Amandus Schölzig

Amandus Schölzig , born as Ferdinand Schölzig (born May 3, 1836 in Jauernig , Austrian Silesia , Austrian Empire , † January 28, 1900 in Pietermaritzburg ) was an Austrian Roman Catholic clergyman, Augustinian canon , Trappist , abbot and missionary.

life and work

Ferdinand Schölzig (later religious name: Amandus , after Amand von Maastricht ), who was born in Jauernig (today: Javorník ) as a farmer's son, graduated from high school in Olomouc and entered Klosterneuburg Monastery of the Congregation of the Austrian Augustinian Canons in 1858 . In 1863 he was ordained a priest. After studying at the University of Vienna , he taught exegesis and oriental languages in the monastery from 1865 to 1888 and was novice master for 15 years .

As an expression of a kind of religious midlife crisis , he left the relative comfort of Klosterneuburg at the age of 52 in October 1888 without permission and entered the missionary Trappist monastery Mariannhill in South Africa (founded by Franz Pfanner in 1882 ) . After professing in 1891 he was also master of novices there and in 1894 (as the successor of Pfanner, who was suspended from the order), second abbot of Mariannhill (appointed by Bishop Charles Jolivet, 1826-1903). As such, he promoted the veneration of the Sacred Heart and consistently continued Pfanner's missionary work. He added eight more to the 12 mission stations that existed when he took office, and in 1898 was able to welcome the first priestly ordination of a native African. Nine years after his death (from stomach cancer) the Mariannhill missionaries were separated from the Trappist order in 1909 and set up as a separate order because the Trappist ideal was difficult to reconcile with missionary work.

literature

• Eric Steinhauer :  Schölzig, Amandus (Ferdinand). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1286-1287.
• G. Ludwig - H. Reitterer:  Schölzig, Amandus (Ferdinand) (1836–1900), Dept. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 11, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2803-7 , p. 29 f. (Direct links on p. 29 , p. 30 ).
• The Trappist Mission Monastery of Mariannhill or pictures from African missionary life. Collected by a religious priest on behalf of his superior . Herder, Freiburg 1907, pp. 36-73.
• Adalbert Ludwig Balling : They were messengers of love. Mariannhiller portraits . Würzburg 1990, pp. 18-26.
• Adalbert Ludwig Balling: The drummer of God. Mission Abbot Franz Pfanner. Adventurer and Rebel (1825–1909) . Herder, Freiburg a. a. 1981.

Web links

• Schölzig, Amandus in the Biographia Cisterciensis
• Schölzig's work as Mariannhiller Abbot, Spanish, with picture