Karl Wagner (Jesuit)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi, Pakistan, designed by Father Karl Wagner SJ; in front of it the Sacred Heart Monument from 1925
The (today's) St. Xavier's High School Bombay, built according to Father Wagner's plans, 1907

Karl Wagner , also Charles Wagner , (born September 9, 1821 in Mainz , † August 28, 1869 in Bombay , India) was a German Jesuit and architect .

Live and act

Karl Wagner was born in Mainz, studied in Giessen and became an architect and engineer. Later he felt the calling to be a clergyman. That is why he studied again in Tübingen in 1849, together with the later Mainz cathedral dean Johann Baptist Heinrich , entered the Mainz seminary in 1850 and was ordained a priest on October 4, 1851. On November 1st of that year, Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler appointed him to the episcopal seminary as professor of philosophy.

In 1855 he entered the Jesuit order. He was active in the Order of Feldkirch and Bonn as a pastor, teacher and people's missionary , and he also designed buildings for the Jesuit branches in Münster , Bonn , Gorheim and Cologne .

In 1867 Wagner was sent to the Indian mission, primarily to work there as an in-house builder or architect. He traveled from Trieste to India on September 12th of that year . But in 1869 he died of dysentery in Bombay .

Wagner mostly built in the neo-Gothic style, which also integrated local ornamental forms in India. The two best-known buildings built according to his plans are St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi (now Pakistan) and St. Xavier's High School in Bombay, a typical building from the Indo-Gothic. The current St. Xavier's High School used to be the famous St. Xavier's College, which moved to its current premises in the early 20th century.

The St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi, designed by Father Wagner, appeared as a motif on postage stamps from Pakistan in 1979 and 2009 .

Karl Wagner was a friend and former fellow student of the Protestant pastor Siegmund Henrici (1823-1884) from Rimbach in the Odenwald . He converted to the Catholic Church in 1856 and became a priest or religious writer in the Diocese of Mainz , which caused a great stir at the time. In the run-up to the conversion he had turned to his old friend Karl Wagner, then a professor at the Mainz seminary, who, when he joined the Jesuits himself, entrusted him to the pastoral care of cathedral capitular Johann Baptist Heinrich.

literature

  • Alfons Väth : The German Jesuits in India. History of the Bombay-Puna Mission (1854-1920). Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 1920, p. 242.
  • Literary guide , initially for Catholic Germany , vol. 8 (1869), no. 83 of October 20. ( Column 382 ).
  • David August Rosenthal : Images of Converts . Volume 3, Manz Verlag, Mainz 1902, p. 234 .
  • Klaus Reinhardt (Red.): Augustinerstrasse 34. 175 years of the Episcopal Seminary in Mainz , published by the Diocese of Mainz. Walter, Eltville am Rhein 1980; therein pp. 335–336 on Karl Wagner.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annals of the Spread of Faith, monthly publication of the Ludwig-Missions-Verein , Volume 36 (1868), page 198. ( as an e-book on Google books , reference to the departure date to India )
  2. ^ Note on Wagner's death in: Allen's Indian Mail , No. 885 of September 29, 1869, page 930 ( as an e-book on Google Books )
  3. ^ Walter Leifer: Bombay and the Germans. Shakuntala Publicity House, 1975, pages 81 and 96. ( Snippet views on Google Books )
  4. ^ Wilhelm Diehl: Hessische Volksbücher, Volume 10-11, Darmstadt 1911, page 265; Scan to Sigmund Henrici
  5. ^ David August Rosenthal : Convert pictures. Volume 3, Manz Verlag, Mainz 1902, page 384; Scan from the source
personal data
SURNAME Wagner, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wagner Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit priest and architect
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1869
Place of death Mumbai