Franz Xaver von Zottmann

Franz Xaver von Zottmann (born June 27, 1826 in Ornbau ; † December 12, 1901 there ), also Frantisek Alojzy Zottmann , was Bishop of Tiraspol .

Life

Study and ordination

Not yet clear about his future life, he studied philosophy and natural sciences at the University of Würzburg from 1846 to 1848 , as was intended for the training of priests at the time, but also, according to his inclination, philology . He then studied theology at the Episcopal Lyceum in Eichstätt until 1850 . Because he had still not made up his mind, he continued to study languages in Munich .

He had a flair for languages: in addition to his mother tongue and the ancient languages Latin , Greek and Hebrew , which are necessary for a theologian , he was fluent in English , French , Italian , Spanish , Polish and Russian .

In the fall of 1853 he had the opportunity to earn money as the educator of the son of a Greek diplomat , not in Munich, of course, but in Saint Petersburg , the capital of the Russian Empire .

In 1855 he found a job in Moscow as a tutor for the son of a German banking couple. He used his free time to study and to take the Russian teacher examination , because only with her could he work as a teacher.

After the banking family returned to Germany in 1859 , he had to choose his future path. He decided to become a priest , but did not go back to Eichstätt, but went to the seminary in Saratow in the early autumn of 1859 , as German-speaking priests were urgently needed in the diocese of Tiraspol . Since he had already completed a degree in theology, he was ordained a priest in June 1860 . First he was chaplain at the cathedral parish in Saratov for around 500 Catholics with a population of around 35,000.

In 1865 he was appointed head of the seminary in Saratow, which he redesigned based on the Eichstätter model.

bishop

After the death of his predecessor, Bishop Ferdinand Helanus Kahn, the Russian government refused to appoint a successor for eight years, until in 1872 it surprisingly submitted the proposal to the Vatican to appoint Franz Xaver Zottmann as bishop, to which Rome agreed. On June 11, 1872, Anton Fiałkowski , Archbishop of Mahiljou , donated him episcopal ordination in St. Petersburg ; Co- consecrators were Valentin Baranowski , Bishop of Lublin , and Wincenty Lipski , Auxiliary Bishop in Tiraspol. He was the second bishop of the Tiraspol Diocese.

Resignation and death

Because of health problems, he asked for release from his position in 1879, but this was not granted to him. After several spa stays and a long home leave, his resignation was finally granted in December 1889.

After staying in Ornbau for two years, he moved to Croatia on the Kvarner coast in Kastav (then Castua) for climatic reasons . In November 1901, relatives brought the terminally ill patient back to Ornbau, where he died on December 12, 1901.

Web links

• Entry on Frantisek Alojzy Zottmann on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on January 29, 2016.