Jordan May

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Memorial plaque in Maximilianstrasse in Gelsenkirchen-Buer (inaugurated in 2008)

Jordan Mai (born September 1, 1866 in Buer iW as Heinrich Theodor Mai , † February 20, 1922 in Dortmund ) was a German Franciscan .

Life

Heinrich Mai was born in the then independent town of Buer in Westphalia (today a district of Gelsenkirchen ). He had six siblings and grew up in a religious family. At the age of 15 he became a member of the Marian bachelors sodality , a youth group in the St. Urbanus parish . After school he began an apprenticeship with his father as a tanner and saddler . He then worked in his father's business, which also included a slaughterhouse . Through his older brother he came into contact with the journeyman's association Adolph Kolpings and joined them in 1883. Soon after, he was elected to the board and took on other honorary positions.

In 1886 he was called up for two years of military service in Münster . As a reservist , he had to take part in the crackdown on the miners' strike at the Graf Moltke colliery in 1889 . This experience increased his social awareness.

As early as 1885 his sister Gertrud was with the Franciscan Sisters of St. Josef entered Valkenburg aan de Geul ; another sister joined an order in 1892. This aroused in Heinrich Mai the idea of ​​also joining an order. Since his father was critical of this plan, he waited another three years before making his decision. In the summer of 1895 he left his parents' house and entered the Franciscan monastery of the Saxon Franciscan Province in Harreveld (Netherlands) on August 18 . After the novitiate he received his religious name Jordanus , which reminds of Jordan von Giano . He was trained as a cook and was transferred to Paderborn , Münster, Neviges and Dingelstädt during his religious life . He made his perpetual profession in Dingelstädt on September 3, 1904 . There he initially worked as a cook, but suffered from severe migraines and therefore asked for a transfer.

On January 27, 1907, Jordan Mai moved to Dortmund . There he took on temporary work in the kitchen, sacristy and in the gatehouse, as far as his headaches allowed. He had an open ear for supplicants at the monastery gate. Numerous people sought his advice and many began to ask him for intercessory prayer, as it was known that he spent many hours praying in the monastery church at night. He saw it as a special task to make atonement on behalf of sinful people . Shortly after Christmas 1921, a tabernacle robbery took place in the Dortmund monastery, which shook him deeply. In atonement, Brother Jordan offered his life to God and is said to have foretold his death within the next few months. In fact, he died on February 20, 1922 and was buried in the Ostenfriedhof Dortmund .

Adoration

After the death of Jordan Mai, who was already very much appreciated by the people during his lifetime, a stormy worship by the population immediately set in. In droves, people made a pilgrimage to his grave. The burial mound had to be constantly renewed as the earth was taken overseas. Finally, the cemetery administration was forced to surround the grave with a grid and cover it with a plate. In 1932 Archbishop Caspar Klein ordered the raising of the bones , and two years later the episcopal information process began in preparation for his beatification . When his bones were transferred from the Ostenfriedhof to the Franziskanerkirche in Dortmund in 1950 , almost 100,000 people took part. As a result of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , the burial site originally in front of the altar was moved to the right wing of the Franciscan Church in the mid-1960s.

Beatification process

The adoption of the episcopal information process was made in 1964 by Pope John XXIII. confirmed and transformed the process into an apostolic process. This preliminary procedure, in which life testimonies and testimony are collected, was completed in 1967. In 1991, under Pope John Paul II, the virtuous way of life of the Franciscan was recognized and he was awarded the title of Venerable Servant of God , a further procedural step in the beatification process. In order for Brother Jordan to be beatified, a miracle would now have to be recognized by the Church. The files remain with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Torsten Wierth: May, Heinrich Theodor . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 138 ff .
  2. ↑ Christiane Rautenberg: Jordan Mai: Helper in need with a short line to God. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . September 1, 2016, accessed August 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Urban Hachmeier, Franziskaner Mission 3/2012, pp. 10-11.
personal data
SURNAME May, Jordan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mai, Heinrich Theodor (maiden name); May, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Franciscan
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Buer
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1922
Place of death Dortmund