Francis Xaverius Association
The Franziskus-Xaverius-Missionsverein or Xaveriusverein for short was a Catholic mission association . Its roots go back to the Franziskus-Xaverius-Brotherhood , which was initiated in Aachen in 1832 by the doctor and social politician Heinrich Hahn and approved in 1837. The association was named after Francisco de Xavier , a canonized missionary from the Jesuit order who is the patron of all Catholic missions. The founding document is in the mission library and Catholic documentation center Mikado in Aachen.
Together with the Bavarian Ludwig Mission Association , founded in 1838 , after their merger in 1972, it became the papal mission organization missio .
history
A first society for the propagation of the faith, the "Societé pour la Propagation de la Foi", was founded in 1822 by Pauline Marie Jaricot in Lyon . Inspired by their idea, numerous mission groups were founded in Germany, which, based on the Lyon model, collected funds for the missions. Following the French model, Heinrich Hahn planned to also found such a missionary association in Aachen in 1832. He quickly won over 100 fellow campaigners for his idea, including Luise Hensel and Franziska Schervier , who initially joined forces in the Aachener Kreis citizens' movement . It was important for Hahn that, in addition to collecting donations, prayer for missionaries and newly baptized people played an important role. A first application for approval of this community to the Archbishop of Cologne, Ferdinand August von Spiegel , was rejected in 1834 because the Archbishop saw it as too close to revolutionary France and at the same time the Archbishopric of Cologne had no financial means. Only his successor, Archbishop Clemens August Droste zu Vischering , finally approved the establishment of the Franziskus-Xaverius Brotherhood in Aachen in 1837 .
In 1841 this brotherhood was recognized by the state and a year later by the Catholic Church. Gradually, the name Franziskus-Xaverius-Verein became popular and became a German group of the work of spreading the faith . After Hahn's death in 1882 it was initially quiet around the association, but thanks to the involvement of Aloys Fürst zu Löwenstein at the Katholikentag 1909 in Breslau , the Xaveriusverein was able to be revived. Finally, in 1916, Aachen became the official administrative center and a year later, the association's body, The Catholic Missions , appeared for the first time . In a very short time the number of members rose to more than half a million. In 1922 the association received from Pope Pius XI. the status of a Pontifical Mission Agency .
In 1972 the Xaverius Association was merged with the Bavarian Ludwig Mission Association and continued under the common name missio - Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk Ludwig Missionsverein KdöR .