Georg Müßig

Georg Müßig (religious name Pater Markus , born April 28, 1875 in Dieburg ; † January 1, 1952 in Kleve ) was a German Capuchin , representative of a socially committed Catholicism and founder and leader of the Krefeld religious order of the Francis Sisters of Home and Nursing .

Life

Father Markus, baptized Georg, was the son of the master shoemaker Jakob Müßig and his wife Katharina nee. Kern and grew up in the Hessian district town of Dieburg in simple circumstances. At the age of seventeen he entered the Capuchin Order on September 24, 1892, made temporary profession on September 24, 1894, and perpetual profession on September 27, 1896. After studying philosophy and theology with a degree in Münster , he was ordained a priest on June 29, 1899 in Krefeld.

From 1902 to 1917 he worked as a lecturer in philosophy in Kleve and Krefeld and during this time was also entrusted with the supervision and management of the Third Order of St. Francis in the Rhenish-Westphalian Capuchin Province . During his time as head of the Third Order Congregation Krefeld (1911–1926) he founded the Third Order Housekeeping on May 1, 1912 in Krefeld . In view of the social impoverishment of large sections of the workforce and the inadequate hygiene of their living and living conditions, it should be the task of this care service to support families in need, regardless of their denomination, in the management of their household and in the care of the elderly or the sick.

Since the demand increased enormously as a result of the consequences of the First World War and it soon turned out to be difficult to fulfill the tasks of the nursing service only with unskilled workers and volunteers, Father Markus finally founded the religious community of the Caritas Sisters of the Third Order on April 19, 1919 Saint Francis , in which now full-time nursing sisters, at the beginning six in number, worked together with the volunteer helpers.

In the beginning, the members of the community did not have their own convent, but first used a room belonging to the third-order community and then a rented apartment for their training courses and meetings until they were able to purchase a house on Jungfernweg 1 in 1927, which they owned until it was destroyed in 1943 and since Restoration from 1953 to the present day as a convent and motherhouse of their community.

Father Markus looked after the community from its foundation as a priest and as a spiritual director appointed by the Provincial of the Rhenish-Westphalian Capuchin Province. It grew to 36 members by 1929 and was able to open eight branches under his leadership, and also became a model for the establishment of similar independent communities, including in Aachen and Bocholt.

In the wake of the re-establishment of the Aachen diocese , the community was withdrawn from the spiritual supervision of the Capuchin Provincial and thus also from the leadership of Father Markus in 1932 and placed under the control of the Bishop of Aachen. After the end of the Second World War, Father Markus was again entrusted by the Bishop of Aachen in 1946 with the management of the community, which had now been expanded by seven new branches, into which he also integrated the Aachen and other previously independent communities in 1947 on behalf of the Bishop, and which in 1947 At the request of the bishop, the new name was given to Francis Sisters of Home and Nursing . Until shortly before his death, Father Markus remained the leader of the community, which resided in Krefeld during the post-war years in a house provided by the city at Steinstrasse 147 and there also maintained a retirement home for fifteen people.

After his death on January 1st, 1952 in Kleve, Father Markus was buried in the former Capuchin monastery in Krefeld.

plant

• Father Markus Müßig: The housekeeping of the Third Order of St. Francis. With a foreword by Martin Faßbender . 2nd Edition. Rauch, Wiesbaden 1929 (= Library of the Third Order, 23)

literature

• Barbara Wieland: Georg Müssig (Father Marcus OFMCap) . In: Hubert Wolf, Claus Arnold (ed.): The Rheinische Reformkreis. Documents on Modernism and Reform Catholicism, 1942–1955 . Volume II. Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-506-79700-X , pp. 635-637.

Web links

• Homepage of the Order
• Bocholt city encyclopedia: Francis Sisters in Bocholt