Joseph Maria Ruthig

Father Joseph Maria Ruthig, Order Provincial

Joseph Maria Ruthig (born September 18, 1874 in Kirrberg , Saarpfalz , † March 11, 1958 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) was a Catholic priest , member and father of the Franciscan Minorites , field chaplain in the First World War, from 1923 to 1929 provincial (head) of the Southern German Province of the Order, Spiritual Council of the Diocese of Speyer .

Life

Joseph Ruthig was born as the child of the main teacher Martin Ruthig in Kirrberg, in the then Bavarian Rhine Palatinate. Today the village belongs to the city of Homburg as a district . The family had three daughters and six sons. All of the sons aspired to the spiritual status, with two dying before reaching the goal. Two sons became missionaries in Mariannhill , another two went to the Minorites, one of whom was Joseph.

On September 13, 1894, he made his profession in Würzburg and was ordained a priest there on August 1, 1897. His religious name was "Father Joseph Maria". Initially, the new priest was appointed for about a year in the Oggersheim monastery and as a chaplain in the Ludwigshafen parish of St. Gallus. His superiors soon recognized Father Ruthig's versatile talents and sent him to their Swiss branch in Freiburg / Friborg . Here he first taught as a teacher at the German Gymnasium, in 1902 he founded the famous Père Girard College, which he headed for over 10 years.

During World War I Ruthig worked as a field priest in Constantinople . For his bravery and his diligence he was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class, the Bavarian Order of Military Merit , the Prussian Red Cross Medal , the Austrian Franz Joseph Order and the Turkish Iron Crescent .

In 1920 the priest returned home and took over the management of the St. Valentin monastery seminary in Würzburg for two years. Then he came to Vienna as a Guardian and, together with Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl , saved the Order Province, which was threatened by the circumstances of the time, from collapse. From 1923 to 1929 Joseph Maria Ruthig headed the entire southern German branch of the Minorites as Provincial. The superior promoted the study seminars of the order in Freiburg im Üechtland, Würzburg and Graz, and he founded the monasteries of St. Felix in Neustadt an der Waldnaab and Maria Schutz in Kaiserslautern . From 1924 Ruthig published the magazine "Franziskusglocken", and from 1928 also the "Mitteilungen aus der Oberdeutsche Ordensprovinz". The priest worked in Neunkirchen (Lower Austria) , Graz and Assisi before he returned to his home in the Palatinate in 1935, to the Oggersheim monastery . Here he developed "an intensive activity as a preacher, confessor and missionary, which made him known throughout the diocese", as the obituary records. A number of 800 to 900 sermons throughout the year, on various occasions, were not uncommon.

Bishop Joseph Wendel appointed Father Ruthig to the Spiritual Council of the Diocese of Speyer. When he died, he personally attended the funeral service and burial in Oggersheim with around 100 other priests (March 13, 1958).

literature

• Obituary in: Der Pilger , No. 12, of March 23, 1958
• Viktor Carl: Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities, Hennig Verlag Edenkoben, 1998, page 590/591

Web links

• Joseph Maria Ruthig on "Saarland Biographies"

Individual evidence

1. ^ Parish of St. Gallus, Ludwigshafen am Rhein ( Memento from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Website on the architecture of the historic Père Girard College in Friborg ( Memento from February 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Minoriten-Kloster St. Felix, Neustadt ad Waldnaab ( Memento from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Minoriten-Kloster Maria Schutz, Kaiserslautern ( Memento from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Minoriten-Kloster Oggersheim ( Memento from June 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )