Dominicans of Bethany

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The Dominicans of Bethanien are a Catholic religious order . It was founded in 1866 by the Dominican Father Johannes Josef Lataste together with mother Henri-Dominique to enable women with a troubled past, especially those who come out of prison, to live religious life as full religious women .

Emergence

As a prison chaplain at the Cadillac Women's Penitentiary , Father Lataste was confronted with the fact that many of the women were converted in prison, but all doors remained closed to them after their release. This was especially true for the path to religious life; These women were only allowed to spend the rest of their lives as pious penitents in the care of religious women. Father Lataste wanted to make the rehabilitation , which he believed these women had received from God , serious in the world too.

Surname

In order to overcome the prejudices of society against these women, it took some women with an innocent past who could be mistaken for these released prisoners. The founder saw the role model for such a rehabilitation community in a biblical pair of sisters, Maria and Martha , who lived in Bethanien. The exegesis of his time saw in this Mary of Bethany the well-known sinner who led an honorable life after the encounter with Jesus . It was clear to Father Lataste that after her conversion she would return to her respected sister and live there with her. Likewise, the women in the community he wanted to found should live together, which is why he chose the name Dominican Sisters of Bethany .

Expressions

Today there are two forms of this Catholic order. The origin of the community lies in France, this branch lives contemplatively (i.e. completely dedicated to the life of prayer). With the outbreak of World War I , all German women in the community had to flee France. They made their way to a Dominican friend in the Netherlands, near the German-Dutch border. Due to the chaos of the war, contact with the community in France was lost. This led to the creation of a second, independent community in the Netherlands. This community is active in the apostolate, especially important are the prison work and the children's village work. There are three Bethanien children's and youth villages in Germany : Schwalmtal on the Lower Rhine , Bergisch Gladbach near Cologne and Eltville in the Rheingau . One of the sisters in Schwalmtal is Sr. Jordana Schmidt .

Since 1995 the Dutch-German branch also has a branch in Riga (Latvia).

Today both communities maintain close contact with one another. They celebrated the beatification of Father Lataste together on June 3, 2012 and on August 14, 2016 the 150th anniversary of the founding day in France. The German founding day is September 14, 1914. To avoid confusion, they agreed to speak of the Dominicans of Bethanien-Montferrand ( fr: Dominicaines de Béthanie ) and the Dominicans of Bethanien-Venlo.

literature

  • Jean-Marie Gueullette: Jean-Joseph Lataste. Apostles of the prisons (= Dominican sources and testimonies. Vol. 15). St. Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-7462-3007-8 .
  • Anatol Feid , Florian Flohr: Good news for the prisoners. Life and work of the Dominican Jean-Joseph Lataste. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7867-0694-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Betānijas dominikāņu māsas (Latvian), accessed July 22, 2015.