and even the Church itself, in its
external organization, had fallen a victim to the universal disorder and
confusion.
Hofbauer stood above his
time and its weaknesses. He was in no sense a transitionist; he was
pre-eminently a Catholic genius, and his genius manifested itself in nothing
else so strikingly as in the gentle wisdom with which he guided so many
students out of the maze of doubt or even out of the night of unbelief back to
the paths of safety and the full noontide splendor of Catholic faith.
Hofbauer, however, was
neither narrow nor self-opinionated; hence, in following his own methods in
directing these youthful minds, he did not underestimate the value of
theoretical study as a means of confirming one's convictions in matters of
Faith. It was owing primarily to Hofbauer's urging that that endless quibbler,
Anthony Guenther, was prevailed upon, for his own further enlightenment, to
undertake the study of Theology. Nor did the Saint evade controversy when
occasion demanded, as is evident from this pregnant saying of his quoted by
Emmanuel Veith: "He that endeavors to make people think rationally,
will invariably make enemies of them; and yet they all wish to be considered
intelligent beings."
As a rule, however, he
was governed in his labors for others by the principle, that "The
example of a life of practical, unwavering faith, expressing itself in deeds of
Christian charity, does far more good than the most learned
arguments." Times without number his own experience had convinced him
of the truth of this. What effect his mere association with young men wrought
upon their lives may be gleaned from the testimony of Frederick von Held.
Vocations to the
Priesthood
This eminent jurist tells
us, that in consequence of his previous unprincipled education, he could not,
even for a long period after joining the circle of Hofbauer's disciples, regard
the vocation to the priesthood with anything but deep aversion; Hofbauer,
perhaps divining his sentiments, not only never broached the subject of
vocation to him, but on several occasions had positively forbidden others to
hint at this subject in Held's presence. Gradually, however, a change was
wrought in Held's attitude, for, in the course of the years, he assures us,
"the example of this simple and modest priest, my constant association
with him, the peace and holiness which radiated from his countenance, finally
overcame my aversion entirely." Held eventually became not only a
priest but a religious as well, and is remembered as one of the principal
supports of the Transalpine Congregation of the Redemptorists.
The witness of history
and of the Saints
Whenever Hofbauer sought
to influence his disciples by arguments, he would draw those arguments chiefly
from the history of the Church. The continued existence of the Church
throughout the ages, its government, and its whole history must ever form the
clearest and most potent of all the proofs in favor of its divine origin. To
acquaint his disciples with the history of the Church, with the lives of the
Saints, and with the achievements of the great champions of the Faith, was, in
his opinion, of far greater importance than to make them masters in
philosophical discussion. Nearly every evening, after his disciples had
gathered at his home, there were public readings, and these readings were
usually from the pages of Church History. Berault-Bercastel, or the "
History of the Religion of Jesus Christ," by Count Stolberg, which had
just been published, were the books from which these readings were made.
To sum up this matter in
a few words, Hofbauer's endeavors were directed less against the philosophical
objections urged against the Faith by the intellect, than against those most stubborn
roots of doubt and infidelity -pride and sensuality. His chief aim was to
instil humility and purity into the hearts of the young. How often was he not
heard to say: "Be humble! otherwise the mysteries of Faith will
appear to you to be mere fables."
Let your light shine!
In like manner he set his
face resolutely against that vain and complaisant spirit of vanity which
prompts one to put one's self forward, and which is particularly in evidence
whenever there is a large gathering of young persons from all classes of
society. Similarly, human respect in all its subtle manifestations, found in
him an uncompromising antagonist. Moreover, he insisted that his disciples make
public profession of the religious convictions which they had recovered.
The casual visitor to St.
Ursula's Church might on any day of the year witness a spectacle never before
seen there or anywhere else in the city: University students from the best
families, who received the Sacraments every week or oftener, approaching to
partake of the Bread of Angels; others serving at the altar with all the marks
of deep devotion and most lively faith, and at least on the more solemn feasts,
when Father Hofbauer carried the Blessed Sacrament in procession through the
church -- accompanying their Eucharistic Savior with lighted tapers or torches.
A gentle director of
youth
Hofbauer knew well, as
Dr. Madlener relates, how to mortify the inordinate self-love of the young men.
One day Hofbauer and Madlener escorted a party of friends to Mariazell. After
securing rooms for their guests at the inn, Madlener tried to find a bed for
himself. There was not another to be had. Hofbauer calmly said to him, "Do
as I do," and without another word stretched himself on the floor in
a corner of the room. There was nothing for the young doctor to do but to
imitate him.
Madlener often
accompanied the Saint on his visits to Count Szechenyi's. On one occasion
Hofbauer wished to take a second companion with him, but the carriage that came
to fetch him had room only for two. After Hofbauer and one companion had
stepped in, Madlener was about to proceed on foot. But the Saint called out to
him: "Come here, you little fly! there will be room enough for
you!" Madlener hesitated, for he failed to see how three could travel
comfortably in the carriage. "Come in, then, as an act of obedience" the
Saint called out again, and drawing him into the carriage, he took the
astonished youth on his knees, and in this manner they drove off through the
main street to Szechenyi's palace.
On another occasion
Madlener, speaking figuratively, remarked that he had seen beautiful clouds in
Szechenyi's garden. For several days thereafter, Hofbauer kept on asking: "Madlener,
what about those beautiful clouds in Szechenyi's garden? " Evidently,
the foundation of that humility and simplicity of heart for which
Madlener as a religious was later so conspicuous, was laid in this school.
Blessed are the pure of heart
In regard to the cultivation
of chastity, witnesses assure us that a mere glance at the Saint sufficed to
fill one with chaste sentiments and love for holy purity. He constantly
reminded his followers that prayer and mortification are the chief weapons to
be used in the struggle for the palm of holy purity.
His disciples had
frequently to pass through the streets at night; and in order to protect
themselves against the dangers that lurk in a large city at such hours, they
formed the habit of carrying a small rosary of one decade only, which they
could recite unobserved.
Moreover, many of them,
following his example and counsel, would deprive themselves of their breakfast,
at least during Advent, so that they might give it to the poor. In the matter
of fasting, however, he exercised the greatest prudence, and took into
consideration the physical strength of his disciples.
A heart of a
mother
His solicitude for these
students extended to their physical as well as to their spiritual well-being.
Dr. Veith, himself an excellent physician, remarked that Hofbauer instinctively
perceived also the bodily needs of others, and with all the certainty of a
medical decision, prescribed remedies and taught others how to take care of
their health.
One stormy night, Dr.
Veith relates, the Saint would not permit him to return to his home, as he
lived in a distant suburb, but made him remain with him for the night. Dr.
Veith, like many of the other young students, oftentimes arrived in the early
afternoon, without having even tasted any food that day. On his arrival
Hofbauer immediately made inquiries, and on learning that the doctor had not
broken his fast, would at once send some one to the neighboring inn " Zur
Katz," to get him a bowl of good soup.
A newly-ordained priest
once dined with him on the day of his Ordination. Perceiving that the young man
was very delicate, the Saint detained him and obliged him to take a half-hour's
siesta after dinner. "In your condition," Hofbauer
remarked, "a little sleep will do you good." He himself
prepared the bed for the young priest, and when the half-hour had expired, woke
him and took him out for a walk in the city.
This careful attention to
even the most ordinary and trifling details, such as is usually found only in a
mother's heart, explains to a great extent why the young felt themselves
so irresistibly drawn to the Saint. Sometimes he would go to welcome his
visitors with open arms and clasp them affectionately to his heart. The
younger Pilat, a student of Polytechnics, who relates this, adds, that this
embrace always left in his heart a feeling of peace and the warmth of
divine love.
Some tares among the
wheat
His disciples were, for
the most part, deserving of the love of so good a master. There were, of
course, a few exceptions. Some wore the mask of discipleship, and represented
themselves as hungering and thirsting after justice, merely to share in the
Saint's abundant alms. Usually it was not long before he saw through their
hypocrisy, but out of compassion for them he did not dismiss them.
Joseph Wolff, who was as
fickle as he was gifted, and who was constantly wavering between the Church and
Protestantism, was a source of great worry to the Saint. So long as he was in
Hofbauer's company, he was fully in accord with him.
Thomas Lederer, a student
of medicine and a blustering advocate of unbelief, acted in similar fashion. He
had hardly been introduced to Hofbauer, when he veered entirely about. He now
wished to become a missionary, and of course was nothing loath to predict that
as such he would render more service to the Church than a hundred others. To
the sorrow of the Saint, however, he soon reverted to his former sentiments. .
.
Some are apostles....
But, as has already been
remarked, these were only the exceptions. On the whole, Hofbauer had every
reason to be proud of the young men he had gathered around him. Indeed, he once
wrote to Sophia Schlosser, that there were some among them who would have been
an ornament to the Church in the first centuries of Christianity. "I
can say with all truth," he writes, "that some are
veritable apostles; for they seek out those that are in error and endeavor to
lead them back to the path of truth and righteousness."
A few passages from the
letters of Francis Kosmaczek, a medical student, who, in 1818, came from
Bohemia to Vienna and there made the acquaintance of Hofbauer through Madlener,
will serve to show the spirit that animated this select group of young men. In
Vienna Kosmaczek found a new world revealed to his eyes. On November 5, he
wrote to his father:
"I have found here
good, loyal, and disinterested people, friends who are molding my character,
cheering me on, and making me truly happy by their example and companionship.
What I hoped to find here, I have actually found -- friends who are an ornament
to human nature, and of whose friendship I am as yet wholly unworthy. If you
can form a mental image of an ideal human being, you need only come here to
discover in reality what your imagination pictures to you so beautifully.
Unaffected simplicity, a salutary fear of God, genuine humility, and unusual
wisdom are the outstanding virtues of these noble people with whom Divine
Providence has cast my lot.
I thank God that I came
to Vienna; and I beg Him to keep me ever grateful to Him for leading me here;
for that which I had always desired but never dared to hope for as attainable,
Providence has bestowed upon me in so singular a manner that I cannot but
recognize its possession as a remarkable evidence of the divine goodness. Until
I know these good people more intimately, I shall picture them to you as truly
and as clearly as I can, so that you also, please God, may derive pleasure and
profit and edification from them."
The first few weeks
wrought a wonderful change in the soul of this medical student. Scarcely one
month later, he frankly acknowledged to his father:
"In early youth I
had little religion, and that little I lost in the course of my studies. I
entered upon devious ways, falling from one precipice to another, blundering
into the labyrinth of doubt, whence in my ignorance I knew not how to find
my way out. I willingly make an open confession of having, through the reading
of corrupt literature, books professedly learned but none the less infidel,
through having consorted with witty and so-called educated men of our
enlightened times, and above all through a blind intellectual pride, made
shipwreck of the faith of my soul, the peace of my heart, and the purity
of my will...
And now, I quite as
readily confess that by cultivating the inspiring companionship of saintly men
and by the reading of pious and elevating books, I have been converted from the
error of my ways. With eyes streaming tears and with bleeding heart I
have gone through the fight, and I hope that God will now lead me on to
complete victory over myself. In my soul I have crushed the head of unbelief,
which like an expiring monster is now racking my heart with
anguish."
