Jakob Eich

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Jakob Eich
Jakob Eich
Group picture with Bishop Jakob Eich

Jakob Eich OSFS (born March 7, 1888 in Ensheim , Saarpfalz (now incorporated into Saarbrücken ); † February 4, 1947 in Keetmanshoop , South West Africa ) was a Catholic priest , Salesian Oblate Father , and from April 1942 coadjutor bishop of the Vicar Apostolic of Greater Namaland in Namibia, based in Keetmanshoop, from November 1942 until his death in 1947, Vicar Apostolic there .

Life

Jakob Eich was born on March 7, 1888 in Ensheim, Saarpfalz, Kingdom of Bavaria, Diocese of Speyer. The place is now separated from the Palatinate and belongs as a district of Saarbrücken to the Saarland. However, it still belongs to the Diocese of Speyer.

Eich entered the Order of the Oblates of St. Franz von Sales and first studied in Austria and then in the USA. He was a novice under Father Jakob Isenring in Wilmington, Delaware , USA and was ordained a priest on May 16, 1914.

Then he was sent as a missionary to German South West Africa , today's Namibia. There worked u. a. also the Salesian Oblates. His friar, Father Josef Klemann, had lived there since 1912 and had been Apostolic Vicar of Greater Namaland from 1930 (consecrated in 1931), based in Keetmanshoop. Bishop Klemann founded a number of new mission stations, was able to significantly increase the number of missionaries working in the vicariate and also to call sisters into the country, including the new congregation of the "Hiltrup Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus". He was particularly concerned about the economic situation of the stations, which he sought to improve by buying farms. Father Jakob Eich was the close collaborator of his compatriot, friar and bishop Josef Klemann. The latter finally let the Pope add him to himself as coadjutor bishop in the administration of the Apostolic Vicariate due to increasing sickness.

On April 21, 1942, Jakob Eich was appointed titular bishop of Cynopolis in Egypt and coadjutor of Greater Namaland. He received his episcopal consecration on June 29, 1942, the Apostolic Delegate of South Africa, Archbishop Bernard (Giordano) Gijlswijk, OP, co-consecrators were the Bishops Josef Klemann of Groß-Namaland (Eich's Bishop) and the Apostolic Vicar of Keimoes, Bishop Heinrich Joseph Thünemann, OSFS For health reasons, Josef Klemann soon renounced the leadership of the vicariate . Pope Pius XII therefore appointed Jakob Eich on November 10, 1942 as apostolic vicar (diocesan bishop of a diocese established on a trial basis) of Greater Namaland, Namibia. He began with plans and collections for the construction of a cathedral, since Keetmanshoop is the only episcopal city in southern Africa that does not have a cathedral. His successor Franz Xaver Esser , OSFS, was able to lay the foundation stone for today's St. Stanislaus Cathedral in 1954.

Bishop Eich died on February 4, 1947 after a four-year pontificate. The shepherd was buried in his episcopal city. Under his friar and successor, the German Bishop Franz Xaver Esser, the Apostolic Vicariate Groß-Namaland was renamed the Apostolic Vicariate Keetmanshoop in 1949, and in 1994 it became the current Diocese of Keetmanshoop .

Bishop Jakob Eich is listed in the Necrologium Spirense , the list of deceased priests in his home diocese of Speyer. In his place of birth Ensheim, the "Bischof-Eich-Straße" is named after him.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Schmidt-EppendorfKLEMANN, Josef. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 26, Bautz, Nordhausen 2006, ISBN 3-88309-354-8 , Sp. 766-768.
  2. ^ Website of St. Stanislaus Cathedral, Keetmanshoop
predecessor Office successor
Joseph Klemann OSFS Apostolic Vicar of Keetmanshoop
1942–1947
Francis Xavier Esser OSFS