Claude Eugène Méderlet

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Claude Eugène Méderlet SDB (born November 15, 1867 in Erstroff , Lorraine ( Moselle department ), † December 12, 1934 in Pallikonda , India) was a religious priest and archbishop of Madras .

Life

When Méderlet was born in 1867, Erstroff was part of France; from 1871 to 1918 the place was German. The son of a farmer and wood turner attended the school in his home village, but at the same time received lessons in French and Latin from the pastor, so that he could immediately switch to the small seminary in Metz in preparation for studying theology. However, this project failed because of difficulties in Latin. So he switched to a Franciscan school in France, became a Franciscan brother and finally entered the novitiate of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Foglizzo near Turin at the end of 1890 . On December 11, 1891, he made his first religious professorship and completed his theological studies in Liège . The first Belgian Salesian house was founded there in 1891. After his ordination on July 8, 1894, he worked there as an educator for three years. In 1897 he was appointed the first director of the new house in Muri in the Swiss canton of Aargau. The “Don Bosco Institution for St. Joseph ”, which mainly trained apprentices, was the first establishment of the Salesians of Don Bosco in German-speaking territory, which only existed until 1904 due to financial difficulties. During this time his book "Don Bosco, an apostle of the youth in the 19th century" (Muri 1901; (2) 1902) appeared.

From Muri, Méderlet tried to enable the establishment of a Salesian religious establishment in his home in Lorraine. In 1904 an Italian Catholic mission was founded in Sierck , which was relocated to Diedenhofen the following year and existed until 1917.

Méderlet became director of the Liege branch in 1904. In 1907 he went to India as a missionary. In Tanjore / South India he founded an orphanage and a vocational school and in 1915 became the local pastor.

When the Vatican reorganized the Indian missions in 1928, it entrusted the Archdiocese of Madras to the Salesians of Don Bosco , with Méderlet as the first archbishop (consecrated October 28, 1928). As a bishop he founded numerous schools and oratorios as well as a small seminary for the training of Indian priests.

For the beatification and canonization of the founder of the order Don Bosco in 1929 and 1934 respectively, Méderlet was in Rome, each time not only receiving donations but - at least in 1934 - also new missionaries from the order.

His sudden and unexpected death in the confessional symbolizes his tireless pastoral work.

He was succeeded as archbishop in 1935 by the French Salesian Don Boscos Louis Mathias .

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