Josef Marxen
Josef Marxen (born August 2, 1906 in Worringen near Cologne , † November 16, 1946 near Tirana ) was a German Roman Catholic priest . In 1936 he was sent to Albania as a missionary , where he was shot in 1946. He is one of the Thirty-Eight Martyrs of Albania .
Life
Family, places of residence
Josef Marxen was the fourth of nine children born to his parents Nikolaus and Maria. Roosters born.
The father worked as an estate manager and was assigned different farms on which the family lived: In spring 1909 they moved from Fronhof in Worringen to Vronoverhof in Grevenbroich, followed by a move to Bermeshausen near Speicher (Eifel) in October 1910 and in October 1913 the move to the Schönfelder Hof near Zemmer . In April 1922 the family moved to Gut Vogelsang in Münstereifel , in April 1926 to Nettersheim and in April 1928 to a farm in Lötsch near Breyell that was acquired as a property .
School and study
Josef attended elementary school in Zemmer and from 1920 to 1921 a boarding school in Lohr am Main, from 1921 a boarding school in St. Wendel, which was run by the Steyler missionaries. After graduating from high school, he entered the novitiate of the Steyler Missionaries in St. Augustin in 1928 . For the subsequent study of theology, he moved to the order's own university in Mödling near Vienna. After the first few years of study he left the Steyler Missionaries and finished his studies in 1936 at the Oriental Institute (St. Andreas College) in Munich.
Desired career missionary
Like a maternal uncle, Pastor Wilhelm Hahnen, and his older brother Theodor, Josef wanted to become a priest; his wish was to serve as a missionary in Russia. Shortly before his ordination, the Oriental Institute decided not to send any more priests on missions to Russia for the time being. Josef Marxen was ordained a priest in Munich on June 21, 1936 for the Albanian diocese of Durrës , where he set out in 1936.
Activity in Albania
From 1936 to 1941, Josef Marxen was pastor in Perlat, a village in the northern Albanian mountains ( Mirdita region ) with exclusively Catholic residents. There he came into contact with the rules of the Kanun , which acknowledges that the priest has a great influence on the decisions of the villagers. In this way, Pastor Marxen managed to end the blood revenge between warring families. Here he was able to use the medical knowledge he had acquired in preparation for his missionary work. The upbringing and teaching of the children was an important concern of his.
From 1941 to 1945 Josef Marxen was pastor in Juba near Durrës , where he kept in close contact with Bishop Vinçenc Kolë Prennushi . His community included several villages in which Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims lived. When German soldiers occupied the area, he mediated between them and the population.
Arrest and Assassination
When the German soldiers withdrew from Durrës, the German soldiers offered to take him to Germany because he was no longer safe under communist rule . However, he decided to stick with his community. Around three months later, in February 1945, he was arrested in Durrës and taken to prison in Tirana. The elders of the villages in his community, including Orthodox and Muslims, wrote a letter to obtain his release. In June 1945 he was arrested again and taken to Tirana. After imprisonment and torture, he was shot in a forest near Tirana on November 16, 1946.
beatification
The beatification of Josef Marxen and 37 other martyrs, including Alfons Tracki as the second German , took place on November 5, 2016 in Scutari . The Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , Cardinal Angelo Amato , presided over the celebrations on behalf of Pope Francis .
On Sunday, November 13, 2016, a thanksgiving mass was held in Cologne Cathedral in honor of the new blessed.
The Catholic Church included Pastor Josef Marxen as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
The day of remembrance of Blessed Josef Marxen is November 16 in the Archdiocese of Cologne.
literature
- Cäcilia Giebermann: Josef Marxen, missionary in Albania. A search for clues . Trier 2016.
- Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Paderborn 7/2019, II, 1182–1186.
Web links
- Antonius Joseph Marxen (Rhenish History Portal)
- Internet presence on Josef Marxen (Cäcilia Giebermann)
- Article published by the Archdiocese of Cologne :
- On the way to beatification: Pastor Antonius Joseph Marxen (May 3, 2016)
- Candles in Albania (Cäcilia Giebermann)
- Beatification of a good shepherd (Martin Mölder)
- Archdiocese of Cologne on the traveling exhibition "From Cologne to Albania ..."
- Portrait of Marx on the website of the Archdiocese of Shkodra-Pult (Albanian)
annotation
- ^ The documents note two first names, Anton Josef and Anton Joseph . Since he himself only used Josef as his first name , this variant is chosen here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Day saint: November 16: Blessed Josef Marxen. In: The daily mail. November 24, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marxen, Josef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Marxen, Anton Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catholic priest and martyr in Albania |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd August 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Worringen near Cologne , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 16, 1946 |
| Place of death | near Tirana , Albania |