Peter Friedhofen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brother Peter Friedhofen (1819–1860)

Peter Friedhofen (born February 25, 1819 in Weitersburg , † December 21, 1860 in Koblenz ) was the founder of the Barmherzigen Brüder von Maria-Hilf . He is a blessed of the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Peter Friedhofen grew up on a farm. He lost his father at the age of one and a half. When he was nine years old, his mother died too. He and his five siblings suffered hardship and hardship. One brother had died before Peter Friedhofen's birth. After completing elementary school, he began an apprenticeship as a chimney sweep with his older brother Jakob , spent three years traveling as a chimney sweep journeyman and practiced his trade first in Ahrweiler and from 1842 as a chimney sweep master in Vallendar . When his brother Jakob died, he took over the care of the widow and her eleven children, until he had to realize that neither his strength - a lung disease troubled him - nor his financial means could meet the requirements arising from it.

Even at a young age Friedhofen felt the urge to apostolate . In keeping with the piety of the time, this desire found expression in the Aloisius brotherhoods. An encounter with Adolph Kolping encouraged Friedhofen to found such a brotherhood. This happened, young men joined in several parishes. Friedhofen gave them a rule that the Bishop of Trier approved.

Blessed brother Peter Friedhofen

But this youth apostolate was not enough for him. As a traveling journeyman and later as a master craftsman, he came into contact with numerous people and got to know a lot of need and abandonment, especially with the sick. The love for the helpless, the sick and the suffering urged him more and more to stand up for them with his whole person. This went hand in hand with the desire to irrevocably dedicate one's life to the Lord and to gather like-minded people around one another as “merciful brothers”. “In order to learn everything really well,” he wanted to go to another monastery for a few months. He asked the bishop to convey one to him.

Bishop Wilhelm Arnoldi welcomed the plan to establish “the Brothers of Mercy” for nursing the sick in his diocese . He recommended Friedhofen to orientate himself on the Alexian Brothers in Aachen, Cologne or Neuss. Friedhofen did not feel called to let the old orders flourish again. It was his calling to kindle “new fire, new spirit and new urges”. During this time he got to know the difficulties that are often associated with founding a monastery. The construction of the monastery stalled, it was winter, and he had no money to pay for the completed work. A visit to Katharina Kasper in Dernbach, the founder of the (later) congregation “ Poor Maidservants of Jesus Christ ”, gave him new courage.

Now Friedhofen submitted his plan to the episcopal secretary Liehs to set up an independent foundation. In doing so, however, he emphasized his readiness to completely submit to the episcopal will. A few days later the answer came from Trier. The bishop approved of Friedhof's plan. He encouraged the founder to keep building his house and learn how to nurse. Friedhofen now got used to the idea of beginning his novitiate with the Alexians in Aachen . He was ready to adopt the rule of St. Augustine and the statutes of the Alexians. But it was to be a new, independent foundation. Friedhofen soon moved to Aachen with his first brother Karl Marchand to the novitiate.

June 21, 1850 brought the confirmation of the new fraternity: “To Peter Friedhofen from Ahrweiler, who wants to join the order of the Brothers of Mercy of John of God, to join the Diocese of Trier as a new one, if divine Providence pleased To transfer the planting and for this purpose the novitiate or examination year in the monastery of the Alexians in Aachen is to begin, I testify by his request that I approve and approve of his project, which is known to me, and, with the granting of my episcopal blessing, the grace of Heaven wish to carry it out, so that this godly work may be established for the glory of God and for the salvation of the soul. "

On July 13, 1850, Friedhofen traveled to Aachen with Marchand. Here he felt the consequences of French legislation: perpetual vows were forbidden, a commitment to poverty was no longer possible. The municipal poor administration looked after the monastery property and had a say in the acceptance of new order candidates. Brothers in home nursing collected fees and kept a personal fund because they had to support themselves. Friedhofen saw this as a contradiction to his calling and his experience. “We have chosen Jesus Christ, who was crucified; we gave him ourselves and everything we had. We have withheld nothing from him. And Jesus , our Savior, gave himself to us because we feel it inside us. "

Memorial plaque in memory of Peter Friedhofen in Koblenz

In addition, the two novices found good and honorable people among the Alexians in Aachen. They could learn a lot from them for their nursing profession. “Mainly I have my eye on the establishment of the hospital,” Friedhofen writes, “how the beds are made up, how the sick are cared for when the disease decreases and increases, the signs of decline and death. I have written down how carefully the sick are taken care of in eating and drinking during recovery. I kept an eye on how the sick die, how they are helped in death ... I have learned to serve the wounded, to dress the plasters in various ways and to bandage the wounds. I helped put shoulders together, as well as connecting broken legs and arms, taking baths and so on. "

In November 1850 the time had come for Friedhofen to move into Weitersburg with his companions. There was a great burden on the house: unpaid, no cash, and the location inconvenient for maintenance. Friedhofen now had to take the consequences: only a larger city offered the conditions for the brothers' tasks. So the little crowd moved to Koblenz.