He now endured severe
struggles regarding his vocation. "Surrounded by the stillness of the
night," his thoughts turned to the choice of a state of life. He felt
himself drawn strongly to the priesthood, but sensual desires and pride made the
victory difficult for grace. Oftentimes he felt like evading the issue; "but
no one," he says, "can flee from God."
With the appreciation of
the Catholic Church that had been awakened within his soul, the Sacred
Priesthood suddenly appeared supremely desirable. The following sentiments
expressed in a letter to his father, were probably only the echoes of those
evenings spent at Hofbauer's in reading and discussing questions of Church
History:
"The Religion of
Jesus Christ has now endured in all its splendor for 1818 years. Neither the
storms of time nor the malice of men has been able to destroy it; nor shall our
unbelieving, proud age be able to move it from its firm foundations. It stands
there in glory, the virgin crowned with the stars, the ever-changing moon
beneath her feet, clothed with the sun. . . . I feel quite incompetent to tell
you anything about the surpassing beauty and the divinity of our holy religion,
the religion of Jesus Christ."
He leaves this last task
to Count Stolberg, from whose works he here quotes a number of passages for his
father. A most remarkable enthusiasm for the Faith, sincere gratitude for the
happiness of soul he had recovered, and truly apostolic zeal shine forth in the
letters of this new convert. Kosmaczek, like Held, became one of the ornaments
of the Redemptorist Congregation.
These individual cases of
converts suddenly aware that their new-found spiritual life had blossomed forth
into a vocation to the Priesthood, were not the only cases of the kind. There
were others. Francis Springer, who under the stress of pecuniary difficulties
had fought his way through the whole course of jurisprudence, now took up the
study of Theology.
Father Clement shows the
Church's beauty
In fact, so many of
Hofbauer's disciples successively abandoned the professional studies they had
chosen and went over to that of theology, that parents grew alarmed as soon as
their sons began to visit Hofbauer regularly. Hofbauer, as has been remarked,
did not intend this. It so happened of itself, and was almost inevitable in the
ordinary course of events at that time. Vocations to the priesthood and to the
religious state are always plentiful; but at times there is no one to awaken
them and foster them, and so they are lost.
This was especially the
case during the period when the " Illuminati " held sway. In Austria
the restraint placed upon the Church by Josephism supplied what was yet lacking
to make aspiring youth disgusted with the priesthood and to render the priestly
state contemptible. The scarcity of vocations to the priesthood had been the
cause of much anxiety even to the Austrian Bureaucracy; but the means employed
by the Government to remedy the evil only made matters worse.
How simply did not
Hofbauer remedy the evil! He removed the debris which iniquity had cast up
about the Church, and revealed to the eyes of astonished youth the Church
without spot or wrinkle as Christ had established it in all its resplendent
glory! And the result of this revelation -- the happy, spontaneous awakening of
vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life among the Catholic youth
at the Universities -- was the most decisive victory that Hofbauer gained over
Josephism and Josephism's chief protagonists, the " Illuminati."
If only he had been
suffered to put this magnificent work of fostering vocations upon a firm
footing! In his letter of May, 1818, to Sophia Schlosser, from which we quoted
above, he complains bitterly of the difficulties he has to encounter. If he
were given a free hand, he says, he would find it a comparatively easy matter
to effect an astounding change in the student-body. "The young
people are disgusted with what they are taught at the University," he
writes; "and yet, one is obliged to do in secret whatever good one
can do, as if we were living in a heathen land."
As will become evident
farther on in this narrative, it was precisely this influence which he
exercised in academic circles that soon enkindled against him an opposition so
bitter as to jeopardize all his future activities in Vienna.
Solidifying the Catholic
Movement
This apostolate among the
young men, upon which Hofbauer had imperceptibly entered, may have been the
occasion that inspired him to revert to the project once before attempted by
Mueller, of establishing a Catholic Educational Institute for boys of the higher
classes of society. Only by this means could the work he had begun among the
young men be placed upon a broader basis and be continued after his death.
This time the undertaking
met with immediate success. The direction of the Institute devolved, not now
upon Adam Mueller, but upon Frederick von Klinkowstroem. For several years
Klinkowstroem had lived in retirement and in modest circumstances. Far superior
as an educator to his learned friend Adam Mueller, he ensured the success of
this new project by happily avoiding the mistakes that Mueller had made. The
Archduke Maximilian d'Este sponsored the project and brought it for approval
before the Emperor. The devout Prince had made a vow to God, that in the event
of the success of his efforts, he would for the rest of his life abstain from
taking sugar in his coffee. This vow he faithfully kept.
In October, 1818, the
Institute was opened in a house on the " Wieden." Hofbauer, however,
was not satisfied with the building and its limited surroundings. He therefore
prevailed upon Klinkowstroem to purchase the spacious "Scheiblauer
House." One day toward the end of May, 1819, Klinkowstroem accompanied
Hofbauer on a walk to the Alser suburbs. Hofbauer suddenly halted in front of
the "Scheiblauer House" and, interrupting the conversation, said to
his friend: "Look at that house! It is quite suitable for an
educational institution. It can easily accommodate fifty boys!" And
raising his hand, he blessed the house as he said: "Buy that
house!" And when Klinkowstroem remonstrated: But you know my
circumstances very well," the Saint replied, "Yes; but you will
buy the house."
And he really did.
Through the unexpected aid of a disinterested stranger, a Protestant Baron,
Klinkowstroem succeeded in procuring the house on easy terms. From the very
beginning God's blessing rested in a visible manner on the undertaking. With
the opening of the following scholastic year the Institute was in its new home.
A former pupil has left us an interesting description of the place.
Among other things he
stresses the fact that "the Institution was complete in every
respect, satisfying the strictest demands that could be made upon an
institution intended to supply home-training, not only as to general
educational facilities, but also as to sanitary housing and reasonable
recreation. But what particularly characterized Frederick von Klinkowstroem's
Institute and distinguished it from all other private schools, and also from
most public institutions at the time, was the object it sought to attain above
every other -- to place, not merely the instruction of the intellect, but also
the moral training of the heart, on a strictly Catholic basis.
Toward this end all its
directive and disciplinary measures were primarily aimed, and in this way it
sought to instill into the minds and hearts of the young such
religious ideals as would lay the solid foundations of a truly manly character,
and serve them at once as a shield against the dangers and allurements of the
world and an unfailing guide in working out their eternal salvation. The
teaching, discipline, and management of the house were conducted along these
lines and permeated with this spirit.
At the same time proper
care was employed lest by subjecting the students to any form of ascetical
compulsion, boys of a naturally mirth-loving disposition be converted into
religious hypocrites. For this reason, too, the religious exercises were
confined to morning and evening prayer, grace before and after meals, daily
attendance at Holy Mass, and the fulfillment of the Easter precept. The
frequent reception of the Holy Sacraments was left for the most part to the
devotion of the young people themselves. On the other hand, that cheerfulness
which is characteristic of youth and harmless in itself was fostered in every
way.
Von Klinkowstroem and the
Professors of the Institute often directed the various games which the students
played in common, and not infrequently they themselves participated in them.
Dramatic entertainments, too, were staged from time to time. Thus there was no
lack of amusement and healthful exercise. The spirit of concord and the tone of
refinement which were everywhere in evidence at the Institute, as well as the
good results which were there achieved, were due in the main to the eminent
educator to whose leadership the welfare of the Institute was entrusted, and
who gave himself to this difficult task with unreserved, self-sacrificing
devotedness.
His own thorough
education, his knowledge of the world and of men, the experience he had
gathered in the course of his long and checkered career, rendered von
Klinkowstroem eminently qualified to direct the intellectual and moral training
of these youngpeople. He fully understood how to temper severity with kindness,
and, as occasion demanded, to apply both with tact and justice.
His very appearance and
his whole personality were such as to inspire respect and love. He was tall of
stature; his countenance, usually wearing an earnest expression, could as
easily transform itself into an expression of the most winning kindliness; his
keen, gray eyes, whose penetrating gaze one under reproof could hardly endure,
at other times beamed benevolence and invited confidence; in a word, his whole
being bore the unmistakable impress of a soul as strong as it was humble, -- a
soul imbued with the spirit of a true Christian, endowed with a resolute will,
and blessed with an abiding peace. His relations with the students were those
of a kind, loving, and interested father." (Baron von Brenner
Felsach)
Even though this school
had a comparatively short-lived career, the mere fact that a strictly Catholic
educational institution had been called into being in the Vienna of those days,
could be looked upon as a signal victory for religion. Hofbauer, of course, was
obliged to remain in the background; and therefore, secular priests, and not
the Fathers of his own Congregation, were appointed to fill positions at the
Institute as Instructors in Religion and as Professors.
This Institute was one of
the sweetest joys of our Saint's declining years. He saw its beginning and
its early development. He was a frequent visitor there. For a number of years
now, he had been the spiritual director of the Klinkowstroem family. The third
son, born toward the close of the Congress of Vienna, received at baptism the
name of Clement. The Saint himself administered the sacrament, and insisted
that all those present, irrespective of creed, impose their hands on the child.
The next son born of the
Klinkowstroems was given the name of Alphonsus at the sacred font. Madame
Klinkowstroem, an ideal housewife, directed the affairs of the entire
household. Dr. Veith, who frequently visited there, remarked that it was
difficult to decide which of the two deserved the palm of excellence -- Louisa,
or her sister Madame Pilat: "for," he says, "more
noble, pious, refined, and intellectual German women could hardly have been
found anywhere. It was most refreshing to behold how prudently they managed
affairs in the household, how wisely they educated the children, and how
cheerfully and wholeheartedly they bestowed their services wherever and
whenever their services seemed to be required." This is high praise
indeed; yet it does not appear to be overdrawn. Hofbauer himself was wont to
say of Louisa, whenever reference was made to this happy, cheerful, lovely
woman: "Hers is a singularly beautiful soul; this woman could remove
mountains with her faith."
During the sixteen years
of its existence, there were, in all, two hundred and ten pupils who attended
the Institute. Klinkowstroem never accepted more than fifty, because he claimed
that a larger number could not be taken care of properly or trained
successfully. That the majority of these pupils happened to be sons of the
aristocracy, was no part of Klinkowstroem's plan. After the Emperor had spoken
in praise of the institute on one occasion, it leaped into favor with the
nobility. Most of the pupils, in later life, entered the diplomatic or military
service. The great majority of them, too, remained true to the ideals they had
formed and the principles they had imbibed at the Scheiblauer House.
The Liberalist, Count
Anthony Auersperg, who later gained renown as a poet under the nameof
Anastasius Gruen, was one of the few exceptions. The defection of such former
students as these, however, was amply compensated for by the subsequent careers
of many others, who, like Baron von Stillfried, rose up manfully in an age
arrayed against faith and truth, and fearlessly championed the Catholic cause.
