Gregor Sorger
Gregor Sorger OSB (born November 19, 1906 in Spaichingen as Ludwig Paul Friedrich Sorger ; † November 15, 1950 in Manpo / North Korea ) was a German Benedictine monk who perished in North Korea in 1950.
Life
Sorger, son of the medical officer Leopold Sorger, lived with his family in Ehingen, Neu-Ulm, Oberndorf and Rottweil. After graduating from high school in Rottweil, Sorger began studying law at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen . The end of 1927 he joined the Congregation of the Benedictines in the Archabbey Beuron one. During the tenure of Archabbot Raphael Walzer OSB, he began his postulate on December 16, 1927 . He studied philosophy in Maria Laach and theology in Beuron. He made his perpetual profession on June 29, 1929 . He was ordained a priest on August 5, 1934 by the Archbishop of Freiburg, Conrad Gröber .
Father Gregor Sorger was initially secretary to Prior Hermann Keller OSB in the monastery administration in Beuron and in pastoral care. In 1937 he was sent to Japan as a missionary monk in the Tonogaoka foundation in Beuron near Chigasaki, southwest of Tokyo . In 1940 the priory was handed over to the Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien and organizationally affiliated with Tokwon Abbey. The Beuron monks had no opportunity to return to Beuron because of the war situation. They had a choice of continuing to serve in the mission in either Brazil or Korea. In 1940 Gregor Sorger moved with three other friars to the Tokwon Abbey near Wŏnsan in Korea, which had been under Japanese occupation since 1910 , but remained conventuals of the Beuron religious community throughout his life . In Tokwon he taught German, English and music at the local seminary. He was also the personal secretary of Abbot Bishop Bonifatius Sauer OSB, the founder of the German Benedictine mission in Korea and Abbot of the Tokwon Territorial Abbey.
After the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan in 1945, Tokwon and North Korea were subordinated to Russian troops. After the founding of North Korea, he came into communist captivity with 17 friars in the Korean War in 1949 . After Bonifatius Sauer OSB succumbed to an illness, the other monastery superiors and the Korean priests were shot. The remaining friars were taken to the Oksadok labor camp and used to do forced labor together with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Wŏnsan Abbey. After a kidnapping operation, Gregor Sorger froze to death on November 15, 1950 due to the prison conditions, malnutrition and exhaustion in the Manpo camp on the Chinese border.
In 2009 the beatification process was opened. Since then, countless pilgrims and visitors to the Beuron Abbey Church have prayed for the Beuron monks at the newly established memorial by invoking Father Gregor.
Individual evidence
literature
- Stefan Blanz, Willibrord Driever: Father Gregor Sorger, a martyr of the Church? , in: Beuroner Forum, 2nd year 2010, pp. 80–93.
- Archabbey of St. Martin zu Beuron (ed.): P. Gregor Sorger OSB. 1906-1950. Monk, missionary, martyr. Exhibition about his life and work and the process of beatification for the martyrs of Tokwon . Beuron 2010.
Web links
- Father Gregor (Ludwig Paul Friedrich) Sorger on The Martyrs of Tokwon
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sorger, Gregor |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sorger, Ludwig Paul Friedrich (original name); Sorger OSB, Gregor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Benedictine and missionary monk |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 19, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Spaichingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 15, 1950 |
| Place of death | Manpo, North Korea |