Christel Felizitas Schmid

Christel Felizitas Schmid (born December 1, 1892 in Mörlbach , † April 22, 1970 in Rödelsee ) was a German scout and founder of the order . It stands at the beginning of the Evangelical-Benedictine religious order Communität Casteller Ring CCR.

life and work

Origin and education

Christel Schmid grew up Protestant north of Rothenburg ob der Tauber as the youngest of 13 born (but only five surviving) children of a brewery owner and mayor. At the age of 14, she left her parents' home for a domestic and commercial apprenticeship. At 17 she went to the Diakonie Neuendettelsau to take a teacher’s course there, and got to know the prayer and work of the Evangelical Lutheran sister community of deaconesses .

Work in Kitzingen and Nuremberg

In Kitzingen she was involved in the pastoral care of young people and in the Protestant scout movement. In 1929 she founded the local community of Christian scouts , of which she became Reichsführer in 1933, and in 1942 the Association of Christian Scouts in the underground , of which she was federal champion until 1961. She joined the high church movement and took vows as a Franciscan tertiary in 1937. After the Gestapo dissolved her group of girl scouts (1937), she worked from 1941 to 1943 as a youth leader in the Sankt Lorenz parish in Nuremberg under Pastor Otto Dietz (1898–1993), who also had a special love for liturgy and the prayer of the hours and the ideas of Friedrich Heiler of an "evangelical catholicity".

The Casteller Ring

In 1943 Christel Schmid moved to a family friend in Castell and used the expression Casteller Ring as an alias for her group of young women who met there . In the same year she met the Benedictine Theophil Lamm and got to know the Benedictine abbey of Münsterschwarzach . She felt attracted to the monastic way of life, but instead of converting to Catholicism, she decided to implement this way of life in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Heiler's high church association of the Augsburg Confession was the place of her confirmation in 1947. She took the new name Felizitas (after Saint Felicitas , patroness of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey) and prepared for a monastic life according to the Benedictine rule.

The Casteller Ring community. death

She began the monastic way of life in February 1950 in Castell together with Maria Scholastika Pfister (1923–2001), her later successor in the leadership of the community, which soon called itself Community Casteller Ring (order abbreviation: CCR). They were spiritually supported by Eduard Ellwein . In 1957 the community was established at Schwanberg Castle in Rödelsee near Kitzingen . In 1959 it was officially accepted by the Evangelical Church in Bavaria. In 1968 Felizitas Schmid resigned from her position as Mater (Superior) of the community and died in 1970 at the age of 77.

Honors

Christel Felizitas Schmid was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Bavarian Order of Merit. In her birthplace Mörlbach, a memorial stele was inaugurated on December 17, 2017 in her honor.

Quote

In 1933 Christel Schmid wrote a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Hitler Youth with the following sentences:

“In front of the entire youth present, you spoke in a disparaging, contemptuous and mocking manner about the image of Jesus Christ on the cross. We call this blasphemy. I ask you: If someone in Germany spoke of Adolf Hitler in that tone, what would happen to him? We expect you to be in awe of the sacred symbol, which is sacred to millions of your German comrades - even if it has no meaning for you! ... The Protestant youth are proud to have this symbol, which you insulted, on their flags. "

literature

• Johanna Domek (* 1954): Benedictine women move the world. 24 images of life . Vier-Türme-Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2009, pp. 108–113.
• Hermann Schoenauer (ed.): Spirituality and innovative corporate management . Kohlhammer Verlag, 2011, pp. 113–115 (author is Christoph Joest).
• Katharina Schridde : Purposeless being before God or "I would really like to encourage people." Sketches for the life of Christel Felizitas Schmid . Benedict Press, Münsterschwarzach 2003.
• Walter Sparn (* 1941): Christel Schmid / Mater Felizitas (1892–1970). In: Women's profiles of Lutheranism. Life stories in the 20th century. Edited by Inge Mager . Gütersloh 2005, pp. 373–389.
• Roland Werner and Johannes Nehlsen (eds.): Faces and stories of the Reformation. 366 life pictures from all epochs . Fontis, Basel 2016, No. 251.

Web links

• Short biography on the community's website , with picture
• Report on the inauguration of the memorial stele in Mörlbach
• Page on the CCR in the House of Bavarian History

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Roland Werner and Johannes Nehlsen (eds.): Faces and stories of the Reformation. 366 life pictures from all epochs. Fontis, Basel 2016, No. 251