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20050307042906/http://www.praiseofglory.com/clementcatholic.htm
Pfarrkirche
hl. Katharina, Allhartsberg, Niederösterreich - Statue hl. Clemens Maria
Hofbauer am linker Seitenaltar
ST. CLEMENT MARIA HOFBAUER, C.SS.R.:
The Preacher
(from St. Clement
Maria Hofbauer: A Biography translated from the German original written by
Rev. John Hofer, CSSR.--a selection from Part 4, chapter 7, "Pastoral
Scenes from the Saint's life in Vienna")
***Note some pertinent
parallels to today and to the Pope's call for a 'new evangelization.'***
"The Gospel must be
preached anew!" (Clement Hofbauer)
I. Hofbauer as Preacher
Not a single sermon of
his has been preserved to us in its entirety. In fact, he never wrote his
sermons; he seldom made even a written sketch of his discourses. Contemporary
reports, however, give us a clear idea of his manner of preaching, which they
describe as altogether unique. His sermons, at least those he preached in
Vienna, were neither set, formal discourses, nor fully developed homilies;
rather they partook of the nature of both, and, because they could not be
classified under either head, would probably find little favor in the eye of a
critical homilist.
His usual methods were
the following: He would read the Gospel, and would interrupt the reading to
interpolate or add some explanatory remarks, as he frequently did during the
early days of his sacred ministry; or, he would take up one text of the Gospel
after another, dwelling longer upon some, passing over others more quickly; or
again, he would build up a catechetical instruction or a moral sermon upon a
single text, contrast with this teaching the views and customs prevailing among
men at the time, and then with fervent words exhort his hearers to a
reformation of life.
In this way he would at
times touch upon several subjects in one and the same sermon. Thus, on
September 10, 1815, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, he spoke on the
desecration of the Sunday, the infallibility of the Church, the veneration of
the Blessed Mother of God, and the Religious Life. Formerly he had been
permitted to preach every day; now he was obliged to compress all he wished to
say to the people into one Sunday sermon. (Compare this with the
strict method of his homiletic sermons during his stay in Warsaw. That he did
not entirely abandon this method after he came to Vienna, we learn from a
witness who tells us that the Saint once based his Lenten Sermons on the first
texts of the Book of Genesis).
Nor were the external
form and the diction of his sermons such as to conceal their flaws of
technique. Hofbauer did not possess the gifts of an orator. The manner in which
he was obliged to complete his ecclesiastical studies and the long periods he
spent abroad, may explain why the style and idiom of his German were not
faultless. Apparently he paid little attention to language. He clothed his
ideas in the simplest expressions. He possessed no copious vocabulary, and
hence made use of the same stereotyped expressions over and over again. The
first impression that his sermons made on educated persons was far from
favorable.
And yet, for many years
together, Hofbauer was the most successful preacher in the pulpits of Vienna.
The written text of his sermons, even if they had been preserved to us, would
never reveal the secret of their singular appeal. Two facts, that had little to
do with their style or delivery, explain their magnetism: first, they were
distinctly unlike the sermons generally preached in Vienna at the time; and
second, the Saint's simplest utterances in the pulpit were permeated with a
faith that was as deep as it was childlike.
Since the days of the
Emperor Joseph II, the strictly Catholic sermon had gradually disappeared from
the pulpits of Austria. During the period when the "Illuminati" were
in power, a relentless warfare was waged against preachers of the orthodox
Catholic doctrine, who found that their bitterest opponents were the so-called
"Illuminati" members of the clergy. The result soon became
evident. It was now a rare thing indeed to hear specifically Catholic doctrine
preached from the pulpit. Instead there was merely that superficial talk of a
universal Christianity, those empty platitudes about universal charity, and
that cheap moralizing which the " Illuminati " brought into the
pulpit.
Illustrative of the
tendencies of the times is this remark of Kral, already spoken of as one
of Hofbauer's disciples: "A sermon on the Catholic Church was so rare
an occurrence that we young people rejoiced when the preacher merely mentioned
the words 'the Holy Catholic Church' in the pulpit."
Another contemporary and
member of the Hofbauer Circle, Frederick von Held, asserts that both in society
and in the pulpit it came to be a point of etiquette to avoid all reference to
the revealed religion. Phrases directly expressive of Catholic teaching or even
of ordinary Christian doctrines had been relegated to the dictionaries. The
spirit of the Government moved in the selfsame direction. The civil authorities
frowned upon every clear exposition of religious truth. As Beidtel observes,
they seemed to fear, "that a clear knowledge of Catholic dogmas might
give birth to sectarian views, and that a clear knowledge of the history of the
Church might lead the common people to compare the present with the past."
Hofbauer's sermons must
have acted like high explosives hurled into the camp of the enemy. He had no
regard for prevailing opinions when there was question of Religion and Faith. The
Holy Eucharist, the Veneration of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints,
Confession, Indulgences, Purgatory, Hell, the Devil--these and other ostracized
truths he fearlessly preached from the pulpit, and with the greatest clearness,
heedless alike of prohibitions and of popular opinion.
The subjects to which he
was ever reverting with special emphasis, however, were the Church, the
Authority of the Church, and the Papacy. Nowadays such topics are nothing
new or striking in the Catholic pulpit; but in those days such sermons were
extremely few and far between. The people, who at heart had remained
staunch Catholics, were overjoyed at hearing again a truly Catholic preacher
who was not afraid to speak out and call things by their proper names.
With Hofbauer the
Catholic sermon was restored to honor. Then, too, the manner of Hofbauer's
preaching had its own special appeal: it was so different from the stiff,
formal, polished style of the fashionable preacher. Hofbauer was in the fullest
sense of the term a popular preacher; he preached according to the inspiration
of the moment, not according to a studied, premeditated sketch. He was not
always choice in his expressions; at times he was even coarse. A contemporary
describes him as a natural, agreeable, and jovial preacher.
Nevertheless, the people
not only listened to his sermons willingly and interestedly, but returned to
their homes different men and women. When those witnesses who had once heard
him preach came to speak of the effects produced by his sermons, they always
expressed the greatest surprise that a method of preaching so unpretentious
should bring forth such remarkable fruits.
"People in his
audience burst into tears, repented and renounced sin, and resolved to lead
virtuous lives; such," declares one of his hearers, "were
the effects produced by Hofbauer's sermons." It was no unusual sight
to see some one waiting for him in the sacristy immediately after the sermon,
to consult him on some matter of conscience or to go to confession.
A certain aged official
declared that though he had previously heard many excellent and renowned
preachers, he had always remained the same old sinner; but that a single sermon
of Hofbauer's sufficed to convert him. The Saint's exhortations, couched as
they usually were in pithy, striking sentences, clung to the memory for years;
and even the tone of voice in which he uttered them was not soon forgotten.
The whole secret of this
enviable success of the Saint's sermons, in spite of the absence of all
rhetorical display, was thus summed up by one of his hearers: "The
marvelous attractive power of his sermons must be traced to no other source
than his strong, living faith--a faith that had become, as it were, the very
breath of his life and an essential part of his very being, and which was
mirrored in every feature of his countenance and in his every gesture and
action. Thus, to give but a single example, when preaching on the Incarnation,
he would reverently clasp his hands as he said: 'Our very own flesh He bath
taken unto Himself.' These simple words, uttered with an apostle's conviction
and accompanied by a gesture so expressive, impressed all his hearers, and
especially me, so deeply that any doubt we might have had concerning the
divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ must at once have been
dispelled."
The same witness
graphically describes Hofbauer's unique manner of preaching, when he declares
that the Saint might truthfully have begun his every sermon with the words with
which the Beloved Disciple begins one of his Epistles: "That which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled...we declare unto you." (1 John, 1)
The message that Hofbauer
announced from the pulpit was the message of one who had reached very close to
the realm of vision. He did not advance many arguments for what he said; he
stated and affirmed as one that had seen and heard and handled the things
whereof he spoke. His sermons were public acts of faith that carried one
irresistibly and victoriously along on the flood-tide of his own full
convictions.
What heart could
have remained unmoved as it beheld him, vanquished by the power of his faith
and love, sinking to his knees in the course of his sermons, to adore the
Blessed Sacrament? At such moments he appeared to be transfigured. The
calm, even tenor of his being then made way for the oncoming, panting surge of
pathos; his countenance seemed aglow with a flame that was not of earth, and a
lightning like brilliance flashed from his eyes. Some of his hearers even
declared that they had beheld him surrounded by a heavenly light in the pulpit.
Philip Veith in his old age was still wont to relate to his family how he had
thus seen the Saint.
Hofbauer's audience was
made up mostly of the common people. Gradually, however, persons of all classes
and of every station in life went to hear him: students, savants, artists,
public officials, and persons of the aristocracy. If he was ever tempted to
defer in his sermons to the educated portion of his audience at the expense of
the ordinary people, he never succumbed to the temptation. Even though he
beheld among his listeners his most scholarly friends, such as Mueller,
Schlegel, and Dorothy, he never deviated one jot or tittle from his usual
practice of keeping his discourse intelligible to the most unlettered person
present.
He invariably began his
sermons in the selfsame way: "Today I shall preach a sermon so plain
and so simple that the most unlearned among you and even every little
child will be able to understand it." He used this introduction so
often that his auditors grew weary of hearing it. Still, the people realized
fully that he would keep his promise to preach in a clear and simple style, so
much so indeed that many mothers were soon observed bringing their children to
his sermons and trying to keep them attentive.
That Hofbauer had found
it necessary to discover new forms in which to clothe and reveal the truths of
salvation, and that he applied himself to this task, but without success, is an
assertion based upon a misunderstanding. The saying so often heard from his
lips, and incorrectly quoted nowadays in support of this contention,
namely, "that the Gospel had to be preached entirely anew," the
Saint himself understood and meant in quite another sense.
According to his own
conviction and personal experience, Catholics to a great extent had lost the
knowledge and comprehension of the body of Catholic teaching; the Gospel,
therefore, must be preached anew that is to say, preached again--not
necessarily in a new form or style, or as a novelty, as it must, almost of
necessity, be preached in a missionary country to the heathen.
It was for this very
reason that he endeavored to be as plain and clear as possible in his pulpit
utterances, so that all his hearers might easily understand him. The fact that
Hofbauer attracted to his sermons and held about his pulpit men like Schlegel, Werner,
Mueller, the philosopher Guenther, students and professors from the University,
proves that a truly apostolic sermon can satisfy both the child and the learned
adult. Such apostolic men are, of course, scarce.
The average preacher
cannot afford to set aside the helps of rhetoric as a Saint can. It may be
remarked, however, that Hofbauer's sermons gained by the fact that his thoughts
were not clothed in attractive language; the absence of literary ornamentation
only served to make the vigorous beauty of his faith shine forth the more
brilliantly. It was good, it was even necessary for Vienna to possess, besides
its many fashionable preachers with their shallow rhetoric, such a preacher as
Hofbauer.
The common people were
not slow to notice the wide chasm that yawned between him and them. One could
frequently hear it said: "If you wish to hear a grand speaker, go to
this or that church; but if you wish to hear an apostle, go to St.
Ursula's."
