Alois Maass

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Alois Maaß, portrait drawing 1842
Memorial plaque and relief portrait of Maaß (center) in the crypt of the old parish church in Fliess

Alois Simon Maaß (also Simon Alois Maaß ; born May 6, 1758 in Strengen , † January 18, 1846 in Fliess ) was an Austrian priest.

Life

Alois Maaß was born as the son of the teacher, sacristan and organist von Strengen. In 1766 the family moved to Kauns , where the father took on the same tasks and bought a farm. Alois attended high school in Hall and Innsbruck and in 1777 attended lectures on philosophy, history and medicine at the University of Innsbruck . In 1779 he entered the seminary in Brixen and was ordained a priest in 1781. He then served as assistant priest in various parishes of the Pusteria working and was 1790 Expositur -Provisor in Flaurling . In 1804 he was appointed parish provisional to Fliess and in 1805 pastor there, which he remained until his death in 1846.

Maaß was widely known as a preacher, confessor and, in particular, a naturopath . He has even been defended by state authorities against charges of bungling. With the approval of the bishop he was an exorcist . He was said to have supernatural abilities.

Commemoration

Grave in the crypt of the old parish church in Fliess

"The old Fließer pastor" was venerated during his lifetime and died "in the name of holiness". Numerous answers to prayer are reported. On the 100th anniversary of his death in 1946, around 3,000 guests came to Fliess for an eight-day celebration.

Alois Maaß was buried in front of the Marien Altar in the old parish church in Fliess . During the church renovation in 1992/93, a lower church was created and his bones reburied there, the grave was designed as a "fountain of life" made of bronze and glass by Engelbert Gridle . In the crypt there is also a memorial for Alois Maaß and the Fließer martyrs Otto Neururer and Franz Flür , which was also designed by Engelbert Gridle.

The life picture of Alois Maaß was published in 1899 by the Stams Cistercian Meinrad Bader as a booklet and reprinted several times. In the summer of 2009, the folk play Pfarrer Maaß (The old Fließer pastor) by Ekkehard Schönwiese premiered at the Kauns Theater.

literature

  • Meinrad Bader: The old Fließer pastor: sheets of memory of the saintly exorcist Simon Alois Maaß, pastor of Fliess in Tyrol (1805-1846). Verlag der Kinderfreund-Anstalt, Innsbruck 1899 ( digitized by Teßmann digital)
  • Maass:  Maass, Alois Simon. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 384.
  • Episcopal Ordinariate of the Diocese of Innsbruck (Ed.): Directory: Regulations for the liturgy according to the Roman rite for use in the Dioceses of Innsbruck and Feldkirch for the year 2019 (from Advent 2018). Innsbruck 2018, p. 48 ( PDF; 1.5 MB )
  • Joachim Schäfer: Alois Simon Maaß. In the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , accessed on December 26, 2019

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theaterverband Tirol: Pastor Maaß (The old Fließer pastor)
personal data
SURNAME Maass, Alois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maaß, Alois Simon; Maaß, Simon Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian priest
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1758
PLACE OF BIRTH Strict
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1846
Place of death Flow