Franziskus Strunk

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Franziskus Strunk (born March 19, 1844 in Gelsenkirchen , † April 8, 1922 in Heimbach ) was a German Capuchin and Cistercian and from 1889 to 1912 abbot of Oelenberg Abbey .

Life

Karl Strunk was the son of the Gelsenkirchen mayor Heinrich Strunk. After attending the Theodorianum grammar school in Paderborn and graduating from high school in 1864, he studied theology and philosophy in Innsbruck . After he was ordained a subdeacon of the Archdiocese of Paderborn , he moved to the Mainz seminary . In Mainz he entered the Capuchin Order in 1867 under the religious name Franz Xaver , for whom he was active as a pastor and guardian of the monastery in Krefeld after his ordination in 1868 in Mainz and Kleve .

Before the so-called Prussian Kulturkampf, he escaped to the United States of America . There he worked as a pastor and missionary. In 1882 he entered the Oelenberg Abbey in Alsace as a Cistercian and took the religious name of Francis. After taking his vows in 1884, he was confessor of the sisters there and in 1887 reopened the Mariawald Monastery, which had been closed in the Kulturkampf, as prior .

Elected abbot of Oelenberg two years later, he had the Altbronn monastery built in Ergersheim for the Cistercian women who lived there and a new abbey church in Oelenberg, which was consecrated in 1905. In addition, he undertook several visitation trips to America and South Africa on behalf of the order's leadership .

For health reasons, he retired from the monastery management in 1912 and spent the evening of his life in Mariawald monastery, where he died in 1922.

literature

  • Paul Stintzi: Oelenberg. 900 years of history of the abbey (1046–1954) (= Alsatica Monastica 4). Westmalle 1962.
  • Klaus Zacharias: From Paderborn to Alsace. The old Theodorians Franziskus Strunk and Petrus Wacker as abbots of the Trappist Abbey in Ölenberg . In: Yearbook for Central German Church and Order History 4, 2008, pp. 249-257.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Strunk, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Struck, Karl (maiden name); Struck, Franz Xaver (religious name as Capuchin)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Capuchin and Cistercian, Abbot of the Oelenberg Monastery
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelsenkirchen
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1922
Place of death Heimbach