It will suffice to add
but a word about the preparation which Hofbauer made for his sermons. Guenther
remarked that one could readily perceive that the sermons of this apostolic man
were the combined product of previous meditation and of the inspiration of the
moment.
During the week he would
get some one to read to him the Gospel for the following Sunday; and having
heard the Gospel he would meditate upon it in his spare moments. At times,
after only a few passages had been read, he gave a sign to the reader to stop
by saying: "Sufficit! " ("That will do.") The thoughts
suggested by the Gospel would pour in upon him like a steady stream. Usually it
was Don Pajalich who did him this kindness.
One day Hofbauer asked
him what he considered the best preparation for a sermon; and without waiting
for an answer, the Saint struck his knees with his hands, wishing thereby to
signify that prayer was the most needful preparation for preaching the Word of
God.
For more on the
remarkable pastoral genius of this saint, see St
Clement and the Perpetual Mission at St. Benno's in Warsaw.
"O my God, make me a
saint" (St Alphonsus)
Return to St
Clement Page
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20050307043517/http://www.praiseofglory.com/stclementpreacher.htm
Bapistry
and Status auf St. Clemens Maria Hofbauer in Alt-Ottakring parish church,
Vienna
Taufbecken
und Statue des Hl. Clemens Maria Hofbauer in der Alt-Ottakringer Pfarrkirche,
Wien 16
San Clemente Maria
Hofbauer Sacerdote
Tasswitz, Repubblica
Ceca, 26 dicembre 1751 - Vienna, 15 marzo 1820
E' protettore di Vienna e
dei fornai. Nella capitale austriaca morì nel 1820. Il mestiere era quello che
da ragazzo, a Znaim (Repubblica Ceca), fece per mantenere la famiglia dopo la
morte del padre. Clemente Maria Hofbauer fu poi a Vienna, dove studiò filosofia
e teologia. Nel 1784, dopo un pellegrinaggio a Roma, si fece redentorista.
Fondò case in Germania, Svizzera, Romania. Visse a lungo a Varsavia, fino a che
Napoleone espulse i redentoristi per le loro attività culturali e sociali.
Ancora a Vienna, contrastò la tendenza a creare una Chiesa nazionale
«giuseppina». (Avvenire)
Etimologia: Clemente =
indulgente, generoso, dal latino
Martirologio Romano: A
Vienna in Austria, san Clemente Maria Hofbauer, sacerdote della Congregazione
del Santissimo Redentore, che mirabilmente si adoperò nel diffondere la fede in
terre lontane e nel rinnovare la vita ecclesiastica e, insigne per ingegno e
virtù, indusse molti illustri scienziati ed artisti ad avvicinarsi alla Chiesa.
Vocazione contrastata e
difficile da realizzare, la sua. Giovanni pensa di farsi prete fin da bambino,
ma la morte prematura di papà quando lui ha sette anni mette la famiglia
(numerosa, 12 figli!) in seria difficoltà: impossibile pensare di studiare o di
essere accettato in una congregazione senza i soldi sufficienti! In questo
periodo è tentato anche dalla carriera militare e, in attesa di decidere cosa
farà da grande, studia latino nella canonica del paese. Alla fine si
ritrova a 16 anni in un panificio a imparare il mestiere. Era nato nel
1751 in Moravia e sui vent’anni è panettiere in un monastero, dove lavora
giorno e notte per preparare di che sfamare i poveri. Dopo un anno fa un
viaggio in Italia e decide di diventare eremita nel santuario di Quintiliolo:
qui gli cambiano il nome con quello di Clemente Maria, ma vi resta solo sei
mesi, perchè non è quella la sua vocazione. Torna così nella sua terra, a fare
il panettiere nel monastero e ricomincia a studiare latino. Dopo un ulteriore
tentativo fallito di eremitaggio riprende il suo lavoro di panettiere. Questa
volta lo assumono in una prestigiosa panetteria di Vienna, dove incontra due
distinte signore che lo aiutano a studiare. Ma nell’università pubblica, perché
i seminari sono chiusi per ordine del governo. Compie un altro pellegrinaggio
in Italia insieme ad un compagno e questa volta il viaggio è provvidenziale:
viene accolto in una comunità Redentorista, dove nel 1785 viene ordinato
sacerdote. Ha quasi 34 anni. Pochi giorni dopo i superiori rispediscono lui e
il compagno nella terra natale con l’incarico di aprire in Austria una comunità
redentorista. I tempi non lo consentono: l’imperatore, che ha già chiuso più di
mille monasteri e conventi, non è certamente favorevole all’insediamento di un
nuovo ordine religioso.Clemente e il compagno vanno così in Polonia e a
Varsavia riescono nel loro intento, fondando una comunità di cinque sacerdoti e
tre fratelli laici. Qui trovano una situazione politica esplosiva, una povertà
estrema, l’opposizione fiera dei “frammassoni”. Quattro compagni muoiono
avvelenati da un prosciutto regalato al convento, un altro è ucciso a
bastonate, ma nonostante tutto rinverdiscono la fede e avviano un’opera
caritativa accogliendo gli orfani e aiutando i poveri, per mantenere i quali
Clemente deve elemosinare e anche fare il garzone panettiere di notte per avere
il giorno dopo il pane necessario a sfamarli. Dopo vent’anni di simile impegno,
li arrestano tutti, li processano e li condannano all’espulsione. Clemente
ritorna a Vienna, continuando la sua opera di evangelizzazione, particolarmente
tra i giovani e gli studenti. Tutti , anche i protestanti, sembrano attrattati
da quel prete che non fa miracoli, non dice niente di straordinario, da buon
tedesco è anche un po’ burbero e tende all’irascibile, ma è di una fede e di
una pace che conquistano. Muore il 15 marzo 1820 senza poter vedere la Casa
Redentorista che l’imperatore, in modo imprevisto, gli ha concesso di aprire a
Vienna. La Chiesa lo proclama beato nel 1888 e santo nel 1909; nel 1914, poi,
Pio X proclama patrono di Vienna e dei fornai San Clemente Maria Hofbauer, il
panettiere mancato e l’eremita fallito, che aveva dedicato la sua vita agli
orfani, ai giovani e agli studenti.
Autore: Gianpiero Pettiti
A otto anni lavora già come apprendista fornaio nella cittadina di Znaim (o Zvojmo) in Moravia, nell’attuale Repubblica Ceca: la sua numerosa famiglia ha perduto infatti il padre ancora giovane. Poi lo troviamo servitore in una vicina abbazia, dove frequenta anche il ginnasio fino a 16 anni: studentelavoratore. Pare bene avviato agli studi, e invece decide di isolarsi nella vita eremitica. Trascorre due anni di solitudine, durante i quali l’ex studente Giovanni Evangelista (così è stato battezzato) prende il nome di Clemente Maria, e sembra avere dimenticato la scuola.
Ma dal 1780 al 1784 rieccolo sui libri a Vienna, la capitale imperiale. Con l’aiuto di una ricca famiglia, studia filosofia e teologia all’Università e approfondisce la catechesi alla scuola di Sant’Anna per insegnanti. Poi, ancora un cambiamento: durante un pellegrinaggio a Roma, nel 1784, entra nella congregazione dei Redentoristi, fondata da sant’Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori, e diviene sacerdote dopo aver pronunciato i voti nel 1785. Trascorre qualche mese di studio a Frosinone, e infine riparte verso il Nordeuropa.
Qui l’ex fornaio di Moravia, l’ex studente di Vienna, si trasforma in fondatore. Risiede per 21 anni a Varsavia, istituendovi la prima casa dei Redentoristi. Altre poi ne fa sorgere in Polonia, Germania, Svizzera e Romania. Ma soprattutto “costruisce” sé stesso come animatore di una nuova e più calda religiosità nel Nord, con una predicazione di tipo apostolico che porta intorno a lui un vivace gruppo supernazionale di giovani. Con essi, padre Clemente sviluppa un vasto attivismo nei suoi due tipici campi d’azione: la cultura e le opere di solidarietà. Uno sviluppo (e un’influenza spirituale) che giungono a preoccupare persino Napoleone, diventato padrone di gran parte della Polonia, che nel 1808 ne espelle lui e tutti i suoi discepoli.
E lui torna nella Vienna della sua gioventù, come rettore di chiese, predicatore, e ancora animatore culturale e religioso. E’ un trasformatore di uomini nel mondo degli studi e tra gli alfieri del movimento romantico. La sua attività (con l’esempio della sua vita) è apprezzata anche da protestanti illustri; alcuni, anzi, si fanno cattolici per opera sua. E due di essi, i professori Zangerle e Ziegler, diventeranno vescovi.
La sua influenza si fa sentire anche in politica, per l’opposizione al “giuseppinismo” (dal nome dell’imperatore Giuseppe II) che, in nome dell’ “indipendenza da Roma”, tende a porre la Chiesa d’Austria sotto il controllo imperiale. La morte di padre Clemente Maria viene sentita come un lutto di famiglia a Vienna, che farà di lui (canonizzato da Pio X nel 1909) uno dei suoi santi protettori; e patrono anche dei fornai, in ricordo del suo mestiere da ragazzino.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/45400
detail
of 2001 bronze plaque of saint Klemens Maria Hofbauer in Znojmo by
Zdeněk Maixner.
detail
bronzové pamětní desky - Klement Maria Hofbauer. Desku vytvořil v
roce 2001 Zdeněk Maixner.
S. CLEMENTE MARIA
HOFBAUER (1751-1820)
6
Gennaio 2008 calogeroVite di Santi,
Beati, Venerabili...
A motivo dell’età
avanzata, Clemente non fece che cinque mesi di noviziato e, dopo la professione
religiosa, fu subito ordinato sacerdote ad Alatri (Prosinone) a motivo della
sua provata pietà e del grande bisogno che i Redentoristi avevano di membri. Attese
per un po’ di tempo allo studio della teologia a Frosinone, poi si recò a
Vienna insieme con Taddeo Hùbl per fondarvi una casa. Siccome però, Giuseppe II
era contrario alla diffusione delle famiglie religiose nell’impero
austro-ungarico, egli si recò a Varsavia dove gli fu affidata (1787) la
rettoria della chiesa di San Benno, propria della colonia tedesca, rimasta
senza sacerdoti dopo la soppressione della Compagnia di Gesù.
L’apostolo di Varsavia e
di Vienna nacque, nono tra dodici figli, il 26-12-1751 a Tasswitz, in Mora via,
da un modesto macellaio e contadino. Rimasto a sette anni orfano di padre, la
mamma gli disse, additandogli un crocifisso: “D’ora innanzi questo sarà il
padre tuo. Bada di camminare per quella via che a lui piacerà”. Il fanciullo crebbe
pio, amante del digiuno in onore della Madonna e per il sollievo dei poveri,
con nel cuore il desiderio della vita sacerdotale. Per vivere, a sedici anni
dovetteinvece fare il panettiere, prima nella vicina città di Znaim, e quindi
nel monastero premonstratense di Bruck. L’abate Gregorio Lambeck, edificato
dalle virtù di lui, lo fece suo cameriere e per quattro anni gli concesse di frequentare
la scuola ginnasiale del monastero.
