Clara Fey

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Blessed
Clara Fey
Clara Fey as Superior General.
Clara Fey as Superior General.
Born April 11, 1815 ( Aachen , Germany )
Deceased May 8, 1894 ( Simpelveld , Netherlands )
beatification May 5, 2018 in Aachen Cathedral by Cardinal Angelo Amato
Holiday 8th of May

Clara Fey (born April 11, 1815 in Aachen , † May 8, 1894 in Simpelveld , Netherlands ) was a religious sister and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus .

On May 5, 2018, Pope Francis beatified Clara Fey in Aachen, on behalf of Cardinal Angelo Amato .

youth

Life

Youth portrait

Clara Fey was the fourth of five children of the wealthy Aachen cloth manufacturer Louis Fey and his wife Katharina. Her father died of complications from a stroke when she was five years old. Clara visited the municipal " St. Leonhard Female Educational Institution " in Aachen, where she became a student of Luise Hensel . This had a great influence on the development of Claras and her classmates Pauline von Mallinckrodt and Franziska Schervier , who later also founded sister congregations.

vocation

At an early age, Clara Fey took part in the fate of orphans and children of poor parents, the number of whom rose steadily with the growth of the industrial workforce in her hometown. With the support of her brother Andreas Fey, who was chaplain at the Dominican monastery church in Aachen, the friends of her family and interested classmates kept talking about how neglected children should be helped in regular Sunday conversations. The considerations became more concrete after Clara Fey had finished her training at the St. Leonhard Aachen Higher Daughter School in 1830 . Clara Fey and a few friends opened a school for the poor with their own resources in 1837 and rented their own rooms, which had to be expanded as early as 1840. In 1842 she received permission to use the old Dominican monastery in Aachen on Jakobstrasse.

Finally Clara Fey founded on February 2, 1844 along with Wilhelmine fashionistas, Leocadia Startz and Louise Vossen the community of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus and was inter alia by her brother Andrew, the pastor Wilhelm Sartorius , which from his diocese in Luxembourg expelled Bishop Johannes Theodor Laurent and the pastor Leonhard Aloys Joseph Nellessen .

The community set itself the task of helping needy children and young people through the possibility of school education and social support. In 1845 the statutes were submitted to the responsible Archbishop of Cologne , Johannes Cardinal von Geissel , for approval, who in 1848 approved the establishment of the new congregation . Since then, the sisters wore a black habit as a sign of repentance and above it the Dominican white scapular , because Clara Fey had placed her work under the protection of St. Dominic . Two years later the first new sisters were able to make profession and Clara Fey was elected superior. On May 12, 1869, the Congregation of Pope Pius IX. recognized as an institute of papal law , and in 1888 Pope Leo XIII. confirms the constitutions of the order based on the Augustine Rule .

The order quickly grew to around 600 sisters in 27 branches in Prussia , but had to close all of them in 1878 as a result of the culture war , with the exception of the one in Aachen-Burtscheid , which was used to care for sick sisters. Clara Fey left the country as an exile and founded a new motherhouse in Simpelveld, the Netherlands , called "Haus Loreto". The sisters also found a new field of activity in England, Belgium and France.

After the end of the Kulturkampf in 1887, some of the nuns returned to Prussia, where they were able to reopen five religious houses. Clara Fey herself stayed in Simpelveld and was elected Superior General in 1888. She died on May 8, 1894 in the new mother house in Simpelveld.

dig

Last resting place in the Kind-Jesus-Kapelle Aachen

Clara Fey was buried in the sisters cemetery in Simpelveld. Caused by the growing devotion and the progress in the diocesan part of the beatification process (see below) up to the stage of "Recognitio" (ie the solemn opening of the coffin to identify the bones and to remove relics ), the remains of Sr. Claras were im 1934 in the monastery church of the parent company in Simpelveld reburied . When the congregation gave up the motherhouse in Simpelveld in 2012, they were transferred to the cathedral crypt of Aachen Cathedral . Finally, in May 2018, on the occasion of the celebrations of her beatification, her relics finally found their final resting place in the Infant Jesus Chapel of the former mother house of the congregation on Jakobstrasse.

Adoration and Beatification

Sisters of the poor child Jesus with processional flags showing the blessed Clara Fey on the Maastricht Shrine Tour (2018)

Just a few years after her death, efforts to initiate the beatification process began . The Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus initiated this in 1916. In 1958 the apostolic beatification process was initiated in Rome. Pope John Paul II recognized Clara Fey on May 14, 1991 with the heroic degree of virtue and made her the venerable servant of God . On May 4, 2017, Pope Francis recognized the miracle necessary for beatification. Her beatification took place on May 5, 2018 in Aachen Cathedral. The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints , Curia Cardinal Angelo Amato , who presided over the beatification ceremony in Aachen Cathedral , described Fey as "a true heroine of the Gospels". The Aachen Bishop Helmut This declared her to be one of the patron saints of the "synodal discussion and change process" initiated in the diocese at the beginning of 2018 .

Expansion of the Congregation

When Clara Fey died, the congregation already had 1,160 members. In 1923 the first convents were founded in South America. Today around 450 sisters live in Belgium, Germany, England, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Peru and Indonesia.

Clara Fey as namesake

Several schools in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Austria bear or were named after Clara Fey, including the Clara-Fey-Gymnasium in Bonn, the Episcopal Clara-Fey-Schule (grammar school and secondary school) in Schleiden and the inclusive Clara-Fey School in Vienna .

literature

  • Otto Pfülf : M. Clara Fey . Herder, Freiburg 1907.
  • Ignaz Watterott: Mother Klara Fey, founder of the cooperative of the sisters of the poor child Jesus . Herder, Freiburg, 5th edition 1928 ( digitized ).
  • Joseph Brosch:  Fey, Klara. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 118 ( digitized version ).
  • Joseph Solzbacher: The "Holy Friendship" between Clara Fey and Wilhelm Sartorius. A contribution to the history of piety, especially in 19th century Aachen . Cooling, Mönchengladbach 1972, ISBN 3-87448-073-9 .
  • Dieter Wynands: Clara Fey (1815-1894) . In: Rheinische Lebensbilder , Volume 9. Ed. By Wilhelm Janssen . Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1982, pp. 179-198.
  • Wolfgang Schaffer: Clara Fey (1815–1894), founder of the order , in the online portal Rheinische Geschichte , published on March 7, 2013.
  • Ilona H. Winkelhausen: Fey, Clara , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 170f.

Web links

Commons : Clara Fey  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sister Clara Fey is beatified . In: KirchenZeitung for the Diocese of Aachen , May 21, 2017, p. 6.
  2. ↑ Press release of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus: Beatification of Clara Fey - good news , May 4th 2017.
  3. ^ Catholic News Agency , February 6, 2018.
  4. ^ Clara Fey beatified in Aachen , Domradio, May 5, 2018.
  5. ^ New Year's Eve Sermon : Bishop This shows challenges for the diocese . Aachener Zeitung , January 1, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ Clara Fey will be beatified in May 2018. Die Tagespost , September 21, 2017, accessed on September 26, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Home. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Fey, Clara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic founder of the order
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1894
Place of death Simpelveld , Netherlands