The young pastor of the local Liebfrauengemeinde, Philipp de Lorenzi, was now commissioner of the community. He actively took on the start-up. He recommended the brothers to the Koblenz doctors. The superior of the community hospital offered to train the novices for their future work. But Friedhofen soon discovered that outpatient nursing made it difficult for the brothers to live together and that the spiritual substance of the community was in danger. So he tried to find a house of his own that would accommodate pensioners and the sick. "Then a true monastic spirit could be introduced, because the brothers can soon take turns in the city and then again in the monastery".

March 25, 1851 was the first milestone for the young community. In the sacristy of the Koblenz Church of Our Lady , Friedhofen and two of his companions were given the uniforms of the order . Now the community also appeared in public through an external sign. The trust of the population and the doctors in this new community increased and the plant grew. It was also recognized by the then Crown Princess of Prussia and later Empress Augusta , who resided in Koblenz Castle with her husband, the military governor of Rhineland-Westphalia and later Emperor Wilhelm I , from 1850 to 1857 . The number of members also increased. On March 14, 1852, Pastor de Lorenzi accepted the solemn vows from Friedhofen and a confrere with great sympathy from the population , two aspirants were dressed. In this way, what Friedhofen was able to experience again and again came true: “How great was my fear sometimes when I had to endure so frequent contradictions when almost everyone had left me. How did my tears run? But God and my dearest Mother of God helped me, victory leaned on my side ”.

In 1853 the first brothers came to Trier at the request of the bishop. Soon there were also foundations abroad. That meant a lot of extra work for the founder. The pulmonary tuberculosis consumed more and more of his forces. Friedhofen put all his strength into the religious imprint of his brothers. Most of all, he urged them to embrace the spirit of poverty. The disease progressed rapidly, and the 41-year-old died on December 21, 1860 after six weeks in sick beds. The community at that time already numbered 44 brothers.

Remembrance and beatification

In 1928 the remains of Peter Friedhof were transferred from Koblenz to Trier. They were buried in the Maria-Hilf-Chapel in the garden of the new brothers hospital.

Peter Friedhofen was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985 .

The chapel, built in 1854 at the first mother house of the order in the old town of Koblenz , was named after its founder, Peter Friedhofen Chapel . At the beginning of 2015, a statue of the cemetery was erected together with the portraits of two other blessed people from the diocese of Trier in the west choir of Trier Cathedral .

Among other things, remember Peter Friedhofen:

  • a monument in the center of Weitersburg
  • the Peter Friedhofen Primary School in Weitersburg
  • the Peter-Friedhofen-Haus next to the Obertor in Ahrweiler, where he once lived and where the members of the Koblenz chimney sweepers' guild meet every two years
  • the Peter Friedhofen hiking trail in Zemmer
  • Peter-Friedhofen-Strasse in Kleinblittersdorf-Rilchingen-Hanweiler , Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Koblenz and Trier

In addition, several institutions of the Brothers of Mercy from Maria-Hilf are named after the founder of the order.

Fonts

  • "New fire". Peter Friedhofen. Writings and correspondence. 1819-1860. Published by the Generalate of the Congregation of the Brothers of Mercy of Mary Help. Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1953.
  • My spiritual life. Modifications made by Urban Bernheine. Johannes-Verlag, Leutesdorf, 1982, ISBN 3-7794-0833-3 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Peter Friedhofen  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Schaffer, Erwin Gatz : Order active in social charities . In: Erwin Gatz (ed.): History of church life in German-speaking countries since the end of the 18th century , Vol. 5: Caritas and social services . Herder, Freiburg 1997, ISBN 3-451-26217-7 , pp. 91–110, here p. 103.
  2. ↑ New blessed find their place in the west choir of the cathedral: Anyone can do holiness - holiness: also in Bendorf or Düppenweiler. In: Website of the Trier Cathedral. October 10, 2018, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Weitersburg. In: GPS Wanderatlas. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Manfred Böckling: Hiking on the Eifelsteig . DuMont-Reiseverlag, Ostfildern, 2nd, updated edition 2010, ISBN 978-3-7701-8029-5 , p. 106.
personal data
SURNAME Friedhofen, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and founder of the order
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Weitersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1860
Place of death Koblenz