Joseph Bihn

Joseph Bihn as a young priest, around 1860

Joseph Bihn , baptized Joseph Ludwig Bihn (born January 2, 1822 in Dirmstein , † August 17, 1893 in Tiffin , Ohio ), was a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Cleveland (Ohio, USA ). As a pastor, he founded the order of the Sisters of the Franciscans of Tiffin , which is still in existence today and is officially abbreviated to "OSF Tiffin".

Family, youth and emigration

Joseph Ludwig Bihn was born in Dirmstein ( Pfalz ) as the youngest of seven children - three boys and four girls - of the married couple Ludwig Bihn and Margaretha, geb. Rothermel born. The father was a shoemaker . On his mother's side, Bihn was a great-great-grandson of the building contractor Franz Rothermel , who had built the local Laurentius Church in the 1740s .

Nothing specific is known about Bihn's early life, as stated in a booklet published in the USA in 1942 about the order he founded. What is certain is that Bihn emigrated to York, Medina County (Ohio) with his mother and sisters Margaretha and Barbara in 1845 after the death of his father and older sister Catharina . The state of Ohio had an above-average German population at that time, and Joseph's older brothers Andreas and Antonius, shoemakers like their father, had emigrated there earlier. Antonius Bihn's descendants still live in the USA today. In 1848 Joseph Ludwig Bihn took up employment in Cleveland (Ohio) as a commercial clerk in the Alcott, Horten & Company department store. There he was very popular because of his "friendly nature and other dignified qualities".

Professional activities

Pastor

Joseph Bihn, taken in a photo studio in Tiffin, around 1875

The office work did not satisfy the young man because he felt a vocation to the priesthood. During this time he met Amadeus Rappe, the first Catholic bishop of Cleveland, whom he confided in and who encouraged him to do his thing. When, after four years, Bihn had saved enough from his low salary to finance a course of study, he entered St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland in 1852 .

His friend and former fellow seminarian Pastor Seraphin Bauer later reported that Bihn - at that time already at an advanced age - had found it very difficult to learn and study. According to the testimony of other contemporaries, the sciences were not Bihn's forte, but rather a man of prayer, full of love for his fellow men and with ardent zeal in religious matters. In spite of this, he successfully completed all the prescribed studies, as an adult, with comrades half his age; This was an astonishing achievement considering the fact that when he entered the seminar at the age of 30 he could only speak and write reasonably fluently English.

On June 1, 1856, he was ordained a priest from the hands of his friend Rappe, the Bishop of Cleveland. Two weeks later, Bihn was appointed pastor of the St. Josephs Congregation in the town of Tiffin (Ohio). The church there, a brick building from 1845, turned out to be too small for the flourishing congregation, whose members included many German emigrants. The necessary new church was financed exclusively through donations. Pastor Bihn's skillful construction management enabled it to be completed and consecrated in 1862 without the slightest debts.

Order founder

The social conditions in the country, shaped by many uprooted immigrants from Europe and by refugees and orphans of the civil war (1861–1865), made Pastor Bihn decide to do something for the orphans and the homeless old people. This idea took shape in 1867, and it resulted in the establishment of the Order of Sisters, which continues to this day. Bishop Karl Joseph Alter of Toledo (Ohio) , whose newly founded diocese the city of Tiffin was incorporated into at the beginning of the 20th century, reported in 1942 about the beginnings of Pastor Bihn's life's work:

