Petra Mönnigmann

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Sister Petra Mönnigmann DSS (* June 14, 1924 as Paula Mönnigmann in Oelde ; † June 5, 1976 in India ) was a German teacher and founder of the order “ Servants of the Poor ”.

biography

Paula Mönnigmann joined the Ursulines in Werl , took the religious name Petra and went to India in 1966 as a religious and teacher for three years. In India, Petra Mönnigmann served in a Caritas institute and learned about the need and poverty in remote places. For her work and her order, Sister Petra separated from the Ursulines and founded the religious community "Dina Sevana Sabbah" (in German: "Servants of the Poor") on June 1, 1969 in the Indian city of Pattuvam with eight young girls.

The aim of their religious community is not to distribute alms , but to help the poor to escape their misery and to help them help themselves. The religious order today has around 640 members and maintains 76 stations in India and two stations in Germany. The Vatican has recognized the order "Dina Sevana Sabbah" - "Servants of the Poor" as an "order of papal law".

Sister Petra and four sisters were killed in a traffic accident at Pentecost 1976 in India. A friend of hers , Sister Willigard , had been a member of the order since 1975 and was elected as successor and led the community as Superior General from 1976 to 1989. Since then, the leadership has been with the Indian sisters. Sister Willigard played a major role in ensuring that the young religious community could exist, consolidate and expand after the death of Sister Petra.

The religious community strives for the beatification of Sister Petra. A first milestone was reached on June 14, 2009, when Varghese Chakkalakal , the bishop of the Kannur diocese , publicly announced the appointment of " Servant of God " in Pattuvam, the place where the community was founded, where her grave is also located .

Sister Petra's “spiritual testament”

After the death of Sister Petra, the "spiritual testament" was found handwritten on a scattered piece of paper, written in English and without an address, date or signature in the third person:

“She served God all her life and with all her might, fully aware that she did not really believe in him or, rather, in what was taught about him, always acting as if she believed, and with burning hope, him really want to be there and close to her. When she was young, she tried to understand and please him, and failed completely. He seemed fundamentally unjust to her: he demanded to be called 'good' and at the same time imposed cruel pains and fears on people; He gave orders and made people to sin; he granted no freedom, no choice, and no opportunity to escape.
Thinking of him often filled her with horror until she finally learned to submit to the unknown and the unknowable. Then later she was amazed to see that she loved God, and she was never able to understand that someone could love God so much and deal with him so much and so vividly without being certain about him in any way to have. She believed that perhaps much of that love was longing. She could never completely rid herself of suspicions that she was acting when she was praying or talking about God or working for him. She never learned to see the pain of people and animals without suffering profound suffering, and she loved Jesus, whoever he was, because of his compassion for those who suffer; she was very shocked by the cruelty of his death. She stayed in his church and worked in it because she didn't know where else to go. She knew that with all her work she could not change one of the ailments of humans decisively. But she worked as much and as hard as possible in order to achieve at least one thing every day so that a person suffered less and in this she was very happy.
In her heart she knew with absolute certainty that the unknown and unknowable and beloved God was always guiding her, but her deadly fear of the things that God did to people never disappeared; she only admitted the possibility that these cruelties would somehow get along with his love, and she looked with impatient anticipation towards the day of her death, when God reveals himself and his ways, and when all uncertainty, all fear and all suffering is over are."

literature

  • Regina Pacis Meyer, Carl Möller and Michael Plattig (eds.): Spiritual people. The life paths of spiritually gifted women and men in the diocese of Münster . Dialogverlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-933144-95-7 , pp. 92–94.
  • Winfried Maaß: Why are you doing this: The story of the servants of the poor . Verlag E. Holterdorf, Oelde 1994, ISBN 3-87357-003-3 .
  • Josefa Mönnigmann and Hans Ossing (eds.): Servant of the poor. Sister Petra's way in India until the foundation of the order. Publisher E. Holderdorf, Oelde 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article on kirchensite.de
personal data
SURNAME Mönnigmann, Petra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mönnigmann, Paula (maiden name); Sister Petra (religious name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher and founder of the order "Servants of the Poor"
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Oelde
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 1976
Place of death India