Josef Gross (Bishop)

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Bishop Josef Gross (1866–1931) and Dean Franz Xaver Tobisch (1865–1934)
Coat of arms of Josef Gross, Bishop of Leitmeritz (1910–1931)

Josef Gross (born October 10, 1866 in Pfraumberg ; † January 20, 1931 ) was Bishop of Leitmeritz .

Career

Josef Gross was the son of a mayor of Pfraumberg. After graduating from the Piarist High School in Budweis , he studied Catholic theology in Prague. During his studies, he became a member of the KDStV Ferdinandea Prague in 1887 . On July 4, 1889, the Archbishop of Prague ordained Franziskus von Paula Schönborn as a priest . He then worked as a chaplain and from 1893 as a pastor and archdechant in Falkenau .

Josef Gross was involved in political and social issues. In the up-and-coming industrial city, he saw the founding and promotion of Catholic associations as a suitable means of increasing intellectual and social well-being. He was very concerned about the Los-von-Rom movement , which attracted many people in the working-class region around Falkenau. In order to spread and deepen his faith, he founded, together with the later abbot Albanus, chess director OSB a. a. the St. Boniface newspaper, which was distributed throughout the monarchy (circulation over 1 million copies).

Bishop of Leitmeritz

After the death of Emmanuel Johann Schöbel , Bishop of Leitmeritz , Emperor Franz Joseph nominated Josef Gross as his successor on March 18, 1910. After the papal confirmation by Pius X on April 18, 1910 Archbishop Leo Skrbenský of Hříště donated him the episcopal ordination in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague . The enthronement in the Cathedral of Leitmeritz followed on the feast of St. Boniface on June 5, 1910.

During his tenure, he repeatedly had to struggle with nationalist forces on both the German and the Czech side. Despite this, he was wrongly assumed to be partial to the German believers. The First World War 1914–1928, the fall of the monarchy and the emergence of Czechoslovakia exacerbated the dispute, but an attempt at deposition failed. Josef Groß remained the only German bishop in the new republic. In 1922, at his request , he received his own auxiliary bishop for the Czech diocesans in Antonín Čech, cathedral dean and vicar general of Leitmeritz , who died in 1929.

Groß campaigned for an external and internal renewal of the diocese. He had churches and ecclesiastical buildings restored, including the cathedral . The boys' seminar in Mariaschein ( Bohosudov ) was expanded. Particular attention was paid to the seminary and the theological diocesan school.

Josef Groß took part in Catholic Days several times and gave much-noticed speeches. In 1919 he supported the establishment of the German Christian Social People's Party, in 1923 the “German Catholic Council for Bohemia” was constituted under his leadership.

The bishop particularly encouraged the female religious communities. He supported Sr. Maria Annuntiata Chotek (1890–1939) in founding the Eucharistic Sisters and Hildegard Burjan encouraged the establishment of Caritas Socialis branches in Bohemia.

His achievements brought Josef Groß several times into discussion for larger tasks. In 1913 he was to succeed the late Viennese Archbishop Franz Xaver Nagl ; Radically free-thinking and German national forces managed to prevent the appointment with a press campaign. The appointments to Salzburg as successors to Archbishops Johannes Baptist Katschthaler in 1914 and Balthasar Kaltner in 1918 also failed .

On January 20, 1931, Josef Groß died of a weak heart at the age of 64 and was buried on January 24, 1931 in the cemetery of Leitmeritz in the bishop's grave. A plaque commemorates him in the cathedral.

Works (selection)

  • Books of inwardness. Ascetic library for women religious . Edited by Wendelin Meyer, volumes 1–9. Kevelaer 1933-1940:
    • Conferences on the principles of life of St. Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church
    • With all her soul religious , Kevelaer 10th edition 1949
    • Catechism of the nun (class catechism)
    • Tantum ergo Sacramentum ( The Eucharist and its radiation in the life of the religious woman ), Kevelaer 4th ed. 1939
    • The yearbook of the soul (The diaries of Bernard Overberg)
    • Home in God (retreat readings for friends of God)
    • In the light of Christ (religious self-education of religious women)
    • Love of God (beginning and completion of the life of grace)
    • The will to holiness (religious workbook for the Catholic convents). According to the diaries / speeches / readings / principles of the most blessed Bishop von Leitmeritz Dr. Josef Gross
  • Výstup duše k bohu: Úvahy pro ty, kterí se snazí o zivot v Bohu, obzvláśtě pro reholné sestry / Josef Gross. Vyd. Vend. Meyer. Se svolením vyd. přel. Josef Tymel. Velehrad 1941
  • Plus près de vous, Seigneur! Mulhouse 2nd edition 1953
  • Religieuse de toute son âme , Mulhouse 4th ed. 1954
  • About the secret of becoming sanctified. The everlasting union of the soul with Christ . From the estate of Joseph Groß von Leitmeritz, ed. by Wendelin Meyer. Warendorf 2nd edition 1954
  • Praying the Rosary in the Light of the Holy Eucharist , ed. by Alfons Weigel. Altötting 3rd edition 1986

literature

  • Theodor Czermak: Bishop Josef Groß von Leitmeritz. A picture of life, time and character . Warnsdorf 1933
  • Václav Bartůně: Od proboštství k biskupství (1057–1957) , in 900 let litoměřické kapituly, Česká katolická charita. Praha 1959, pp. 66-68
  • Messages from the Sudeten German priesthood: Josef Groß. Commemorating Bishop of Leitmeritz , 1/1961
  • Cartell Association of Catholic German Student Associations and Cartell Association of Catholic Austrian Student Associations (Ed.): Bishops, abbots, provosts from the CV and ÖCV . Regensburg - Vienna 2009, pp. 53–54
  • Gisela Kaben: The church situation in the diocese of Leitmeritz between 1916 and 1931. Competitions, secular tendencies and national dissociation in the north Bohemian diocese (studies on church history). Hamburg 2009
  • Jaroslav Macek: The diocese of Leitmeritz. The bishops and the fate of the Leitmeritz diocese 1655-2005 , trans. by Jana Niedermaier. Munich 2013

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The honorary members, old men and students of the CV Vienna 1925, p. 540.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Emmanuel Johann Schöbel Bishop of Leitmeritz
1910–1931 		Anton Alois Weber
personal data
SURNAME Gross, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gross, Joseph; Great, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Leitmeritz
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Pfraumberg
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1931