Josef Thannhuber

Josef Thannhuber SDB (born November 24, 1880 in Wurmannsquick near Altötting , † August 29, 1920 in Palmeiras ) was a German religious priest and missionary in Brazil .

Life

After Thannhuber had first learned the tailoring trade, he decided to become a Salesian of Don Bosco and went to the Salesians' seminar in Foglizzo in Italy. It was there that his desire to serve in the mission grew. After the novitiate in Ivrea in 1901 and his first profession , the young religious was sent as a missionary to Mato Grosso in Brazil. After arriving there on March 1, 1903, he first studied theology . After being ordained a priest on February 18, 1906, he worked at the colleges of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Cuiabá and Corumbá until 1916, Interrupted only by a home leave in 1909, where he in Wurmannsquick Primiz caught up. From May 1, 1916, Thannhuber headed the Palmeiras mission station, which had been founded in 1907, primarily served the pastoral care of the white settlers, but was also supposed to maintain contact with the Bororo Indian tribe . In the meantime he was also Provincial Councilor for the American Province. After the French Salesian and later Apostolic Administrator of Registro do Araguaya João Batista Conturon was called up for military service, he took over the leadership of the college in Cuiaba for a short time on January 1, 1919. But since the First World War had already ended, both could soon return to their actual places of work.

On August 29, 1920, Thannhuber was shot by the bandit Tobias Fernandes, who attacked the mission station with his group. Thannhuber had previously offered his life for the other missionaries. After his supporters refused to follow him, Fernandes shot himself. The incident was never fully clarified, and the mission station was subsequently disbanded.

Appreciation

The Catholic Church accepted Father Josef Thannhuber as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

• Fifteenth anniversary of the assassination of a German Salesian missionary in Brazil. In: Rosenhain 19, 1934/35 pp. 348-349.
• Eugenio Valentini (ed.): Profili di Missionari Salesiani e Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice. Rome 1974, pp. 329-331.
• Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume II, pp. 1416-1417.
• Johannes Wielgoß: Father Josef Thannhuber. 2000.