Paul Josef Nardini
Paul Josef Nardini (born July 25, 1821 in Germersheim , † January 27, 1862 in Pirmasens ) was a priest , founder of the order of the Mallersdorfer Sisters and social reformer. He was beatified on October 22, 2006.
Life
Childhood, youth and education
Nardini was born out of wedlock under the name Lichtenberger in Germersheim am Rhein and grew up in the family of a great aunt since 1823. He received the name "Nardini" from his foster father. According to the available sources, the natural father was an Austrian officer of the Germersheim fortress construction . According to Prelate Norbert Weis , postulator in Nardini's beatification process, it was very likely Joseph Zocchi von Morecci , who evidently also remembered the second child's name Josef . After attending primary school, Paul Josef Nardini was supposed to learn the shoemaker's trade, but because of his special talent he was allowed to attend the Latin school in Germersheim in 1834. In 1838 he moved to the grammar school in Speyer and in 1840 was accepted into the newly opened Bischöfliche Konvikt .
After graduating from high school in 1841 and studying philosophy in Speyer, Nardini went to Munich to study theology , where he was awarded a Dr. theol. PhD.
On August 22, 1846 he received the Speyer Cathedral by Bishop Nicholas of Weis the priesthood and was two days later to the town of Kaplan Frankenthal appointed. On December 1 of the same year Nardini became prefect in the episcopal Konvikt. However, he wanted to work in pastoral care, which is why he moved to Geinsheim as parish administrator on April 11, 1850 .
Parish administrator in Geinsheim
The pastoral work in Geinsheim was not easy. "Only a conscientious, careful pastoral care, a restless zeal and a full male mental and physical strength" could succeed in elevating the parish "after years to an acceptable condition", wrote Nardini to the ordinariate .
29-year-old Nardini went to work full of enthusiasm and with great commitment. The first fruits of his priestly activity were soon evident. In a letter to the bishop, the Catholics of Geinsheim noted that they had "recognized Nardini as a good shepherd". They declared, “Our husbands are transformed, our children are born again, we are all now given the right light. No one in Geinsheim, no matter how old they are, “had ever heard such words of the Holy Gospel as in these nine months from ... Pastor Dr. Nardini. "
The enthusiasm even went so far that in 1851, when he was transferred to Pirmasens , around 250 women from Geinsheim signed a request in which they asked the Speyer bishop “that he be their pastor and pastor (sc. Rev. Nardini) as May the pastor give and thus complete the grace of heaven and earth. ”However, this request was not fulfilled.
Pastor in Pirmasens: father of the poor
On May 8, 1851, Nardini was appointed pastor of Pirmasens, a diaspora congregation of 1,800 people. When the young priest, who himself came from a poor background, came to Pirmasens, there was great social hardship in the West Palatinate city. Poverty and hunger drove many residents to peddle and beg, which neglected children. The home-made shoes were sold by the women at fairs and fairs, while no one cared for the elderly, the sick and children in the families. Nardini gathered young women who wanted to get involved in society. With great zeal and against innumerable opposition (both from the political community and from the Christians in Pirmasens) he did everything possible to improve the precarious situation. It was a thorn in the side of the Bavarian state that Nardini took care of poor relief, which was actually the responsibility of the state.
Order founder
In order to meet the need in Pirmasens, Nardini, against great opposition, set up a branch for the Niederbronn sisters from Alsace . However, the two sisters were considered foreigners. When they were threatened with expulsion after only two years, he made the decision to found a new community of sisters. He dissolved the branch of the Niederbronn sisters and founded a community of sisters on March 2, 1855, which he called the Poor Franciscan Sisters of St. Family called. To this end, he entrusted two women, whom he knew from his time as a pastor in Geinsheim, with caring for the poor, the sick and children in Pirmasens: Barbara Schwarz from Geinsheim and Juliane Michel from Deidesheim. Three women joined them in March. On May 1st, ten sisters with 30 poor children moved into a new home. In August there were already 16 sisters. He wrote to his bishop: "I have the most striking evidence that the Almighty has also given this female branch of the Franciscan order his protection."
As early as 1856, the first sisters were sent from Pirmasens to other places in the Palatinate. Their job was to care for the poor and the sick and to bring up neglected children. But the Bavarian state and the Speyer bishop Nikolaus von Weis , who felt ignored, initially refused to recognize Nardini's work. It was not until March 10, 1857 that the bishop gave his approval.
