Fidelis Dehm

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bishop Fidelis Dehm OFM Conv.
Grave of the bishop, Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim cemetery

Fidelis Dehm OFM Conv. (* May 13, 1825 in Pechtensweiler , Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ; † May 17, 1883 in Wald-Michelbach ) was a German Franciscan Terminorite , Catholic priest , provincial of the "Upper German Province" of his order from 1857 to 1864 , and from 1877 titular bishop of Colophon and from 1877 to 1880 Apostolic Visitator in Romania .

Live and act

Minorite Father

Fidelis Dehm was born in Pechtensweiler, which was in an enclave of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen bordering the Allgäu . In 1850 the area fell to Prussia and the homeland of Dehm became the southernmost territory of the Kingdom of Prussia .

In 1845 Fidelis Dehm entered the Order of the Minorites and was assigned to the newly founded Oggersheim monastery in the Rhine Palatinate , which he regarded as his mother convent throughout his life. 1854–1857 he worked as a monastery superior and pastor in Ravensburg .

When the "Upper German Province" of the Franciscan Minorites was established in 1857 , Father Dehm was elected Provincial of the Community, with his seat in the Minorite Monastery in Würzburg . The clergyman held this office until 1864.

After the failed German Revolution of 1848/49 , Germany began to emigrate to the USA. German-speaking minorites soon took over pastoral care among their compatriots there, and new religious branches were established in America. In 1866, Father Dehm was sent to the United States as Commissioner General of the Order in order to unite the mission stations that already existed there in a provincial association. The minorite settled in Syracuse , Diocese of Albany , in New York State . There the Franciscan monastery Maria Himmelfahrt Dehms was headquartered, from which he operated his missionary pastoral care and regulated the affairs of the order. It was also the city's German church, which still has a stained glass window with his portrait in memory of the missionary Fidelis Dehm who once worked there. According to a report in the " Augsburger Postzeitung " No. 214, dated September 11, 1869, Dehm had come to Germany that year and embarked on September 4 of that year with a group of young Minorites from Bremen to America. Among them was u. a. the novice Constantin Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff (1841–1901) who worked as a missionary in the USA for over 30 years.

During his stay in America, Father Dehm also got to know and appreciate the now canonized nun Marianne Cope (Marianne Koob). She came from Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse , had emigrated from Germany with her parents, became a Franciscan and later worked among the lepers of Moloka'i . Fidelis Dehm appointed her superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Utica in 1868 , head of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse in 1870, and in 1871, at the general chapter of the sisters, campaigned for her election to provincial superior ("mother provincial").

The old catholic cathedral of Iasi, former episcopal church of Fidelis Dehm

Titular bishop

The Upper German Minorite Province was also given the difficult foreign mission among the German-speaking population in the Moldova region and in Bessarabia at the beginning of the 1860s . Pope Pius IX raised Father Fidelis Dehm on December 31, 1877 to titular bishop of Colophon and appointed him Apostolic Visitator in the Apostolic Vicariate of Moldova, which in 1884 became the Romanian diocese of Iași . The office of apostolic visitor, instead of an apostolic vicar , he led out of diplomatic considerations for the local Orthodox state church and the royal house, which at that time did not tolerate fixed local ordinaries among the Catholics in the country . The Minorite Bishop resided in the city of Iași , where the very beautiful and old "Maria Schlaf Cathedral" was available to him, now known as the "Old Catholic Cathedral" . Dehm worked here for 3 years, until the end of 1880, resigned from his office and returned home due to illness, where he settled again in the Oggersheim monastery . He died unexpectedly while visiting a pastor friend in the nearby Wald-Michelbach and was buried in the local cemetery of Ludwigshafen am Rhein- Oggersheim.

An epitaph was erected for him in his home and baptistery St. Michael, Esseratsweiler ( Achberg ).

literature

  • Wilhelm Schmidt: Romano-Catholici per Moldaviam episcopatus. 1887, pp. 5 and 158; Excerpts from the source
  • Meinrad Sehi: In service to the community - 750 years of Franciscan ministers in Würzburg, 1221–1971. Schwabenverlag, Ellwangen 1972, pp. 114-116.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Franciscan Studies, Volume 8, Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1921, page 43; Scan from the source to enter the Order
  2. ^ François Huot: "The Order of St. Francis" , Part 5, Volume 1, Page 93, 1978, ISBN 377201402X ; Scan from the source
  3. ↑ "Sadliers' catholic directory, almanac and clergy list 1870" , New York, 1869, page 117 Scan from the source
  4. ^ Website on the Franciscan Church of the Assumption of Mary Syracuse NY ( Memento from November 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ John Callaghan, "Living Faith, Hope and Love: A Memoir," 2005, ISBN 0595365531 , page 14; Scan from the source to the church window with Fidelis Dehm's portrait
  6. ^ Scan from the "Augsburger Postzeitung" , page 1666 of the 1869 year
  7. ^ Mary Laurence Hanley, "Pilgrimage and exile: Mother Marianne of Molokai," University of Hawaii Press, 1991, ISBN 0824813871 , pages 22 and 27; Scans from the source
  8. ^ Wilhelm Schmidt: "Romano-Catholici per Moldaviam episcopatus" , 1887, page 158; Excerpt from the source
  9. ↑ Brief description of the old Catholic cathedral of Iasi in English
  10. ↑ Franciscan Studies, Volume 8, Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1921, page 43; Scan from the source, on the circumstances of death
  11. ↑ Website with photo, about the epitaph ( memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
personal data
SURNAME Dehm, Fidelis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German minorite, bishop, apostolic visitor to Romania
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Pechtensweiler , Germany
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1883
Place of death Wald-Michelbach , Germany