Rufin Steimer

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Rufin Steimer , OFMCap , baptized name Johann Adolf Steimer (born April 16, 1866 in Wettingen , † February 19, 1928 in Zizers ) was a Swiss Capuchin preacher and historian .

Life

Rufin Steimer was the son of Josef Friedrich Steimer (1831–1875), justice of the peace, and his wife Verena, b. Meier (1835-1903). His nephew was Emil Steimer (1899–1971), President of the Cantonal Association of Christian Social Organizations and President of the Sports Toto Society .

He attended the Stans College from 1881 to 1885 and entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Order in the Wesemlin Monastery in Lucerne in 1885 . The basic philosophical and theological studies in Friborg and Solothurn since 1887 and the ordination of priests in 1889 were followed by further internal theology studies in Schwyz and Zug until 1891 .

After first pastoral experience in the field of the monasteries and Wil Rapperswil 1891-1894 he created with speeches on social issues a reputation as a popular preacher in the National Association of Catholicism . In his lectures on the labor issue at national and cantonal Catholic days and in local associations, he represented the social ethics of Pope Leo XIII.

Franziskusheim with church and refectory in Oberwil

In 1897, on his initiative, the Caritas Commission was founded in the umbrella organization of Catholic Switzerland, from which the Swiss Caritas Association developed in 1901 , of which he was the first president until 1905. In 1903 in Zug and in 1904 in Baden, he organized national charity congresses and initiated other charitable works: In addition to the nursing school , which he created in Sarnen in 1903 , he founded the Franziskusheim psychiatric clinic in Oberwil near Zug in 1909 , in which the insane question of Catholic Urschweiz about pastoral medicine principles should be treated as its first director (until 1916). He relied on order keepers and converted the Hermit Congregation Luthernbad in Luthern , which he reorganized as the Brothers of Mercy , into a care congregation for this purpose. As director in Oberwil he secured his work personnel, politically and financially from, but fell out with his doctors and was subsequently involved in legal processes that have led to it by the October 1916 Capuchin Provincial into Kloster Dornach (was disbanded in 1990) in Basel was transferred . As a people's missionary , city preacher and publicist , he fought for years to return to Oberwil and wrote a three-volume pastoral psychiatry from 1916 to 1921 , which, however, did not find a publisher.

Transferred to Rapperswil in 1921, he was in charge of the extension of the monastery until 1924 and the renovation of the church in 1925 , which was redesigned in neo-baroque style and to which the Antonius grotto was added; Furthermore, a new plaster ceiling had to be installed in the church, at the same time a new window was broken out on the right side of the nave .

He worked as a city preacher in Zurich , propagated the new Africa mission of the Swiss Capuchins and wrote devotional small scripts as well as historical and biographical works. In 1900 he founded the Swiss Catholic women's newspaper and was its first editor . He was also an editor for the weekly newspaper Der Schweizer Katholik .

In 1905 he drafted the statutes for the first Catholic women's union and advocated women's suffrage as early as 1918 . Through his work, he burst the thought structures of patriarchal associations and life models of his own religious province in the social question as well as in the women's question .

After his death he was buried in the Capuchin crypt of the Rapperswil monastery.

Fonts (selection)

  • The social question among the Swiss children's world, or social grievances among our youth . Wohlen: K. Meyer, 1898 .
  • Swiss Charitas leader . Train: 1899.
  • Antonius booklet: prayer and devotional book in honor of the great saint of Padua . Einsiedeln; Waldshut; Cologne 1900.
  • Francis Book: Prayer and Devotion Book in honor of the Patriarch of Assisi . Einsiedeln, Benziger & Co. AG, 1902.
  • Immortellen on the grave of Canon Joseph Nietlispach, pastor in Wohlen . Wohlen, 1904.
  • Rufin Steimer; Alois Huber: The Collegium Maria-Hilf in Schwyz: A historical review to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its existence. 1856-1906 . Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Benziger & Co. AG, 1906.
  • The Pontifical Envoy to Switzerland from 1073-1873 . Stans: Verlag von Hans v. Matt & Cie. Lucerne, 1907.
  • Laurentius von Schnüffis ; Rufin Steimer: Seraphic spiritual flowers . Einsiedeln: Benziger & Co. AG, 1908.
  • The members of the Swiss Capuchin Province from the Canton of Aargau from 1581 to 1924 . 1924.
  • A contribution to the legal history of the old town and landscape of Uznach . Uznach 1926.
  • History of the Capuchin monastery in Rapperswil . Uster: Didierjean, 1927.

literature

  • Niklaus Wilfried Kuster: Rufin Steimer 1866–1928, life a. Spirituality of a social pioneer in Swiss Catholicism . Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt / M., New York, Paris, Vienna, 1998. ISBN 978-3-906759-41-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Urs Altermatt: Swiss Caritas Association 1901–2001, Volume 95 (2001), p. 183 f. In: Journal for Swiss Church History. Retrieved April 5, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Steimer, Rufin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steimer, Rufin OFMCap, Rufin; Steimer, Johann Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Roman Catholic clergyman and historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Wettingen
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1928
Place of death Zizers