In the midst of his efforts to obtain government approval for his congregation, Nardini fell ill with pneumonia in early 1862 when he was visiting sick and died on January 27 at the age of only 40½ years. He found his final resting place in the chapel of the Nardinihaus in Pirmasens. The young sister community then numbered 220 sisters. The grave of Paul Josef Nardini can be visited in the chapel of the Nardinihaus in Pirmasens, the founding place of the order. The sisters have also set up a memorial there with a permanent exhibition on the life and work of the Social Apostle.
Nardini's life's work continued to develop in the following decades. In 1869 the mother house of Pirmasens was relocated to the former Benedictine Abbey of Mallersdorf (Lower Bavaria). The poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family , also known as the Mallersdorfer Sisters , are still active today in nursing the sick and the poor as well as in educational work. Around 1200 women religious belong to the order of sisters. They work not only in Germany , but also in Romania and South Africa . There are 13 branches with 155 sisters in the Diocese of Speyer.
beatification
The process for beatification of Nardini was opened in 1990 by the Speyer Bishop Anton Schlembach at the request of the order he founded . The postulator of the diocese was cathedral capitular Norbert Weis . In 1999 the first phase of the procedure was completed at the diocese level and the case was forwarded to Rome. Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree on the heroic degree of virtue of Nardini on December 19, 2005 and concluded - after the recognition of the healing of Sister Stephana as a miracle by the Congregation for the Beatitudes and Canonizations, which was medically inexplicable according to the judgment of the medical commission of the Congregation, by decree of 26 June 2006 - the proceedings.
The celebration of the beatification on October 22nd, 2006 in Speyer Cathedral was presided over by Pope Friedrich Cardinal Wetter , the Archbishop of Munich and Freising and former Bishop of Speyer. The musical accompaniment took place with the participation of the church choir St. Jakobus Germersheim under the direction of Sabine Nebel. In addition to the 2,000 participants in the church service in the cathedral, including political celebrities and around 600 Mallersdorf sisters, an estimated 6,000 people took part in the celebration on a large screen in the cathedral courtyard. Afterwards, to celebrate the day - according to old Speyer custom - wine was poured out of the large stone " Domnapf " in front of the cathedral. A relic of the Blessed is kept in the Speyer Cathedral.
Paul Josef Nardini is the first person from the Palatinate to be beatified by the Pope. His feast day is January 27th.
literature
- Hans Ammerich : Paul Josef Nardini. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 461-462.
- Hans Ammerich: Nardini, Paul Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 735 f. ( Digitized version ).
- M. Radegund Bauer: May it burn, Dr. Paul Josef Nardini, a portrait of the hundredth anniversary of his death on January 27, 1962 .
- M. Radegund Bauer: Dr. Paul Josef Nardini - Life and Work (Lecture at the commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the death of the founder of the Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family in Mallersdorf, 1987).
- M. Radegund Bauer: Dr. Paul Josef Nardini. A picture of life , 1990.
- M. Radegund Bauer: Paul Josef Nardini. A life for the disadvantaged , 2006.
- Joachim Feldes, Nardini and Frankenthal. Sustainable Caritas in the heart of the city , 2007.
- Kosch, KD, p. 3182.
- Norbert Rönn, Josef Nardini (1821–1862), father of the poor and abandoned , in: Günter Beaugrand (ed.), The new saints. Great Christians Towards Canonization or Beatification , 1990, 201–211. ISBN 3-629-00579-9
- Ludwig Schranz, The Congregation of the Poor Franciscan Sisters of Mallersdorf (1855–1925) , 1925.
- Article in: Der Pilger, church newspaper for the Diocese of Speyer , Volume 141, No. 4 of January 25, 1987 and Volume 143, No. 12 of March 25, 1990.
Web links
- Literature by and about Paul Josef Nardini in the catalog of the German National Library
- Paul Joseph Nardini in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints (with reference to the father)
- The Mallersdorfer Sisters
- Seliger-Nardini.de
- Nardinihaus Pirmasens
Individual evidence
- ↑ Personal communication from Dr. Norbert Weis to the author, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nardini, Paul Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German priest (Roman Catholic) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 25, 1821 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Germersheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 27, 1862 |
| Place of death | Pirmasens |