Anselma Bopp

Anselma Bopp (born August 25, 1835 in Wernau , † July 17, 1887 in Thuine ) was a Roman Catholic nun and founder of the order . It stands at the beginning of the Congregation of the Thuin Franciscan Sisters .

life and work

Childhood and youth in Swabia

Pauline (also: Johanna Paulina ) Bopp was the eldest daughter (and second of seven children) of a straw hat manufacturer who started out as an assistant and worked his way up through efficiency. She grew up in Steinbach (today part of Wernau near Esslingen ), where the church reformer Benedikt Maria von Werkmeister had been the pastor until 1818 , and went to school there as a model pupil who was hostile to her classmates. She learned to play the piano and received additional bookkeeping lessons from the father, from whom she was supposed to take over the factory. The hardness of her training becomes clear when you know that she also had to mow with her father at four in the morning, a work process that started with making straw hats. She was involved in all work phases of the production and accompanied her father to the sale to Stuttgart, where she also sold independently and was introduced by the father to the artistic beauties of the city. At the same time she learned charity towards the poor from the soft and pious mother.

Preparation for a monastic life

The ideal of monastery life floated in front of her early on, for which she prepared herself through prayer in the Maria-Hilf-Chapel in Wernau and through targeted asceticism. When she was 16 years old, she had to take over the duties of the sick mother, who died in early 1853. The relationship with the bitter father was strained, not least because Pauline's wish for a monastery thwarted his succession planning. During this phase she found help from Chaplain Joseph Werfer (1809–1882) in Neuhausen auf den Fildern , whom she visited every Sunday, which meant a four-hour walk. The relationship with the father improved. She turned down several marriage proposals.

Joined the Strasbourg Sisters of the Cross

Through a subsidiary in Donzdorf since 1851 , Pauline became aware of the Strasbourg Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross, which had officially existed since 1848 (founder was Adèle de Glaubitz, 1797-1858, from Saxon nobility, in Strasbourg since 1802). In May 1854 her father personally brought her to Strasbourg. She entered on May 31, 1854 and made profession on July 19, 1855 . She took the order name Anselma (French: Anselmé ). Entry was only possible because the father paid the not inconsiderable amount of the dowry.

The roll call from the Emsland

In Strasbourg-Neuhof , Sister Anselma was entrusted with the upbringing of neglected young girls, which she found difficult at first. In 1856 she was allowed to return home once, when the second wife of the father died in childbed. She resisted the temptation to stay there. The Congregation in Strasbourg had become known everywhere in Germany through the collecting trips of the Bavarian sister Marianne Schmittberg (1807–1872), including in the Emsland , Germany's poor house. Therefore, in 1857, the wealthy pastor of Thuine bei Lingen , Gerhard Dall (1783–1874), who had in mind the establishment of a hospital with an orphanage, approached the Strasbourg Sisters of the Cross with a request to send two nuns. Adèle von Glaubitz sent Marianne Schmittberg and the 21-year-old Anselma Bopp.

Difficult beginnings in Thuine

The two nuns arrived in Lingen on May 24th, 1857 with dean Johannes Bernhard Diepenbrock (1796–1884) and heard: "There is nothing for you to do here!" Nevertheless, they traveled on to Thuine, but also met an insecure pastor Dall, because Bishop Paulus Melchers of Osnabrück was skeptical of the project and his approval had not yet arrived. Only with the help of the population were the two brave nuns able to start nursing the sick and caring for three neglected children in the typhus-infested area under great hardship. A third sister (also from southern Germany) was soon added, but things only improved slowly. Anselma's father was shaken by the circumstances during a visit in 1858. In addition, Anselma suffered from the nature of her fellow sister Marianne, so that Pastor Dall achieved her replacement in 1858. She was replaced by Sister Crescentia, who was superior until 1869. In 1862 there were four of them, in 1865 there were six.

