Carlo Steeb

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Carlo Steeb (oil portrait by Aronne Del Vecchio, 1820)
Carlo Steeb (portrait of old age)
Carlo Steeb (bronze miniature in the Michaelskirche in Tübingen)

Carlo Steeb (born December 18, 1773 in Tübingen as Johannes Heinrich Karl Steeb ; † December 15, 1856 in Verona ) was a German Catholic priest who worked in Verona, northern Italy . He is the founder of the “ Merciful Sisters of Verona” and is venerated as a blessed by the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Karl Steeb grew up as the son of the wealthy wool merchant and landlord of the “Zum Lamm” inn, Johann Heinrich Steeb, in the pietistic Tübingen. After attending the Schola anatolica , the Latin school in Tübingen at the time , his father sent him to Paris to learn languages ​​and international business practice in 1789 and to Verona in 1792. Attracted by the spiritual life in Verona, he converted to Catholicism there in September of the same year and then studied Catholic theology . Since then he has used the Italianized form of the name “Carlo”. In 1796 Steeb was ordained a priest in Verona . His strictly Protestant family broke off contact with him; after the death of his sister Wilhelmine, her fortune fell to him.

In Verona he taught at the seminary, was a pastor in the slums and turned to the sick and prisoners in particular. For years, Upper Habsburg Italy was the scene of the First Coalition War , when the war between Napoleon and Austria was fought. Steeb worked in hospitals for eighteen years and earned a reputation as a particularly understanding confessor, pastor, advisor and translator for soldiers of all origins. Steeb also took care of orphanages and taught children and young people in various schools. He was head of the brotherhood "Evangelica fratellanza dei preti e laici spedalieri" founded by Pietro Leonardi in 1796 .

Sick of typhus , he already made his will , but his spiritual support is said to have predicted that God had more plans for him - which Steeb took as a sign to expand his charitable works and organize them permanently. In 1840 he founded together with Sister Vincenza Poloni (civil Luigia Poloni ), whose confessor he was, the religious institute of the "Sisters of Mercy" ("Istituto Sorelle della Misericordia di Verona") to support his charitable work. The order, also popularly known as the “Veronese Sisters”, soon grew beyond Verona. In 2015 the order was socially active with 764 sisters in Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Steeb died in 1856 at the age of 83 - at that time, as the "Samaritan of Verona", he was already reputed to have led the life of a saint. He lived to see the completion of the order's church in Verona; in this church he is buried.

Adoration

Carlo Steeb was born on July 6, 1975 by Pope Paul VI. beatified. His feast day is December 15th . Many social institutions of the religious institute he founded are named after him. Among other things, churches in Verona and Stuttgart bear his name.

literature

Web links

Commons : Carlo Steeb  - Collection of Images

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio , 2017 edition, p. 1564.
personal data
SURNAME Steeb, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steeb, Karl; Steeb, Johannes Heinrich Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest and founder of the order in Verona
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1856
Place of death Verona