Brother Kostka
Brother Kostka (born March 28, 1868 as Josef Wasel in Allrath near Grevenbroich , † December 1, 1946 in St. Arnold ) was a Steyler missionary brother whose healing played an important role in the canonization of the order's founder, Arnold Janssen . Today there are already “Brother Kostka Communities” in St. Arnold and St. Wendel who want to promote his beatification.
Life
Josef Wasel was born on March 28, 1868 in Allrath near Grevenbroich as the son of the shepherd Christian Wasel and his wife Josefina. He was the second oldest of eight children. Because his constitution made him sick quickly, he was often unable to attend school and missed a lot of classes. According to tradition, however, he never missed a service. After leaving school, he first found work on a farm as a groom.
At the age of 28, Wasel left his parents' home against the advice of his parents and friends and was accepted into the religious order of Steyler Missionaries on August 14, 1896, where, after a four-month probationary period, he was dressed as a brother novice and accepted into the novitiate. He received the religious name of Brother Kostka , after the young saint of youth and Polish national saint Stanislaus Kostka . After two years as a novice , Brother Kostka took his first religious vows on November 11, 1898 .
While he had initially hoped to be sent to the mission, the founder of the order sent him to help build a new mission house in St. Wendel in the Saarland. He arrived at the Langenfelder Hof on December 14, 1898 and was appointed "Chef-Chef" there. In 1911 he moved from the farm to the new mission house and from now on was responsible for the production of the in-house lemonade. There, in St. Wendel, he stayed until the seizure or nationalization of the monasteries by the Nazi government in the late summer of 1941 as part of the “monastery tower” ordered as part of the “monastery tower” and ended up with his relatives in Allrath and the St. Josef monastery in Geilenkirchen In 1944 he went to the St. Arnold Mission House , where he stayed at his own request after the end of the war and died on December 1, 1946. His grave is in the monastery cemetery in St. Arnold. A healing of his leg suffering recognized as a miracle was traced back to the intercession of the founder of the order, Arnold Janssen, and played an important role in his beatification and canonization process.
It was only very late that it became known that Brother Kostka saw the Passion of Christ daily during the services. He did not reveal himself until 1935 to his brother spiritual and confessor, who translated the representations given in the Kölsch dialect into High German and wrote them down. From various mystic experts z. B. the following assessments are on record: “For the time being, I would like to reassure you that you are absolutely allowed to publish the vision of the god-blessed brother. They have all the characteristics of authenticity and certainly do not come from their own imagination and deliberation, but from the Father of Light ... ”(Cassut von Fellers, Capuchin)“ These communications have the character of a high mystical pardon. The core of this, the cognitio Dei experimentalis, is particularly evident. The visions often seem to have been purely spiritual, sine formis et imaginibus, hence the difficulty in expressing them in words. Some reasons seem to suggest that the pardons were not given for him alone, but that they should also be made usable for others ... "(P. Karl Richtstaetter, SJ)" If mysticism is cognitio dei experimentals (Bonaventure), ie personally-individually experienced, in the form of body-soul earthly experience, perception of divine realities received directly with the supernatural world, I would like the literature left by Br. Kostka, including the two saints and eight blessed of the SVD, as the mystic, the towering over all other members of our order, designate ... “(Fr. Dr. Eugen Rucker, SVD). Brother Kostka was already considered a “holy brother” during his lifetime.
literature
Five books have already been published about Brother Kostka, some of them in English and Indonesian .
- Translation of the script by Father Friedrich SVD into Spanish (1960)
- Fritz Bornemann (ed.): Brother Kostka - Josef Wasel 1868–1946, Rome 1977, SVD
- Klemens Kiser (Ed.): The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Experienced in Visions, 4th edition 2001, Theresia-Verlag, Lauerz (Switzerland) ISBN 3-908542-60-X - out of print!
- Franz Eilers (Ed.): Passion And Glory In The Eucharist - The visions of Bro. Koska Wasel SVD, Manila 2005
- Heinrich Drenkelfort: Brother Kostka - The man who saw God, Theresia-Verlag, Lauerz (Switzerland) ISBN 978-3-909438-41-9
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brother Kostka |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wasel, Josef (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German missionary brother |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 28, 1868 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Allrath near Grevenbroich |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 1, 1946 |
| Place of death | St. Arnold |