Pauline von Mallinckrodt

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Pauline von Mallinckrodt

Pauline von Mallinckrodt (born June 3, 1817 in Minden , † April 30, 1881 in Paderborn ) is the founder of the congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love . She was beatified in 1985 .

Live and act

Pauline von Mallinckrodt was born on June 3, 1817 in Minden. Her father was Detmar von Mallinckrodt (1769–1842) from the Westphalian noble family Mallinckrodt , government vice-president in Minden and Aachen and cousin Arnold Mallinckrodt , the mother Freiin Bernhardine von Hartmann. The couple had another, younger daughter and their two sons Hermann and Georg von Mallinckrodt , both of whom were active as central politicians. At the request of the deeply religious mother, the children were baptized and brought up Catholic, which meant the risk of impeachment for the father, since Prussian officials were obliged to raise their children Protestant.

The family moved from Minden to Aachen in 1824 because the father had become vice president there. Pauline von Mallinckrodt received lessons from Luise Hensel at the Höhere Töchterschule St. Leonhard Aachen , whose students also included the later foundresses Clara Fey and Franziska Schervier . In 1834, Pauline von Mallinckrodt's mother died of cholera, which she had previously contracted from a maid she had taken care of. Pauline von Mallinckrodt now had to take care of the big household, but her real interest was religion and helping people in social need. After her confirmation in 1835, she refused to be engaged to Fritz von Coffrane and instead followed her religious vocation. As leader of the Aachener Jungfraubund, she campaigned for papal approval of mixed marriage . Also because of his daughter's Catholic commitment, Detmar von Mallinckrodt was passed over twice for promotion, in 1839 he retired and moved with Pauline to Gut Böddeken near Büren. In winter the family lived in nearby Paderborn. There she founded a day-care center for children of sick mothers in 1840 based on the model of Amalie Sieveking . From 1842 onwards she took two blind girls into her home, and in 1847 the Provincial Facility for the Blind was established in Paderborn.

She had long wanted to join a religious community with her works. When her father died in 1842, however, she did not find a congregation willing to take over the institution for the blind. Therefore, on August 21, 1849, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love . In the following years Pauline also turned to education and the school system and was especially committed to educating girls. So she sent Sister Mathilde Kothe from her congregation to the Catholic elementary school in Dortmund, which looked after 123 girls from January 3, 1851. The headmistress of the Kruppschen Scheune , sister Augusta Hillenkamp, ​​which opened on May 31, 1864 as a secondary school for girls, also came from her congregation. On June 17, 1871, the Crimean School was re-established in the north of Dortmund, the second elementary school for girls in the city. During this time she also consolidated the order, had the mother house of the order built in Paderborn, drafted a constitution and gained recognition by the Pope. The Sisters of Christian Love took over orphanages in Steele and Solingen as well as schools in Solingen, Witten , Sigmaringen , Viersen , Magdeburg , Krefeld , Anrath , Soest , Unna , Oschersleben , Konstanz and Dresden .

During the Kulturkampf , all orders and congregations in Prussia were banned and the sisters were forbidden from teaching in public schools. Pauline von Mallinckrodt took legal action against these decisions, but could not prevail in the court proceedings. She then looked for new spheres of activity for the sisters in the United States, Chile, Austria-Hungary, Liechtenstein and Belgium and founded branches of the Sisters of Christian Love in these countries. In 1877 the motherhouse of the congregation in Paderborn had to be abandoned, whereupon the remaining sisters settled in St.Guibert , Belgium . There she offered asylum to the Paderborn bishop Konrad Martin and in 1879 secretly transferred his body to Paderborn. In the same year she began a journey that took her again to the sisters in Europe and overseas. At this point in time, her health was already under attack. In 1880 she returned to the motherhouse in Paderborn. Pauline von Mallinckrodt died there on April 30, 1881 at the age of 63 of pneumonia. She was buried in the St. Konradus Chapel in the sister cemetery.

Afterlife and worship

The congregation of the Sisters of Christian Love founded by Pauline von Mallinckrodt still exists today. In 1892 they were able to reopen a girls' school in Dortmund, today's Mallinckrodt-Gymnasium . Today they look after or manage a convent in Paderborn and one in Schloß Neuhaus , in the Paderborn Leokonvikt , in the Paderborn Bishop's House , the Marienheim in Grönebach , the Marienschule in Lippstadt , a sister's house in Minden, retirement homes in Rheda and Soest , a children's home in Siegburg-Wolsdorf and a nursing home in Brilon-Thülen . Outside Germany, they are represented in the United States, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as in the Philippines.

On April 14, 1985 Pauline von Mallinckrodt was beatified by Pope John Paul II . Some of their relics are in the altar of the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Bielefeld.

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 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Pauline von Mallinckrodt  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hanne Hieber: Mallinckrodt, Pauline von . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 141 ff .
  2. ↑ New Year's Eve Sermon : Bishop This shows challenges for the diocese , Aachener Zeitung , January 1, 2018; accessed on February 18, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Mallinckrodt, Pauline von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German founder of the order
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Minden
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1881
Place of death Paderborn