A venticinque anni Clemente,
non potendo più continuare gli studi, si ritirò a Mùhlfrauen, poco distante dal
paese natale, per servire come eremita la chiesa che l’abate Lambeck vi aveva
fatto costruire. Dopo un anno, avendo l’imperatore Giuseppe II aboliti tutti
gli eremitaggi, il santo dovette andare a cercare lavoro a Vienna. Fu là che,
con un altro panettiere, risolvette di pellegrinare a Roma a piedi cantando e
pregando ad alta voce. La tristezza dei tempi imbevuti di illuminismo e
regalismo, risvegliò in lui l’amore alla vita eremitica. Con lo stesso
compagno, pochi anni dopo, Clemente fece ancora un pellegrinaggio a Roma,
benché il suo padrone gli avesse promessodi dargli la figlia per sposa. A
Tivoli si rifugiò presso la chiesa della Madonna di Quintiliolo. Il vescovo
Barnaba Chiaramonti, futuro papa Pio VII, gli diede l’abito eremitico, ma dopo
sei mesi di preghiere, di penitenze e di lavoro. Clemente capì che Dio lo
chiamava alla vita attiva per la salvezza delle anime.
A Vienna il santo riprese
gli studi come poté. facendo il fornaio per vivere, finché tre pie sorelle, ammirate
dalla devozione da lui mostrata nella chiesa di Santo Stefano, lo aiutarono a
diventare sacerdote. Avaro del tempo, per studiare filosofia anche di notte
senza essere vinto dal sonno, passeggiava per la stanza tenendo con una mano il
lume e con l’altra il libro. Tuttavia l’incredulità dei professori dell’università
lo costrinsero a sospendere gli studi. Sicuro che Dio gli avrebbe appianato
ogni difficoltà, con l’amico Taddeo Hùbl decise di recarsi un’altra volta a
Roma a piedi (1784), e di andare ad ascoltare la Messa il giorno dopo il loro
arrivo nella chiesa di cui avrebbe udito il suono delle campane. In San
Giuliano, poco lontano da Santa Maria Maggiore, trovò la comunità dei Redentoristi
raccolti in preghiera. Al superiore chiese informazioni sullo scopo della
Congregazione, gli piacque e fu felice di sentirsi invitato a entrarvi con l’amico
benché fosse forestiero,senza patrimonio e in età di trentatré anni. Quando S.
Alfonso de’ Liguori (+1787) lo seppe, se ne rallegrò prevedendo la diffusione
del suo istituto oltre i monti.
A motivo dell’età avanzata,
Clemente non fece che cinque mesi di noviziato e, dopo la professione
religiosa, fu subito ordinato sacerdote ad Alatri (Prosinone) a motivo della
sua provata pietà e del grande bisogno che i Redentoristi avevano di membri. Attese
per un po’ di tempo allo studio della teologia a Frosinone, poi si recò a
Vienna insieme con Taddeo Hùbl per fondarvi una casa. Siccome però, Giuseppe II
era contrario alla diffusione delle famiglie religiose nell’impero austro-ungarico,
egli si recò a Varsavia dove gli fu affidata (1787) la rettoria della chiesa di
San Benno, propria della colonia tedesca, rimasta senza sacerdoti dopo la
soppressione della Compagnia di Gesù. Gli inizi del suo apostolato furono duri
per la grande povertà in cui si trovava e l’indifferenza degli abitanti di
Varsavia. Un giorno il santo sentì il bisogno di andare a battere alla porta
del tabernacolo e dire con grande semplicità all’ospite divino: “Signore Gesù,
se non vieni in nostro aiuto, dovremo partire o morire”. La sua fede fu
ricompensata: lo stesso giorno uno sconosciuto gli si presentò per donargli una
forte somma di denaro. I tedeschi non tardarono ad affluire a San Benno e
numerosi giovani di diverse nazionalità chiesero di far parte dei Redentoristi
del ramo transalpino, di cui Clemente era stato eletto Vicario generale.
L’attività apostolica di
Clemente ebbe del prodigioso. Per venti anni egli trasformò la sua chiesa in un
centro di intensa vita spirituale. Gli stranieri, di passaggio per Varsavia, affermavano
che, in nessun’altra chiesa d’Europa, si notava tanto afflusso di fedeli e
tanto splendore di cerimonie quanto in quella di San Benno. Tutte le mattine
infatti, dalle cinque a mezzogiorno, vi si cantavano tre Messe e vi si tenevano
tre sermoni. Nel pomeriggio, alle quattordici riprendevano le funzioni per i
polacchi e per i tedeschi con il canto dell’ufficio della Madonna e dei Vespri,
con due sermoni, la benedizione eucaristica e l’esercizio della Via Crucis. Il
superiore generale dei Redentoristi, ignaro delle eccezionali circostanze in
cui P. Clemente si trovava, gli rimproverò l’eccessivo lavoro apostolico. Il
santo gli rispose: “Se vedeste con i vostri occhi lo spaventoso stato della
religione in questa depravata città, ci rimproverereste non di predicare
troppo, ma di non predicare abbastanza, malgrado i nostri cinque sermoni
quotidiani… Siccome il governo ha interdetto le missioni, noi abbiamo dovuto
pensare a soccorrere il popolo, e così la nostra chiesa è diventata il teatro
di una missione perpetua per i tedeschi e i polacchi. La gente vi accorre non
soltanto da Varsavia e dai dintorni, ma dalle più lontane province. I fedeli si
fermano tre, cinque e qualche volta fino ad otto giorni, seguono gli esercizi spirituali,
ricevono i sacramenti, poi se ne ritornano a casa fortificati dalla grazia
divina”. Numerose furono le
conversioni pure tra gli ebrei e i protestanti per i quali erano state organizzate predicazioni e conferenze appropriate.
Clemente non si limitò a predicare,
a confessare e a confortare i moribondi, ma propagò la sua Congregazione a
Mittau, nella Curlandia (1795) e in altre due succursali vicino a Varsavia, a
Yestetten (1802), nella diocesi di Colonia (Germania); fondò delle
confraternite e delle congregazioni mariane per lo splendore del culto e la diffusione
dei buoni libri; eresse un convitto per la formazione dei chierici; due
orfanotrofi per i bambini rimasti soli al mondo dopo il bombardamento di
Varsavia da parte dell’esercito russo. Per sostentarli e avviarli al lavoro non
si vergognò di andare a mendicare alle porte dei ricchi. La sua fiducia nella
Provvidenza non andò delusa mai. Soleva dire: “Ad un prete che fa il proprio
dovere nulla mancherà; e se restasse nel mondo un pane solo, Iddio gliene
darebbe la metà”. Per le sue opere di carità si cattivò l’animo di tutte le
classi sociali. Un giorno egli stesso confidò: “Se tutto il denaro che ricevei
a Varsavia e dispensai ai poveri si raccogliesse in un sacco, formerebbe tal carico
che un uomo non riuscirebbe a portare”.
Certuni chiamavano
Clemente Hofbauer “il padre santo”, e baciavano con venerazione il luogo per
cui passava. Egli pregava di
continuo, in casa, in chiesa, per strada. Ovunque, appariva con la corona del
rosario in mano. Poiché in tale devozione trovava materia di frequenti meditazioni,
egli la chiamava “la sua biblioteca”. Ogni volta che recitò il
rosario per qualche peccatore, ne ottenne la conversione. Appena disponeva di
un po’ di tempo correva ad inginocchiarsi davanti all’altare. Sovente fu visto
al momento della comunione nella Messa versare abbondanti lacrime. Altre volte
fu visto circonfuso di luce. L’amor di Dio lo portava a considerare la
verginità come il più bel ornamento della vita sacerdotale. Quando trattava con
le donne teneva gli occhi abitualmente bassi. Era intransigente riguardo
all’osservanza delle regole. Nelle esortazioni che rivolgeva ai religiosi
nessun difetto lasciava passare inosservato, specialmente quelli contrari
all’ubbidienza. Ciò nonostante fu amato da tutti, perché ebbe il dono di non
far sentire la sua autorità nelle comunità, composte di religiosi di diverse
nazionalità e seppe ascoltare tutti. Era di natura irascibile, ma anziché
sgomentarsene, ringraziava il Signore perché gli dava così modo di fare atti di
umiltà. Dei difetti in cui cadeva faceva penitenza indossando cilici e dandosi
la disciplina. Fino a quarant’anni non gustò il vino; fino alla morte non fece
uso di ombrello e di cappello per rispetto alla presenza di Dio e dell’angelo
custode. Il digiuno e la più rigorosa astinenza furono sempre i suoi
inseparabili compagni.
Con l’invasione della Germania
e della Polonia da partedelle truppe napoleoniche (1808) i Redentoristi furono
costretti a rifugiarsi in Austria. P. Clemente ne soffrì atrocemente, ma
poiché, secondo lui, “ilmiglior mezzo per farsi santo era d’immergersi nella
volontà di Dio come una pietra s’immerge nel mare”, si trasferì presso la
chiesa degli italiani, nella quale promosse la devozione al SS. Sacramento. La
sua maggior consolazione consisteva infatti nel distribuire il maggior numero
possibile di comunioni e di portarle agli infermi. Due giorni la settimana si
recava alla chiesa dei Mechitaristi per confessare la povera gente e tenere un
sermone sulla Madonna. Nel 1813 l’arcivescovo di Vienna lo nominò confessore e direttore
delle Orsoline, che nelle loro scuole istruivano un migliaio di fanciulle. Di
tutte egli ebbe somma cura per la grande stima che aveva delle anime vergini,
da lui considerate sorelle degli angeli. Ripeteva sovente loro: “Piuttosto morire che disubbidire; chi osserva l’orario, osserva la volontà di
Dio”. Le Orsoline sapevano che egli avrebbe preferito confessare mezza armata
dell’esercito austriaco anziché cinque monache tiepide.
Le prediche che il santo
faceva gli attirarono ben presto un numeroso uditorio. Commuoveva gli animi di
tutti, dotti e ignoranti, nobili e plebei, benché parlasse senza molta eleganza.
Una parola uscita dalla sua bocca bastava loro per una intera settimana. Il suo
dire accendeva più che la fiamma e penetrava i cuori più che un’acuta spada.
Nel confessionale raccoglieva poi quietamente le noci che con la predicazione
aveva violentemente crollato dall’albero. Da tutte le classi sociali egli era ricercato come direttore
di spirito, tanto sapeva leggere negli animi e suggerire appropriati rimedi.
Il tempo libero di cui
disponeva, il santo lo dedicava alla visita dei malati e al soccorso dei
poveri, all’adorazione del SS. Sacramento nelle chiese in cui era esposto per
le Quarantore, e alle conversazioni serali con i giovani studenti, che in
numero di venti o trenta, la sera si radunavano nel suo modesto appartamento. I più poveri li invitava a pranzare con lui. I cibi,
che le Orsoline gli mandavano, non sempre erano sufficienti per tante bocche e
allora egli li moltiplicava con grande meraviglia dei suoi figli spirituali. Ad
essi comunicò la sua viva fede in Dio e nell’eternità e la sua devozione alla
SS. Eucarestia. Fra i suoi penitenti egli non esitò a introdurre la comunione
frequente, benché a quei tempi fosse ancora molto rara tra le persone devote.
