Pankratius Pfeiffer

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Pankratius Pfeiffer SDS (* October 18, 1872 as Markus Pfeiffer in Brunnen, municipality of Schwangau in the Allgäu ; † May 12, 1945 in Rome ) was a Salvatorian father who helped Roman citizens escape during the German occupation of Rome.

Life

From 1885, the skinny Markus helped out in his father's brick factory . The work in the brick factory was too difficult for him, however, and an apprenticeship as a baker in Schwangau followed. But here he couldn't stand the flour dust and had to reorient himself again. He followed his brother Johannes to Rome and joined the new Salvatorian order in 1889.

From October 1890 he studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and also attended lectures in mathematics, physics, chemistry and astrology. He received his doctorate in 1893 and studied theology for the next three years. In 1896 he was ordained a priest in the Lateran basilica and celebrated his primacy in Waltenhofen on June 14, 1896.

He then worked for his order in Rome and from 1902 was the General Procurator of the Salvatorians in a responsible position. At the 1915 General Chapter, the Order's founder, Father F. Jordan , resigned from leadership. Father Pankratius Pfeiffer now took over as vicar general ; later he was Superior General of the Salvatorian Order in Rome.

Pankratius Pfeiffer died immediately after the end of the war after a British military jeep hit him two days earlier.

Merit

As a “Roman Schindler ” he saved the lives of many Roman citizens, especially Jews and resistance fighters, during the occupation of Italy by German troops in World War II , by helping them to flee. He hid them in the attic of his religious house and thus prevented the deportation of around 100 people to concentration camps .

On behalf of Pope Pius XII. Pfeiffer acted as a middleman between Nazi commanders and the Vatican . He was friends with the German city commandant Kurt Mälzer - he was also from Bavaria and was Catholic. The Father used these contacts as best he could. He is also known as the “savior of Rome” and successfully intervened against the destruction of the Italian cities of Chieti , L'Aquila , Orvieto and Ascoli Piceno .

He is the only German who was honored as the namesake of a street in Rome after the Second World War: Via Pfeiffer is a short, narrow alley in Rome. At the International Seat of the Salvatorian Order , it branches off from Via della Conciliazione , the boulevard of the dictator Benito Mussolini that leads straight to St. Peter's Basilica .

Works

  • Fr. Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan. Berlin: Salvator-Druckerei u. Verlag, 1930, 411 pp.

literature

  • Philomena Willer: P. Pankratius Pfeiffer SDS: (1872-1945); from baker to Vatican diplomat . [Ed .: Catholic rectory Waltenhofen with the community of Schwangau]. Kunstverlag Fink, Lindenberg 2005, ISBN 3-89870-221-9 .
  • Peter van Meijl: Father Pancratius Pfeiffer SDS and his commitment to the Jews during the German occupation in Rome (1943–1944) . Austrian Province of the Salvatorians, Vienna 2007.
  • Stefan Samerski : In the service of the church, constantly striving to save people. In memory of Father Pankratius Pfeiffer SDS (1872–1945). In: L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly edition in German, vol. 35, 2005, p. 5.
  • Stefan Samerski: Pancratius Pfeiffer, the extended arm of Pius XII. : the Salvatorian General and the German occupation of Rome; 1943/44. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76726-4 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pfeiffer, Pankratius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfeiffer, Markus (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Salvatorian Father
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Fountain
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1945
Place of death Rome