Joseph Zimmermann (clergyman, 1849)

Joseph Zimmermann SMA (born April 25, 1849 in Weggis , † July 19, 1921 in Savannah , Georgia ) was a Swiss Roman Catholic missionary.

Life

Joseph Zimmermann was the son of the farmer Alois Zimmermann and his wife Katharina, b. Lottenbach.

He attended the elementary school in Weggis and from 1866 to 1867 the high school in Lucerne and from 1867 to 1869 the college of St. Michael in Freiburg im Üechtland ; this was followed by further training at Le Collège de l'Abbaye in Saint-Maurice . In 1873 he began studying philosophy and natural sciences at the University of Innsbruck . In October 1873 he continued studying theology at the University of Mainz and decided in his first year of study to join the Society of Africa Missions ; so he came to Lyon for further training in October 1874 , where he became the first Swiss member of the Society on December 18, 1875. In the summer of 1876, the company sent him to Nice, there took place on 23 September 1876 he was appointed deacon , and on 29 September 1876, the priestly ordination . He then taught dogmatic theology in Lyon until 1879 and undertook a number of fundraising in German-speaking countries.

He traveled to Africa on February 24, 1880 and arrived in Lagos on April 3, continuing to Benin and Dahomey ; Due to health problems, however, he only stayed in Africa for a few months and then returned. He was then commissioned to carry out further fundraising campaigns in America and again in German-speaking countries. Because of his multilingualism and eloquence, he received various donations.

In 1878 a branch of the Society of Africa Mission was established in Cork , Ireland , to recruit volunteers to work in the Society's British West African missions. Few suitable candidates applied, however, in addition to the fact that the Church of Ireland was preoccupied with local problems and society was not welcome. Joseph Zimmermann has now been commissioned to travel to Ireland to check the situation there as superior and to initiate measures to improve it.

He succeeded in winning over the local church for his missionary cause and modern Irish Catholicism by reminding of Irish missionary history from the 6th to the 9th centuries that Ireland should occupy a place among the great missionary nations; from this a strong Irish missionary movement developed, of which he was the founder, added his part in the establishment of the Irish religious province of the Society of Africa Missions.

The General Superior Augustin Planque pursued the goal that in order to preserve the unity of society a visible center was necessary, in which the candidates from different countries could learn and exchange ideas. Joseph Zimmermann was convinced that the influence from Ireland had to be more pronounced in order to win over the bishops, priests and ordinary people for the cause, and this came into conflict with the order's leadership. When the Irish Province was formed on May 15, 1912, Stephen Kyne was given its leadership; At this point in time, Joseph Zimmermann had left Ireland the year before to take up a new post as pastor in the US in the African American parish of St. Anthony in Savannah, Georgia.

Before his death he was unable to answer an invitation from the Irish Province to spend the last years of his life among the Irish members.

Web links

• Stefan Jäggi: carpenter, Joseph. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Joseph Zimmermann . On: Society of African Missions .
• Joseph Zimmermann . On: Société des Missions Africaines