Franz Xaver Krautbauer

Bishop Franz Xaver Krautbauer (1886)

Franz Xaver Krautbauer (born January 12, 1824 in Mappach, today a district of Bruck in the Upper Palatinate , Bavaria , † December 17, 1885 in Green Bay , Wisconsin ) was a Roman Catholic bishop in the west of the United States .

Live and act

Franz Xaver Krautbauer was born in the Upper Palatinate hamlet of Mappach, first studied in the Regensburg seminary , then in Munich and was ordained a priest there on July 16, 1850 by his home bishop Valentin Riedel .

In the same year he went to the United States of America as a missionary through the mediation of the Bavarian Ludwig Missions Association and at the invitation of Bishop John Timon von Buffalo , who was just visiting Germany . In the diocese of Bishop Timon Krautbauer worked as a pastor for 8 years; in Buffalo itself, in Collins, and in Rochester . Here the priest also acquired American citizenship on September 27, 1856.

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral built under Bishop Krautbauer

The monumental image of the Crucifixion created by Johann Schmitt at the request of Bishop Krautbauer in the cathedral of Green Bay

In 1859, the Swiss Bishop Johann Martin Henni von Milwaukee appointed him to his diocese to provide pastoral care to the Bavarian School Sisters who had resettled there . Krautbauer took over the office of Superior and Spiritual of the local nuns congregation. Bishop Henni selected the priest as his personal theological advisor to the Baltimore Regional Council in 1866. On Lake Michigan , Franz Xaver Krautbauer barely survived the sinking of the steamer in September 1873 on a trip to Buffalo for the funeral of his brother-in-law. He went into shock and has remained nervous since then.

On February 12, 1875, Pope Pius IX appointed Bavaria as Bishop of Green Bay , Wisconsin; on June 29th of that year he was consecrated by Johann Martin Henni in Milwaukee. Krautbauer was friends with the later Archbishop Friedrich Xaver Katzer from Austria, whom he took to Green Bay as secretary. There he had the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral built from 1876–1881, based on the Ludwig Church in Munich . For the choir area, he ordered a monumental “Crucifixion” from the Baden painter Johann Schmitt, which to this day is one of the most remarkable and beautiful wall paintings in the USA.

The Bavarian shepherd made special efforts to schools and education, as well as to the equality of the different nationalities among his believers. In 1877 the prelate went to Rome as part of the ad limina visit and then spent a month in his Bavarian homeland, where he was celebrated as the “peasant boy who became bishop”. In 1884 he took part as a theologian at the 3rd Plenary Council in Baltimore. He was particularly concerned about the Menominee Indians on the Keshena reservation, where he sent Franciscans to look after them.

When Bishop Krautbauer did not get up on the morning of December 17, 1885, his long-time friend and now Vicar General Friedrich Xaver Katzer found him dead in bed at around 8 a.m. He had recently succumbed to a stroke . Katzer also became his successor in the episcopate.

Krautbauer was buried on December 22nd in the cathedral of Green Bay, which was built under him and dedicated to his namesake, St. Francis Xavier . According to his will, he found his grave in the north transept, under an entrance to the confessional, so that the faithful should pass over him to receive the sacrament of penance . His compatriot, Archbishop Michael Heiß of Milwaukee, celebrated the pontifical requiem and Bishop Kilian Kaspar Flasch , also from Bavaria , was among the mourners. The New York Times described Bishop Krautbauer in the obituary dated December 18, 1885, as one of the "most kind-hearted and generous" men in America.

In Bruck in the Upper Palatinate , Franz Xaver Krautbauer's old home, the "Bischof-Krautbauer-Straße" is named after him.

literature

• "Dictionary of American Hierarchy," 1940, 188
• "Der Deutsche Pionier" (German Emigrant Newspaper): Obituary 1885, in German complete scan of the German-language obituary
• The New York Times : Obituary in the December 18, 1885 issue; Complete scan of the obituary from 1885

Web links

• Bishop Krautbauer in the "Dictionary of Wisconsin History"
• History of Green Bay, Bishop Krautbauer at the bottom as the last entry
• Entry on Franz Xaver Krautbauer on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About Bishop John Timon
2. ^ Dates and history of Green Bay Cathedral
3. ↑ Pictures of Green Bay Cathedral, inside and outside (PDF)
4. ^ Dictionary of the American Hierarchy (1940), 188
5. ^ To Archbishop Michael Heiss

predecessor	Office	successor
Joseph Melcher	Bishop of Green Bay 1875–1885	Frederick Xavier Katzer