Maria von Mörl

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Maria von Mörl in calm ecstasy, painting by Friedrich Wasmann
Maria von Mörl, watercolor by Luigi Gonzaga Giuditti after Louis Gaston de Ségur, 1846
Maria von Mörl, painting by Philipp Veit

Maria von Mörl , full name Maria Theresia von Mörl zu Pfalzen und Sichelburg (* October 16, 1812 in Kaltern ; † January 11, 1868 there ) was a Tyrolean noblewoman , mystic and stigmatized , she is referred to in literature as an " ecstatic lady" .

Origin and childhood

She was born in Kaltern in 1812 as the eldest daughter of ten children of the landowner Joseph Ignaz von Mörl zu Pfalzen und Sichelburg (one of the oldest South Tyrolean aristocratic families) and his wife Maria Katharina born. Sölva was born. She had been ailing since she was 5 years old, but from the age of 7 she helped her religious mother with skill in the household, while the father brought the property into disorder through carelessness. At the age of 9, an enraged man punched Maria so hard that she began to vomit blood and was in sharp pain. After recovery, she was sent to Cles auf dem Nonsberg at the age of 14 to learn Italian, from where she was called back to Kaltern before a year because her mother had died and her youngest sibling was only three months old. Although she was an inconspicuous girl until she was 18, she already devoted her free time to prayer, over time she felt persecuted by dark figures and mourned her mother very severely for years. At the age of 17 she became seriously and incurably ill. Nevertheless, on the advice of the clergy, she stayed in her parents' house during her father's lifetime. Her livelihood was paid from the so-called Haller prebende on the recommendation of her confessor . When her father died in 1849, Maria von Mörl received a modest share of the inheritance, from which an extension to the house of the Franciscan Sisters could be built for her. The land on which the Kaltern cemetery is located today was donated by Maria von Mörl to her home community to build a new cemetery.

Life as a stigmatized mystic

Maria von Mörl chose the lecturer P. Johannes Kapistran Soyer, who worked in the Franciscan monastery of Kaltern, as her confessor, to whom she confided completely for the rest of his life and who kept a diary about her life, which was the basis of the first biography. With his support, she was secretly accepted into the Third Franciscan Order. After the age of 19, she experienced increasingly ecstatic states. After receiving Holy Communion , she remained in quiet rapture for hours, kneeling upright in her bed or floating, as many pictures show. On the other hand, she suffered agonizing physical and mental attacks that could not be explained in a natural way, which prompted her to apply to the bishop through her pastor to carry out exorcisms . In 1834 she got the marks of Christ on her hands and feet . She seemed to see the Passion of Christ every Friday . Her friends describe her as loving and also describe childlike and happy togetherness with her. Maria von Mörl once asked her friend Sophie von Angelini jokingly that she should stay in bed instead of her and "do Mörl". After suffering patiently for decades, she died in the Franciscan monastery of Kaltern in 1868.

Effect on contemporaries

Franciscan monastery in Kaltern

Because of the unusual occurrences, Maria von Mörl became very well known. Thousands of pilgrims came to Maria von Mörl from all over Europe; including bishops, politicians and celebrities like the poet Clemens Brentano . By the end of 1833 alone, the number of visitors pouring in from near and far was estimated at around 40,000. As this became unbearable for the mystic and her family, the prince-bishop Luschin von Trient made sure that only those visitors were allowed into her room, to whose entry she agreed. The beatified next Prince-Bishop of Trento, Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer , a distant relative, was silent about the sensational events, but together with her confessor, he made sure that Maria von Mörl was spared the negative effects of her fame and arranged for a witness to be prepared to get rid of slander and rumors. Together with the parish of Kaltern, he decided to build an extension to the sacristy of the Church of the Tertiary Sisters, which from 1841 served as a room for the mystic, who was visited by pilgrims. He allowed an altar in her room so that she could often receive the sacraments. In 1837 and 1847 he visited her personally.

Appreciation

The scholar Josef Görres wrote about it: "[...] the work of a higher power cannot be overlooked in it [...]"

In his book Missionarius apostolicus (1870), Prelate Anton Kerschbaumer gives an impressive description of his visit to her in 1847.

In the diocese of Bozen-Brixen, efforts are being made to get a beatification .

Maria von Mörl is considered the most famous stigmatized virgin in Tyrol. 11 January 2008 marked the 140th anniversary of the death of the stigmatized. The memory of her life is kept alive by the Maria-von-Mörl-Kreis. Newly discovered documents have also created the basis for a beatification process.

Besides Maria von Mörl, Maria Domenica Lazzeri from Capriana in nearby Trentino and Agnes Klara Steiner from Taisten are among the most famous ecstatic women in Tyrol in the 19th century.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nicole Priesching (Ed.): Under the Scourge of God - The suffering of the stigmatized Maria von Mörl (1812–1868) in the judgment of her confessor, Bozen 2007, p. 9
  2. ↑ Nicole Priesching (Ed.): Under the Scourge of God - The suffering of the stigmatized Maria von Mörl (1812–1868) in the judgment of her confessor, Bozen 2007, p. 281 f.
  3. ↑ Nicole Priesching (Ed.): Under the Scourge of God - The suffering of the stigmatized Maria von Mörl (1812–1868) in the judgment of her confessor, Bozen 2007
  4. ^ Nicole Priesching: Maria von Mörl. Weger, Brixen 2004, p. 233 ff.
  5. ^ Nicole Priesching: Maria von Mörl. Weger, Brixen 2004, pp. 290, 294


personal data
SURNAME Mörl, Maria von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maria Theresa von Mörl zu Pfalzen and Sichelburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South Tyrolean aristocrats, mystics and stigmatists
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaltern
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1868
Place of death Kaltern