Peter Heinrich Lemke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Balthasar Heinrich Lemke OSB , religious name : Henry ; also Lemcke (* 27. July 1799 in Rehna , † 29. November 1882 in Carrolltown , Pennsylvania ) was a German-born Roman Catholic priest and missionary in the United States . He pioneered the Benedictines in North America.

Life

Peter Heinrich Lemke was born in Rehna on July 27, 1799, the youngest of five children of the married couple Johann Martin Friedrich Lemcke, City Actuarius (City Secretary), and Charlotta Friederica Sophia, née Jürgens , and was baptized as a Protestant on August 1, 1799. Lemke owed the basis of his life, the relationship with God , to his grandfather Joachim Friedrich Juergens (1721–1814), cantor, organist and teacher in Rehna .

After attending the cathedral school in Schwerin , he began studying theology in Rostock in April 1819 in order to become a Protestant pastor like his brother Emil . After completing his studies, he took up a position as a tutor to the landlord Menno Dietrich Rettich in Harkensee near Dassow, from where he helped the pastor of Dassow out in the field service.

In 1823 he emigrated to Regensburg . Here he got to know Catholic life and was accepted into the Catholic Church on April 21, 1824. After living with a Catholic pastor for a few years, and after completing the necessary studies, he was ordained a priest on April 11, 1826 by Bishop Johann Michael Sailer in Regensburg. He then worked for a few years as a pastor in Lower Bavaria and Regensburg. In 1829 he became a Bavarian citizen.

In 1831 he went to the Neuburg Abbey near Heidelberg as the palace chaplain . Here he met Clemens Brentano , who gave him the impetus to go to North America in pastoral care. On August 20, 1834, he arrived in New York . Years of pastoral care followed in Philadelphia , Ebensburg and Loretto , Pennsylvania . Here he succeeded the priest, Prince Demetrius Augustinus Gallitzin . In 1836 he founded the town of Carrolltown in Cambria County , Pennsylvania.

In 1845 Lemke took a trip home. In the Metten monastery he recruited Benedictines to come to North America. The following year, Father Bonifaz Wimmer arrived with 18 candidates who founded St. Vincent Monastery in Latrobe , Pennsylvania . Soon after his return from home, Lemke became a pastor in Reading , Pennsylvania, in 1848 . A little later he entered the Benedictine order and took solemn religious vows on February 21, 1853. His religious name was Father Henry.

In 1855 Lemke traveled to Kansas . He was the first Benedictine to live in Kansas. Here he prepared the foundation of the St. Benedict Monastery in Atchison (Kansas) , which took place in 1857. After returning from there, Henry Lemke undertook his last big trip to his German homeland. He visited, among others, the kings of Saxony and Bavaria and numerous monasteries and bishops to solicit support for the Catholic Church in North America. In Munster he published his book Life and Work of Prince Demetrius Gallitzin at Coppenrath Verlag .

Upon his return, Henry Lemke became pastor of St. Michael’s Congregation in Elizabeth , New Jersey , where he served until his retirement in 1877. Henry Lemke spent his twilight years in his town of Carrolltown, where he died on November 29, 1882.

literature

Works by Peter Heinrich Lemke

  • Lemcke, Peter Heinrich; Life and work of Prince Demetrius Gallitzin ; Coppenrath Verlag , Münster 1861
  • Lemcke, Peter Henry; Life and Work of Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin , New York 1941 (this is the English translation of the previous book)
  • Warrior of God. The life of PH Lemke 1796–1882 told by himself . Commented on and edited by Willibald Mathäser, Würzburg, Echter, 1971

Further literature

  • Peter Beckmann: Kansas Monks. A History of St. Benedict's Abbey . Benedictine College Press, Atchison, Kansas 1957, 1979
  • Willibald Mathäser:  Lemke, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , pp. 185 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Modestus Wirtner: The Benedictine Fathers in Cambria County, Pennsylvania . 1925
  • David August Rosenthal : Images of converts from the nineteenth century. Volume 1, part 1, page 401, Schaffhausen, Hurter Verlag, 1871

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ cf. Rehna's baptismal register
  2. ↑ from 1771-1808
  3. ^ Enrollment of Peter Heinrich Lemke in the Rostock matriculation portal
  4. ↑ See also the entry of Emil Friedrich Lemke's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
personal data
SURNAME Lemke, Peter Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lemke, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Roman Catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Rehna
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1882
Place of death Carrolltown ( Pennsylvania )