“The year 1867 brought the usual problems for the Catholics of Tiffin, Ohio, following a massive displacement and uprooting caused by a terrible civil war. The dire consequences of the war between the northern and southern states proves u. a. the remarkable increase in the number of helpless children who had no one to look after them. But the war and the hardship that inevitably followed formed only part of the cause of the problem. At that time Tiffin was - as can be seen from the members of the Catholic community - a typical immigrant town. Hundreds of newcomers, especially from the German-speaking areas of Europe, had immigrated to the city and the surrounding area. Often children were orphaned, or the simple, hard-working people no longer earned because of their age, and they inevitably got into misery with their limited savings and no hope of income. The pastor of St. Joseph / Tiffin constantly faced such problems in his pastoral care. Pressed by so many urgent requests for some form of charitable care, Rev. Pastor Joseph Bihn from St. Joseph's Congregation in Tiffin decided to found a combined home, a home for both orphans and needy old people People. Such a venture would still be considered fantastic even today, and the terrible difficulties of setting up such a venture might put off the bravest even in our present circumstances. Nonetheless, Pastor Bihn did not allow himself to be discouraged with his great confidence in divine providence. The normal execution of the decision would be that one calls a religious order, which understands such things, to help and entrusts the work. Pastor Bihn probably tried this too, although we have no definite news about it. In any case, our pastor decided instead to found not only the home in question, but also a religious community, a separate order, consisting of friars and sisters, according to the order of St. Francis alive. "

- Bishop Karl Joseph Alter , 1942

Joseph Bihn, portrait of old age as the head of his religious order, ca.1890

Pastor Bihn bought a large farm southeast of Tiffin on November 9, 1867. He founded his home there, and his religious community is based there to this day. On the occasion of the establishment of the institute, he asked the members of his community for active help. A pious widow then offered her and her family's service for God's wages. It was about Mrs. Elisabeth Schäfer, her father Johannes Greiveldinger and her two daughters Anna Maria and Josephine. They left their own farm, sold it, and on March 1, 1868, joined Pastor Bihn to work in his home. The priest, like Mrs. Schäfer and her family, had been a member of the Third Order of the Franciscans for a long time . The Third Order is an association of people, so-called "Terziaren", who do not live in monasteries but in the world and can pursue a wide variety of professions, but for reasons of deep religiosity submit to the (slightly modified) order rules of the Franciscan orders without Taking vows and obeying the rules under sin. It happens that several such people come together to form real communities, mostly in order to live their religious vocation even better together and to be able to do good works, such as nursing etc., together. Members of such communities usually wear religious clothes, adhere to simple Franciscan rules, commit themselves to obey them under sin and take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in accordance with the “evangelical counsels” pronounced by Christ . Such members of the Third Order are called "Regularterziaren" because, unlike the simple "Terziaren", they live together according to a fixed rule.

Bihn asked his friend, Bishop Rappe, to agree to the establishment of a female order of regularters that was specially tailored to the needs of his home. The bishop replied that not only did he approve of the foundation, but also imparted his deepest blessing on it. So Ms. Elisabeth Schäfer and her daughter Anna Maria became the first sisters, and at the same time two other parishioners, namely Ms. Schäfer's sister-in-law Maria Schäfer and Ms. Kunigunde Schmidt, asked for admission to the order. At the Sacred Heart Festival, June 4, 1869, the first four sisters were ceremonially dressed and the vows were taken. Mrs. Elisabeth Schäfer took over the office of superior under the name "Mother Francis d'Assisi". Her daughter Anna Maria was named "Sister Sacred Heart of Jesus", Maria Schäfer was called "Sister Nativity" and Kunigunde Schmidt was called "Sister Blessed Sacrament". The order chose the name "Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis, of Penance and of Charity, Tiffin, Ohio" (ie "Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, of Penance and Charity, Tiffin, Ohio") “) And was officially recognized by the State of Ohio on December 2, 1869.

Pastor Bihn's visionary work took a mighty upswing over the years. On the former farm, now the St. Francis Home, new buildings were built several times and the area was considerably enlarged. Word of the existence of the institution got around, more and more orphans and seniors came from far away and found a friendly welcome. Everyone lived like one big family. The members of the order contributed their personal fortune to the work, and a fraternity was eventually founded, but this only existed for a few decades and dissolved again after the death of the founder. The sisters looked after children and old people, gave lessons and did household chores such as cooking, washing and cleaning with the female orphans, with the elderly helping out as best they could. Together with the male children, the brothers carried out the necessary forest and agricultural services, carried out construction work and kept the home in order. They were often supported by Pastor Bihn personally, for whom no work was too difficult for those in need. One was self-sufficient in almost everything and was largely self-sufficient to the outside world. Prayer and church services also welded the community together under their pastor in the spiritual life. Sometimes orphans later stayed in the house as members of the order and thus served the new generations of those in need. Since 1871, the sisters also taught outside the home at St. Nicholas School in Frenchtown, Ohio . In 1878 there were 27 sisters who looked after 72 orphans and 23 seniors. In 1888 the religious community was already caring for 215 people. When the St. Francis orphanage in Tiffin closed in 1936 due to the changed social conditions, there were more than 1,700 children who had lived there; the number of seniors cared for in the (still existing) old people's home up to that point was around 700. Pastor Bihn had a home church built in 1881 and enlarged in 1888. At that time it also got two neo-Gothic towers, which for 49 years formed the landmark of the St. Francis Home, visible from afar. The spiers were destroyed in a tornado on April 14, 1937, so that the church presents itself today with two flattened tower stumps.