Anselma becomes superior in 1869

In the summer of 1866 Sister Anselma was able to return to Strasbourg for the first time in nine years for a few weeks. Then there was a growing estrangement between the mother house, which had been headed by Augustine de Glaubitz (* 1810) since 1858, and Thuine, which culminated in Sister Crescentia leaving in January 1869 (and joining the congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Salzkotten ). At the suggestion of Pastor Dall, Sister Anselma was appointed successor by Strasbourg.

Crisis and separation from Strasbourg

But that did not end the tensions, which may also be connected with the political development between Germany and France. Since 1868, Pastor Dall wanted a sisterhood independent of Strasbourg for the St.-Georgs-Stift hospital he had donated, in which he supported the new bishop Johannes Heinrich Beckmann (1802–1878, 1866–1878 Bishop of Osnabrück, previously vicar general), who was his friend has been. The open crisis arose when a letter from the Superior General arrived in May 1869 with the order that all four remaining sisters (one had been withdrawn because of illness) should return to Strasbourg immediately. Since this meant a catastrophe for the foundation and would also have violated the simplest laws of charity, the sisters, under Anselma's leadership, asked for a dispensation from their vows and release from the Strasbourg community in August. Only now did they learn that their vows were only valid for one year at a time, and that consequently it was sufficient not to renew the vow on September 14, 1869 in order to leave the company relatively easily and to become self-employed. That was a noticeable relief for everyone, but especially for Superior Anselma and Pastor Dall, who had been very hard hit by the situation for months.

Foundation of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Thuine

Superior Anselma then traveled to her homeland and to Munich to find out more about the regular practice of the Franciscan Sisters and was recognized by Bishop Beckmann as Superior of the new congregation on November 12th. November 25, 1869 was the official founding day of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Martyr Georg zu Thuine. The community consisted of 11 people: four sisters, three novices and four postulants. Eight months later the Franco-Prussian War broke out.

The community grows and the founder dies

When Pastor Dall died on July 12, 1874, the community consisted of 42 sisters. When mother Anselma died in 1887 after nine years of serious illness, the young community had eleven branches with a total of 146 sisters. 30 sisters had already died before her. Anselma's successor (until 1896) was sister Mauritia, who joined Thuine in 1861 and came to Thuine in 1865 (Genofeva Eck, 1842–1921, from Dittigheim , Tauberbischofsheim , Oberin until 1896, the "violet from the Taubertal"). Other superiors: Liboria (1896–1905), Chrysostoma (from 1905).

Development since Anselma's death

The congregation received canonical recognition on February 9, 1906 through the aggregation to the First and Second Orders of St. Francis, also in 1906 through the episcopal approbation of the constitutions and on May 15, 1909 through the papal approval of the entire congregation. Orphanages, children's homes, hospitals, social and handicapped wards, general education schools and technical schools emerged from the foundation. The currently more than a thousand sisters are also employed in pastoral and hospice work. There are branches in many parts of the world: since 1875 in the Netherlands, since 1920 in Japan, since 1923 in the United States , since 1932 in Indonesia ( East Timor since 1993), since 1972 in Brazil, since 1997 in Papua New Guinea and since 2001 in Albania .

Places of remembrance

In Thuine, Emsland district, Anselma-Bopp-Straße commemorates the founder of the congregation. In St. Louis ( Missouri ), a prize is awarded annually at the Spirit of Mother M. Anselma dinner honoring her a worthy personality.

literature

Mother House of the Franciscan Sisters of St. George (Ed.): Mother M. Anselma Bopp. Life and Work of the Foundress of our Congregation . Thuine 1982
Marianna Rosenberger: Turn back! There is nothing for you to do in Thuine. Sister Anselma Bopp and the becoming of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Thuine 1857–1869. Volume 1. Ed. By the Congregation of the Franciscans Thuine e. V. Cathedral bookstore, Osnabrück 2008.
The violet from the Taubertal. Brief life picture of the venerable mother Mauritia Eck from the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Martyr Georg zu Thuine, Diocese of Osnabrück, from a sister of this congregation . Werl 1926.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Bopp, Anselma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bopp, Pauline
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Franciscan and founder of the order
DATE OF BIRTH	August 25, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH	Steinbach (Wernau)
DATE OF DEATH	July 17, 1887
Place of death	Thuine