Nathanael Burger
Nathanael Burger OFM , baptized Johann Heinrich Burger (born March 1, 1733 in Kulmain , Upper Palatinate ; † August 28, 1780 in Taiyuan , China), was a German missionary to China from the Franciscan order, titular bishop of Dercos , Apostolic Vicar of Changzhi (Shansi ) and Coadjutor Bishop of Nanjing .
Live and act
Burger was born in the Upper Palatinate Kulmain as Johann Heinrich Burger, entered the Franciscan order and received the name of the order Nathanael .
After the ordination , the religious was sent to the Chinese mission. From 1765 he worked as a missionary in the provinces of Shansi and Shensi , especially in the area of Taiyuan and Pingyao , from 1767 also in Luanfu and from 1776 in northern Tartaria, the areas of today's Inner Mongolia and Mongolia .
On January 11, 1777, Pope Pius VI appointed the Bavarian Franciscan as Vicar Apostolic of Changzhi and Titular Bishop of Dercos . With the date of July 20, 1778, Nathanael Burger was also appointed coadjutor bishop of Nanjing and put him in support of the local Austrian chief shepherd Gottfried Xaver von Laimbeckhoven (1707–1787). This officiated under the most difficult conditions. By papal order, the Chinese Christians had been banned from participating in the worship of ancestors and Confucius, as required by the state, which is why they could no longer be members of the administrative upper class and Christianity became extinct under the leadership of the country. As a result, Emperor Yongzheng and his son Qianlong had generally forbidden their subjects to use the Christian religion, which, however, survived in secret among the poor rural population, who anyway did not take part in the state ceremonies. Laimbeckhoven, Burger and other missionaries secretly worked among the lower social classes by traveling on boats to the parishes at night. Not until October 18, 1778, Burger in Sianfu received the episcopal ordination by Francesco Magni OFM (1723–1785), his emeritus predecessor as Vicar Apostolic of Changzhi.
Nathanael Burger was only able to exercise his episcopate for barely two years and died in Taiyuan in the summer of 1780 . On April 2, 1780, he gave the to the pastors of Beijing appointed Augustinian monk Giovanni Damase Salutti (1727-1781) episcopal ordination.
literature
- Kilian Pflaum: "Nathanael Burger and the mission of Shansi and Shensi, 1765-1780" , Solan-Missions-Druckerei, 1954; More about the book
- Theologische Rundschau, Volume 29, 1963 text excerpts
- Franciscan Studies, Volume 69, Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1987; Text excerpt
Web links
- Entry on Nathaniel Bürger on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved December 20, 2016.
- Kurzbiografie (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ To Bishop Laimbeckhoven of Nanjing
- ↑ Wolfgang Brunbauer: Laimbeckhoven, Gottfried Xaver von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 419 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ↑ Biography of Gottfried Xaver von Laimbeckhoven SJ, China missionary and Bishop of Nanking
- ^ To Bishop Francesco Magni
- ↑ To Bishop Giovanni Damase Salutti
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burger, Nathanael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Burger, Nathaniel; Citizen, Nathaniel; Burger, Johann Heinrich (birth name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Franciscan, Apostolic Vicar and Bishop in China |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 1, 1733 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kulmain |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 28, 1780 |
| Place of death | Taiyuan , China |