Death and continuation of life's work

Joseph Bihn's grave in the Order Cemetery of St. Francis

Pastor Bihn died on August 17, 1893 in St. Francis, Tiffin, after ten days' sick leave, of heart failure and old age. He found his final resting place in the home cemetery. His simple, humble, and selflessly pious way of life was generally considered sacred at his death. Although so far no canonization or beatification took place, the Franciscan Sisters of worship Tiffin its founder as a heavenly advocate and keep his memory alive. On the grounds of the St. Francis Home, they set up a small museum in a former stable building that Pastor Bihn himself had built. B. the desk and other personal items kept by him. The monastery church still has a chalice used by Pastor Bihn, which he received in 1881 as a present for the silver jubilee of the priesthood. It is only used for very special celebrations of the religious community. On the occasion of Pastor Bihn's death, the newspaper wrote: “As long as there are orphans who need to be brought up and looked after, as long as children's homes continue to exist and as long as the great heart of mankind is touched by pity for homeless children, the name Pastor Bihn will be remembered and for just as long remain honored throughout Northwest Ohio. "

The Franciscan Sisters from Tiffin carry pastor Bihn's work into our time. Even if the general decline of the religious orders after the Second Vatican Council did not leave them without a trace, there are still 128 sisters who work in the spirit of Pastor Bihn; in the USA they do this in the care of the elderly, in the service of parishes, in educational work as well as in education and health care, in Mexico at a mission station in Chiapas .

literature

• Jakob Bisson : Seven Speyer bishops and their time . Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 1956.
• Joachim Specht: Pastor Joseph Ludwig Bihn from Dirmstein, the father of the elderly and orphans from Northwest Ohio . In: Michael Martin (ed.): Dirmstein - nobility, farmers and citizens . Chronicle of the Dirmstein community. Self-published by the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research , Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 2005, ISBN 3-9808304-6-2 , p. 617-622 .
• Joachim Specht: Pastor Joseph Ludwig Bihn from Dirmstein, the father of the elderly and orphans from Northwest Ohio . In: Bad Dürkheim district (Hrsg.): Heimatjahrbuch 2006 . Verlag Englram & Partner, Haßloch 2005, ISBN 3-926775-43-2 , p. 166-171 .
• Without indication of the author: Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Penance and of Charity, Tiffin, Ohio, 1869–1942 . Self-published by the sister community, Tiffin, Ohio 1942 (English).
• Sr. Miriam Miller, OSF: Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Penance and of Charity, Tiffin, Ohio, 1942–1989 . Self-published by the Sister Community, Tiffin, Ohio 1989 (English).

Web links

• Website of the Diocese of Toledo (Ohio) (English) with a short biography and photos of Pastor Bihn and his grave
• Website of the North Sister of the Franciscan Sisters of Tiffin (English)
• Website about the history of the orphanage St. Francis (English) with photos of Joseph Bihn and a historical picture of the house with the undamaged church towers (before 1937)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Penance and of Charity, Tiffin, Ohio, 1869–1942 . 1942 (English).
2. ^ Francis L. Hultgren: A history of northwest Ohio . tape II . Chicago and New York 1917, p. 1298 (English).
3. ↑ Black, Louis Amadeus . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 5 : Pickering - Sumter . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1888, p. 184 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
4. ^ The Daily Advertiser . Tiffin (Ohio) August 17, 1893 (English).