La Chiesa Cattolica per
P. Clemente costituiva il fatto più culminante della storia. “Io sono superbo – diceva – sono vanitoso, sono peccatore,
nulla ho imparato. Una sola cosa confesso di possedere per grazia di Dio, di
essere cattolico tutto d’un pezzo”. Quanti lo avvicinavano rimanevano
stupiti della prontezza e acume con cui sapeva risolvere intricate questioni di
teologia, benché non avesse avuto il tempo di completare i suoi studi. Iddio gli
aveva senza dubbio comunicato dei lumi speciali, ma egli li nascondeva dicendo
per scherzo: “Io ho un naso cattolico”. Durante il Congresso di Vienna (1815)
fu largo di consigli ai Nunzi apostolici e persino al cardinal Consalvi, rappresentante della Santa Sede e stimolò i letterati cattolici a combattere
coloro che miravano a formare una chiesa nazionale tedesca indipendente dal
papa.
La congregazione dei Redentoristi
non era ufficialmente riconosciuta in Austria. Gli anticlericali avrebbero
voluto espellere il P. Clemente dal loro paese, ma l’imperatore Francesco I non
ne volle sapere. Anzi, pregò il Santo di presentare al governo le regole del
suo Istituto e di esporre, sotto quali condizioni, sarebbe stato possibile
introdurlo in Austria. Si preparava così l’avveramento della profezia che aveva
fatto: “Fintanto che vivrò io, non se ne farà nulla, ma dopo la mia morte si
apriranno molti collegi”.
Clemente era sempre stato
di costituzione robusta, eppure i ripetuti viaggi fatti a piedi col vento e la
pioggia, la sua lunga permanenza in confessionale, le fatiche del pulpito, le
veglie al capezzale di morenti, i reumatismi e le emorroidi ne prostrarono la
fibra. Convinto di essere stato un servo inutile il 15 marzo morì perfettamente
conformato alla volontà di Dio, dopo aver esortato gli astanti a recitare l’Angelus
al suono delle campane di mezzogiorno. Ad un confratello, poco prima di morire,
disse: “Mio caro, molti segreti scendono con me nel sepolcro. Io ve li
comunicherei, ma voi non potete tacere”. Quando Pio VII seppe della morte di
lui, esclamò: “La religione ha perso in Austria il suo principale sostegno”.
Leone XIII lo beatificò il 20-1-1888 e S. Pio X lo canonizzò il 20-5-1909. Le
sue reliquies ono venerate a Vienna nella chiesa di Santa Maria della Scala.
Sac. Guido Pettinati SSP, I Santi canonizzati de giorno,
vol. 3, Udine: ed. Segno, 1991, pp. 184-190.
SOURCE : https://www.paginecattoliche.it/S-CLEMENTE-MARIA-HOFBAUER-17511820/
Pfarrkirche
hl. Florian, Hanfthal, Laa an der Thaya, Niederösterreich - Statue hl. Klemens
Maria Hofbauer (Südostecke des Langeschiffes)
Den hellige Klemens Maria
Hofbauer (1751-1820)
Minnedag: 15.
mars
Skytshelgen for Wien
(1914)
Den hellige Klemens Maria
Hofbauer ble født som Johannes Dvorák (cz: Jan) den 26. desember 1751 i
Tasovice (Tasswitz) ved Znaim (i dag Znojmo) i det sørlige Morava (Mähren) i
dagens Tsjekkia. Han var den niende av de tolv barna til en tsjekkisk slakter
og oppdretter av slaktefe og hans tyske hustru. Da han mistet sin far som
seksåring, førte moren ham til krusifikset og sa: «Nå skal Jesus være din Far».
Som svært ung måtte han hjelpe til med å forsørge familien og ble lærling hos
en baker, men ville gjerne studere.
Han ville gjerne bli
prest, men han fant ingen til å betale studiene, så han begynte som femtenåring
å arbeide som baker, først i Znaim og deretter i bakeriet i premonstratensernes
kloster i Bruck (Klosterbruck) (i dag Louka). Den selvoppofrelse han viste
under en hungersnød gjorde at han fikk abbedens gunst, og han fikk gå på
klosterets skole. Han ble også hjulpet av en fetter, som etter filosofiske
studier på universitetet i Olmütz i 1772 trådte inn som novise i Klosterbruck.
Avtalen innebar at han ble kammertjener og oppdekker i klosteret.
Etter abbedens død
lengtet han etter å bli eneboer, men eremittklostrene var offisielt stengt, så
i 1771 dro han til Wien og ble baker der, og han fant dessuten snart ut at han
passet bedre til et aktivt liv. I Wien endret han sitt etternavn til det tyske
«Hofbauer». Tre adelige kvinner gjorde det mulig for ham å gå på latinskolen.
I noen år førte han en
omvandrende tilværelse mellom Roma og Wien, og foretok i alt syv
pilegrimsreiser. På en av disse mottok han sammen med vennen Peter Kunzmann i
1777 eneboerdrakten av biskop Chiaramonte av Tivoli, som skulle bli pave Pius
VII (1800-23). Han endret også Johannes' navn til Klemens. De slo seg ned i en
eneboerkommunitet i Tivoli øst for Roma. Men etter få måneder forsto Klemens at
hans egentlige kall var å bli misjonær, så han vendte tilbake til et Wien hvor
keiser Josef II (1780-90) styrte. I hele Klemens' liv var innflytelsen fra
«Opplysningen» og Josef IIs anti-pavelige Josefisme eller Erastianisme (oppkalt
etter den sveitsiske teologen Erastus), det vil si den verdslige makts kontroll
over Kirken, på sitt høyeste. Som alle fromme katolikker led Klemens mye under
dette systemet.
Klemens bygde seg en
eneboerhytte på en eiendom som han hadde fått i arv sammen med søsteren Barbara
i skogen ved Pölz ved Mühlfraun, et populært moravisk valfartssted. Da
eremittene den gangen ofte virket som lærere og kateketer, reiste Klemens
høsten 1779 til Wien, hvor han ville delta på et kateketkurs på skolen St.
Anna. Han tjente til livets opphold som bakerlærling.
En dag han hadde
tjenestegjort ved messen i Stefan-katedralen hjalp han to kvinner med å skaffe
en vogn i det øsende regnværet. Dette møtet førte til at de ikke bare ga ham
økonomisk støtte til prestestudier, men også hans venn Thaddeus Hübl. De
studerte i Wien fra 1780 og avsluttet studiene i Roma i 1784.
I en alder av 33 år
sluttet Klemens seg den 24. oktober 1784 sammen med Thaddeus seg til
kongregasjonen Redemptoristene (Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris –
CSSR), som den hellige Alfons Liguori hadde
grunnlagt i 1732. Dette var mens ordensgrunnleggeren fortsatt var i live (d.
1787). Klemens tok nå i tillegg navnet Maria. Den 19. mars 1785 avla vennene
sine løfter, og deretter flyttet de til kongregasjonens studiekollegium i
Frosinone. Den 29. mars ble de presteviet. I juni samme år døde Klemens' mor.
I oktober samme år sendte
ordenen Klemens tilbake til Wien for å grunnlegge et hus for redemptoristene,
men dette viste seg umulig under den josefistiske lovgivningen i
Østerrike-Ungarn. I stedet ble han sendt for å starte en misjon i Kurland i
Litauen. Sammen med noen medbrødre, blant dem Thaddeus, dro Klemens nordover.
På veien sluttet hans gamle venn Peter Kunzmann, som fortsatt var eremitt i
Tivoli, men nå på pilegrimsreise, seg til dem som legbror, og han var den
første som ble redemptoristnovise nord for Alpene.
De dro først til det
delte Polen. I Warszawa ga den pavelige nuntius dem i 1787 kirken St. Benno til
deres bruk. Men for å sikre pastoral tjeneste for de flere tusen tysktalende
katolikkene i byen, som hadde vært uten prester siden nedleggelsen av
jesuittordenen, skrev nuntius til Roma og oppnådde at misjonen til Kurland ble
utsatt.
I Polen fant Klemens
bedrøvelige sosiale og kirkelige forhold, men han arbeidet der i tyve år og var
den første som etablerte redemptoristene nord for Alpene. De startet i den
ytterste fattigdom. Siden de ikke en gang hadde senger, sov to av dem på bordet
mens broder Emmanuel brukte en stol. Først forkynte de i gatene, men dette ble
forbudt av myndighetene. Selv om deres arbeid primært var med tyskere, ønsket
Klemens å hjelpe alle. Ankomsten av den første polske novisen, Johannes
Podgorski, gjorde det mye lettere å nå polakkene. I 1788 ble Klemens
generalvikar for redemptoristene nord for Alpene. I 1799 hadde kongregasjonen
25 medlemmer i Warszawa.
Fra 1789 til 1808 prekte
de fem ganger om dagen, tre ganger på polsk og to på tysk, og omvendte utallige
jøder, protestanter og frafalne katolikker. De fikk enda en kirke, «Det hellige
kors på markene». Klemens etablerte et barnehjem nær St. Benno, og han gikk
rundt og tigget almisser til dets drift. På en av hans tiggeekspedisjoner
svarte en mann som spilte kort i en taverna, med å spytte Klemens i ansiktet.
Klemens var uberørt og sa: «Det var til meg. Nå la meg få nå til mine stakkars
barn». Den mannen ble senere en av hans regelmessige skriftebarn.
Det ble også grunnlagt en
gutteskole for 200 barn, som snart hadde 350 elever. De grunnla også en
latinskole for begavede barn. Brorskap og andre foreninger hjalp til med å
sikre driften. I tillegg grunnla Klemens også sykehus og andre karitative
prosjekter, og han ble kjent som «Warszawas apostel». Blant annet grunnla han
en slags yrkesskole for rundt 200 jenter, enten «falne»eller i faresonen. Denne
ble betrodd St. Josefsøstre. Ordenen slo seg ned flere steder i landet, og da
antallet brødre vokste, sendte han redemptoristmisjonærer til Kurland, deres
opprinnelige mål, men også Tyskland og Sveits. Han grunnla også det første
redemptoristhuset i Tyskland, nemlig i Jestetten ved Schaffhausen i 1802. Han
planla å reise til USA i 1806 og oppmuntret andre til å reise i sitt sted. Den
4. april 1807 døde hans venn Thaddeus.
Men hans meget fruktbare
religiøse og sosiale arbeid sluttet etter tyve år i 1808, da Napoleon Bonaparte
invaderte Polen og oppløste de religiøse ordenene i landet, og mye av arbeidet
var forgjeves. En politiagent risikerte livet ved å varsle redemptoristene om
den forestående utvisningen, slik at det var forberedt på den offisielle
visitasjonen da den kom den 20. juni 1808. De ble tatt med til festningen
Cüstrin ved breddene av elva Oder. De hadde en stor innflytelse på de andre
fangene og på folket utenfor, som pleide å flokke seg rundt fengselet for å
lytte til redemptoristenes hymner, så myndighetene bestemte seg for å sende dem
bort. De ble deretter utvist til sine respektive fødeland.
Men Klemens Maria
bestemte seg for å slå seg ned i Wien i håp om å kunne etablere et
redemptoristhus der. Etter store vanskeligheter, inkludert en ny arrestasjon
ved den østerrikske grensen, nådde han i slutten av september 1808 Wien, hvor
han skulle bo og arbeide de siste tolv årene av sitt liv. I Wien kjempet han
utrettelig mot statens kontroll over Kirken og religiøse anliggender. Han
arbeidet stillferdig i det italienske kvartalet og ble våren 1813 utnevnt til kapellan
for Ursulinnene og rektor for deres kirke av erkebiskop Sigismund Anton von
Hohenwart. Der var han fri til å preke, høre skriftemål og utføre alle sine
prestelige plikter.
Snart begynte det fra
dette senteret å sive ny kraft ut i det religiøse liv i Wien. Igjen ble han
viden kjent som predikant og åndelig veileder, og hans skriftestol ble ikke
bare oppsøkt av de fattige og enkle, men også av prinser, akademikere,
kunstnere, forfattere og andre. Han øvde stor innflytelse på senromantikken i
Wien og han hadde mange konvertitter: dikteren Friedrich Schlegel, juristen
Johann Friedrich Heinrich Schlosser, pedagogen Friedrich August von
Klinkowström, den senere hoffråd i det hemmelige statskanselli Adam Heinrich
Müller og ikke minst legen Johann Emanuel Veith og dikteren Zacharias Werder,
som begge trådte inn hos redemptoristene i 1821. For å kunne henvise til
ordenens kulturelle arbeid – religiøs virksomhet sto lavt i kurs – grunnla
Klemens et bibliotek og et utmerket tidsskrift. Hans dype filosofiske og teologiske
foredrag ble høyeste mote i adelens salonger. Han sto i nær kontakt med de
berømte romantikerne Friedrich Schlegel, Joseph von Eichendorff og Clemens
Brentano, den såkalte «Hofbauer-kretsen».
Han var ikke begunstiget
av en adelig herkomst, ikke heller av noen særlig utdannelse, men han ble den
mest respekterte og innflytelsesrike presten i byen. Det lyktes ham også å
grunnlegge et nytt katolsk kollegium i Wien, og studentene skulle komme til å
inneha viktige posisjoner på alle områder eller bli prester og munker. Bak
kulissene hadde han til og med en viss innflytelse i kirkelige anliggender på
Wienerkongressen i 1814-15 etter Napoleons nederlag. Der bidro han sammen med
prins Rupert av Bayern til å forpurre planene om å starte en nasjonal tysk kirke
uavhengig av pavedømmet.
Hele sitt liv hadde
Klemens Maria en utrettelig omsorg for de syke og døende, og han innførte
skikken med husbesøk. Han skal ha sittet ved 2.000 dødsleier. Han ble tilkalt
til både rike og fattige og sa aldri nei. Nå fikk han også tilnavnet «Wiens
apostel». Han gikk nye veier i sjelesorgen ved å opprette kirkelige
utlånsbiblioteker. Han utmerket seg også ved en stor og dyp forståelse av
årsakene til den protestantiske reformasjonen og av de religiøse motivene som
lå til grunn for den i det tyske folk. Han forberedte grunnen for den etter
hvert solide etableringen av redemptoristene i de tyske landene.
Til tross for sitt gode
arbeid og kjente navn forble Klemens gjenstand for fiendskap fra tilhengerne av
josefismen. En gang fikk han forbud mot å preke, og han ble beskyldt for å være
en romersk spion. Kansleren ba om at han måtte bli utvist fra Østerrike, men
overraskende nok fikk han støtte fra Josefs etterfølger som keiser, Frans I
(1792-1835), som hadde hørt mye godt om Klemens fra pave Pius VII og
fyrsteerkebiskopen av Wien, kardinal Joseph Othmar Rauscher. Keiser Frans
forbød ikke bare mer plaging av redemptoristene, men han snakket til og med om
en rettslig anerkjennelse av kongregasjonen.
I 1819 ble Klemens
dødssyk av flere sykdommer, og den 9. mars trosset han en snøstorm for å delta
i begravelsen til en betydelig velgjører, prinsesse Jablonowska, som hadde
hjulpet ham da han var i Warszawa. Seks dager senere døde han den 15. mars
1820. Til hans begravelse i katedralen i Wien kom det tusenvis av mennesker.
Han ble først gravlagt på «Romantikerkirkegården» i Maria Enzersdorf, men i
1862 ble hans jordiske rester overført til kirken Maria Stiegen i Wien, også
kalt Maria am Gestade. Der finnes fortsatt hans grav, som dessverre ikke er
pleid særlig kjærlighetsfullt. Hans relikvier oppbevares i dag i et
relikvieskrin i gull under et moderne steinalter i skipet i kirken.
Tre måneder etter hans
død ble den saken han lenge hadde arbeidet for, grunnleggelsen av et
redemptoristhus i Østerrike, kronet med suksess, og ordenen ble godkjent i
landet. Uten hans anstrengelser ville den kirkelige fornyelsen i Østerrike ha
vært utenkelig.
Klemens Maria Hofbauer
ble saligkåret den 29. januar 1888 (dokumentet (Breve) var datert den 20.
januar) av pave Leo XIII (1878-1903) og helligkåret den 20. mai 1909 av den
hellige pave Pius
X (1903-14), som utnevnte ham til skytshelgen for Wien i 1914. Hans
minnedag er 15. mars. Hans navn står i Martyrologium Romanum. Han avbildes
oftest i redemptoristenes ordensdrakt, ofte i bønn med en rosenkrans.
Kilder: Attwater
(dk), Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Bentley, Butler (III), Benedictines,
Delaney, Bunson, Engelhart, Schnitzler, Schauber/Schindler, Gorys, Dammer/Adam,
Index99, KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN, Infocatho, Bautz,
Heiligenlexikon - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Opprettet: 2000-02-01 21:34 - Sist oppdatert: 2006-01-02 20:47
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/khofbaur
Klemens Maria Hofbauer
auch: Clemens
Taufname: Johannes Dvorčak
Gedenktag katholisch: 15. März
nicht gebotener Gedenktag im deutschen Sprachgebiet
Fest im Erzbistum Wien und im Redemptoristenorden
gebotener Gedenktag in den Bistümern Kraków / Krakau, Warszawa/Warschau und
Warszawa-Praga
in Deutschland und Österreich: Gedenktag
III. Klasse
Name bedeutet: der
Sanftmütige (latein.)
Einsiedler, Priester, Ordensvikar
* 26. Dezember 1751 in Taßwitz in Südmähren, heute Tasovice in Tschechien
† 15. März 1820 in Wien in
Österreich
Johannes Dvorčak, Sohn
des aus Böhmen gekommenen
Metzgers Pavel Dvořák und dessen deutschstämmiger Frau Maria geb. Steer, wurde
Bäcker, weil seine Eltern die Ausbildung zum Priester nicht finanzieren
konnten. Mit Hilfe wohlmeinender Leute konnte er doch noch das Gymnasium
besuchen; schon damals unternahm er drei Mal eine Wallfahrt zu
den sieben
Pilgerkirchen in Rom und lebte dann als Einsiedler zunächst in Mähren,
dann nach einer weiteren Rom-Wallfahrt nahe Tivoli in Italien an der Stelle des
heutigen Sanktuariums
Maria di Quntiliolo.
Seitdem nannte Johannes
sich mit dem Einverständnis des Bischofs von Tivoli und
späteren Papstes Pius VII. Klemens Maria. Durch seine Förderer unterstützt,
konnte er 1779 das Theologiestudium an der damaligen Universität in
Wien beginnen und 1784 bei den Redemptoristen in
Rom an der ehemaligen Kirche San
Giuliano all'Esquilino beenden. Im selben Jahr schloss er sich dort
dem kurz zuvor gegründeten Redemptoristenorden an und empfing 1785 in Alatri bei
Frosinone die Priesterweihe.
1787 wurde Hofbauer zur
Seelsorge an Deutschen nach Warschau gesandt, wo er an der von der aus Bayern
gekommenen Benno-Fraternität für die Deutschen der Stadt erbauten Kirche wirkte.
Bald schon wuchs dort eine Kommunität von Redemptoristen;
Hofbauer richetete dort die immerwährende Mission ein: eine den
ganzen Sonntag andauernde Gottesdienst- und Predigt-Veranstaltung mit barocker
Pracht und Orchesteraufführungen, ganz gegen den liturgischen Zeitgeist, der
von der Aufklärung geprägt war; die kleine Kirche, der gegenüberliegende
Friedhof und die Straße waren oft voll betender Menschen, gepredigt wurde in
Deutsch und Polnisch, Mittelpunt der viele Stunden währenden Feiern war
die Eucharistiefeier.
Dem Zug der Zeit gemäß war die Gründung einer Armenschule - zusammen mit seinem
Freund Pater Thaddäus Hübl - für 350 Jungen, einer höheren Mädchenschule und
eines Waisenhauses; außerdem bildete Hofbauer aktive Laiengruppen aus. 1788
erfolgte seine Ernennung zum Generalvikar des Ordens für den Norden Europas..
Von Warschau aus
wirkte Hofbauer bis nach Süddeutschland und in die Schweiz hinein, sein Ziel
war die Gründung eines ersten Redemptoristenklosters
nördlich der Alpen. Auf dem Bauernhof
der Familie Kümin im Hirz in Wollerau am Zürichsee 1 hatte
er im Winter 1797/98 für kurze Zeit sein Domizil. Eine Ordensniederlassung
entstand auch an der St.
Luzikirche in Chur. 1802 konnte er im Kloster der Prämonstratenser in
Jestetten nahe Schaffhausen die erste deutsche Niederlassung gründen, die aber
nur bis 1805 bestand. Auf Wunsch der dortigen Gemeinde und mit Unterstützung
von Erzherzog Ferdinand in Wien kam
er 1805 als Wallfahrtsseelsorger nach Triberg und gründete dort für seine
Ordensgemeinschaft im Wallfahrtspfarrhaus ein
Priesterseminar; aber bereits nach drei Monaten verließ er Triberg wieder, da
ihm der zuständige Generalvikar keine Erlaubnis für die Seelsorge in der
Bevölkerung erteilte.
Dann erlaubte Fürst Fugger ihm, als Seelsorger
in Babenhausen im Unterallgäu tätig zu werden, wo er zusammen
mit seinem Mitbruder Passerat viele Menschen begeisterte. Aber
1808 zerstörten die Folgen der napoleonischen Kriege endgültig, was Hofbauer
bislang aufgebaut hatte.
Hofbauer musste 1807 auch Warschau verlassen und ging wieder nach Wien, wo er im
damaligen Kloster der Ursulinen lebte und wirkte. Hier zog Hofbauer
mit seiner natürlichen, bäuerlichen, manchmal auch derben Art, die dem
aufgeklärt-rationalistischen Zeitgeist des Josephinismus widersprach,
die Menschenmassen an; das brachte ihm den Beinamen Apostel von
Wien ein aber auch die Aufmerksamkeit der Staatspolizei, die ihn
bespitzelte.
Sein Hofbauerkreis,
eine zweimal wöchentlich sich treffende Gruppe von Männern, größtenteils
Studenten, die Hofbauer als Beichtvater und Ratgeber schätzten und mit ihm
einig waren im Ziel einer Reform der östrereichischen katholischen Kirche, die
sich wieder allein am Papst in Rom und
den althergebrechten Dogmen zu orientieren habe, übte auch nach Hofbauers Tod
großen Einfluss auf die habsburgische Kirchenpolitik aus. Während er von seinen
Anhängern verehrt wurde, lehnten andere sein Wirken ab. Im Jahr vor seinem Tod
stand er sogar kurz vor der Ausweisung, nur Dank des persönlichen Eingreifens
des Kaisers durfte er in Wien bleiben.
Als Verfechter einer
ausgesprochenen Individualseelsorge kümmerte Hofbauer sich v. a. um Studenten
und Professoren, veranstaltete Leseabende, richtete eine Leihbücherei ein und
gründete die Zeitschrift Ölzweige.
Hofbauer wurde auch
zum Erfinder der Hausbesuche zur Vertiefung der persönlichen
Seelsorge. Wieder entfaltete er umfangreiche caritative Aktivitäten - ab 1813
als Kirchenrektor an St.
Ursula. Hofbauer pflegte Kontakt und Freundschaft auch zu Künstlern, v. a.
der Deutschen Romantik; im Hofbauer-Kreis traf er sich mit Clemens
von Brentano, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich von Schlegel und anderen
Vertretern der deutschen Romantik. Er verkehrte mit Studenten und
Gelehrten ebenso wie mit einfachen Leuten und Armen, denen er - unter seinem
Mantel verborgen - Essensreste brachte. Gegen Ende seines Lebens erfüllte sich
ein Lebenstraum: zur Wiedergutmachung für die Kontrolle durch die staatliche
Sicherheitspolizei erlaubte Kaiser Franz 1820 die Zulassung des Redemptoristenordens in
Österreich.
Hofbauer starb im Ursulinenkloster in
Wien und wurde auf dem Romantikerfriedhof - so genannt, weil auch
viele seiner Freunde aus dem Wiener Romantikerkreis hier bestattet
wurden - in Maria Enzersdorf bei Wien begraben. Dort ist sein - nun leeres
- Grab erhalten.
1862 überführte man
seine Gebeine in die Redemptoristenkirche Maria am Gestade nach Wien.
Kanonisation: Am 29. Januar 1888 wurde Hofbauer von Papst Leo XIII. selig- und am 20. Mai 1909 von Papst Pius X. heiliggesprochen sowie am 14. Januar 1914 vom selben Papst zum Stadtpatron von Wien erklärt.
Patron von Wien,
der Gesellenvereine
1 Als einer der
letzten Bauernhöfe von Wollerau wird dieser
Hof in neuen Gebäuden bis heute von der gleichen Familie Kümin
betrieben. Es gibt dort einen kleinen Hausaltar im Andenken an Pater Hofbauer.
Die gelegentlich verbreitete Nachricht, Hofbauer habe im Schulhaus in Wollerau
eine Ordensniederlassung gegründet, ist falsch. In der Verenakirche in
Wollerau wird seit um 1985 eine kleine Reliquie im
Volksaltar verwahrt und Hofbauer gilt neben den Kirchenpatronen als
Lokalheiliger.
Worte des Heiligen
In Hofbauers Briefen kommt vor allem sein Bestreben zum Ausdruck, sich vorbehaltlos dem Willen und Plan Gottes unterzuordnen:
Nur Mut! Gott ist der Meister. Er lenkt alles zu seiner Ehre und zu unserem
Besten und niemand kann ihm widerstehen. Alle Pläne der Menschen und seien sie
noch so gut ausgedacht, dienen nur dazu, seinen Willen zu erfüllen. Ich habe
mich in diesen Umständen ganz seinem Willen ergeben. Ich sehe, dass alles, was
uns entgegen zu sein scheint, uns dorthin führt, wo Gott will. So wurde
auch Paulus als
Gefangener nach Rom geführt,
die ersten Gläubigen in Jerusalem wurden
verfolgt, damit das Reich Jesu Christi sich ausdehne. Lassen wir also Gott
handeln und lenken. Das ist das Beste.
Es lebe Jesus! Lieber Mitbruder!
Wenn wir uns nur gut in alles hineinfügen, dann wird alles zu unserem Besten ausgehen, denn nur Gott durch seinen heiligen Willen lässt alle Veränderungen in der Welt geschehen, die seinen Auserwählten begegnen. Er gab den Römern die Weltherrschaft, um die Ausbreitung des Evangeliums zu erleichtern. Alles muss zusammen handeln zur Verwirklichung seines ewigen Planes. Ein Unglück für die Missetäter, die nur in ihrer Bosheit handeln, damit das Böse mehr aufscheine und die Diener Gottes geprüft werden. …
Wir müssen mit größter Unterwürfigkeit die heiligste Vorsehung anbeten und die Hände dessen küssen, der uns hundertmal schlägt; er kann auch unsere Wunden heilen. Die Toten sind unter den Heiligen. Du willst sterben? Aus Liebe zu Christus? Oder aus Liebe zum Fleisch? Um das Kreuz loszuwerden?
Es ist besser zu leiden als zu sterben und mit Christus am Kreuz zu hangen.
Sicher, überall gibt es Schwierigkeiten; bedenke das Wort des Apostels: Wer mit
Christus fromm leben will etc. Es ist ein gutes Zeichen, wenn der Feind tobt; und
ganz schlecht ist es, wenn er mit uns zufrieden ist.
Quelle: Klemens Maria Hofbauer: Brief an die Mitbrüder 1806. In: J. Donner und J. Steinle: Nur Mut, Gott lenkt alles - Klemens Maria Hofbauer in seinen Briefen. München 1984, S. 33
Klemens Maria Hofbauer: Brief an die Mitbrüder vom 6. August 1872, ebda., S.
217f
Zitate von Klemens Maria
Hofbauer:
Die Zeit ist soviel wert
als Gott selbst, weil man in einem Augenblick verloren gehen kann und in einem
Augenblick Gott selbst zu gewinnen vermag. Zieht also aus dem Augenblick, der
in eurer Gewalt steht, Nutzen.
Mit dem aktiven Leben verbinden wir das kontemplative. Dem äußeren Leben suchen
wir Feuer und Geist einzugießen. Ohne die Salbung des Heiligen Geistes
kreischen die Wagen der Arbeiter.
Der Mensch braucht nur einen ernstlichen Willen, Gott steht mit seiner Gnade
bei.
Nur wer rechtmäßig gestritten hat, wird gekrönt werden. Jeder Christ muss
früher oder später erprobt werden. Die Tugend, die nicht erprobt ist, ist keine
Tugend.
Wer nicht mit Christus leiden will, kann nicht mit ihm im Himmel sich freuen.
In der Zeit der Betrachtung vor den Füßen des Gekreuzigten scheint man zu allem
entschlossen zu sein, aber sobald der Herr uns sein Kreuz auflegen will, so ist
man ungeschickt, selbes zu tragen. Ein solcher alter Esel bin ich.
Quelle: Klemens Maria
Hofbauer: Brief an die Mitbrüder 1806. In: J. Donner und J. Steinle: Nur Mut,
Gott lenkt alles - Klemens Maria Hofbauer in seinen Briefen. München 1984, S.
32, 84
P. Adolf Innerkofler: Ein österreichischer Reformator - Lebensbild des heiligen
P. Klemens Maria Hofbauer, Regensburg / Rom / New York / Cincinnati 1910,
S.439f, 445
zusammengestellt von Abt em. Dr. Emmeram Kränkl OSB,
Benediktinerabtei Schäftlarn,
für die Katholische
SonntagsZeitung
Eine sehr
informative und schöne Webseite
über Klemens Maria Hofbauer und sein Wirken betreiben die Wiener
Redemptoristen.
Der Stephansdom in
Wien ist werktags von 9 Uhr bis 11.30 Uhr und von 13 Uhr bis 16.30 Uhr,
sonntags nur nachmittags zur Besichtigung geöffnet, der Eintritt beträgt 3,50
€. (2021); die Katakomben können nur im Rahmen einer Führung besichtigt werden,
diese findet in den Öffnungszeiten zu jeder vollen Stunde statt und kostet 6 €.
Suchen bei amazon: Bücher über Klemens Maria Hofbauer
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Autor: Joachim
Schäfer - zuletzt aktualisiert am 21.12.2022
Quellen:
• Vera Schauber, Hanns Michael Schindler: Heilige und Patrone im Jahreslauf. Pattloch, München 2001
• Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, begr. von Michael Buchberger. Hrsg. von Walter Kasper, 3., völlig neu bearb. Aufl. Bd. 2. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994
• http://www.schwarzwaelder-bote.de/inhalt.triberg-katholiken-gedenken-clemens-maria-hofbauer.a30b774f-f617-4219-9a82-ee1c3099ad18.html - abgerufen am 21.12.2022
• https://www.redemptoristen.com/fileadmin/_migrated/content_uploads/Zeittafel1.pdf - abgerufen am 21.12.2022
• Josef Läufer: Wallfahrtskirche Maria in der Tanne Triberg im Schwarzwald. 7. Aufl. 2004, Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg,
• https://www.kloester-bw.de/klostertexte.php?nr=893&thema=Geschichte -
abgerufen am 21.12.2022
• Marcel Kümin aus Zürich
• Richard Mayer (Hg.): Die Heiligen in Deutschland. Verlag Neue Stadt, München 1987
• https://sites.google.com/site/benonwaw/st-benno-kirche---deutsch - abgerufen am 21.12.2022
• Rolf Decot: Klemens Maria Hofbauer - Koservativer Erneuerer der Kirche Österreichs. In: Helmut Rumpler (Hg.): Bernard Bolzano und die Politik: Staat, Nation und Religion als Herausforderung … Böhlau Verlag, Wien - Köln - Graz 2000, S. 116 - 119
• https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Clemens_Maria_Hofbauer - abgerufen am 21.12.2022
• http://www.cssr.news/sanclemente/spa/pagina-di-esempio - abgerufen am
30.05.2022
korrekt zitieren: Joachim Schäfer: Artikel Klemens Maria Hofbauer, aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienK/Klemens_Maria_Hofbauer.htm, abgerufen am 13. 3. 2023
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische
Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte
bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://d-nb.info/1175439177 und http://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.
SOURCE : https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienK/Klemens_Maria_Hofbauer.htm
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/misc/PHP/par_scm_hofbauer.pdf
