Peter Viktor Braun
Peter Viktor Braun (born June 5, 1825 in Saint-Avold , Lorraine , † May 18, 1882 in Argenteuil ) was a Catholic priest of the diocese of Metz and founder of the Sisters of the " Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ". Since the mother house of the order is now in Vienna, the archdiocese there initiated the beatification process of Peter Viktor Braun in 1993.
Life
Origin and youth
The Braun family is long-established in the small town of St. Avold, in Lorraine, near the border. Ancestor was the Tyrolean doctor Bernhard Braun, who came here with Duke Karl's army in 1634, during the Thirty Years' War , who cared for wounded and residents who stayed behind when they left, was welcomed there because of his kindness and finally settled here to start a family establish. The Brauns were deeply religious Catholics and have provided the Lorraine Church with clergy and religious for all generations.
Peter Viktor Braun was born the son of the businessman Anton Nikolaus Braun in the family seat of St. Avold. He was the 9th of his parents' 11 children. His brother Anton also became a priest and died as a Jesuit priest in Canada in 1885 .
In 1839 the boy entered the seminary in Metz. He had to interrupt his studies three times due to illness and return to the family. His unstable health made him fear that he would have to give up the long-awaited priesthood; until he was finally ordained a priest on June 14, 1851.
Priest and founder of the order
Abbé Braun knew that he was physically less suitable for a parish and willingly accepted the position of educator and later director of a school. Through his understanding and devotion, he quickly won the love of children and the trust of parents, both in St. Augustin and Notre Dame in Metz, as well as in the works for young people in Flavigny.
Although he proved himself to be a good educator, he looked for another mission area. In Nancy he discovered the apostolate of the poor and the workers. For this purpose he decided to go to the capital Paris . There he was appointed spiritual director in a “reformatory” for young offenders. But since he had exhausted himself too much, he had to rest again with his family and was therefore pastor in the village of Dourd'hal (now incorporated into St. Avold) for two years before he returned to Paris.
In 1862 Braun joined the brothers of St. Vincent de Paul , donated by Johann Leo Le Prévost in Paris , who had dedicated themselves to the spiritual and physical care of the working class. At the “Notre Dame de Grace” institute in the Grenelle district of Paris, he met a particularly large number of workers and apprentices from Alsace-Lorraine and Germany, whose language he knew. They could neither communicate nor confess in everyday life, which is why Father Braun, as their compatriot, looked after them with particular zeal. At the same time, the Lorraine priest also acted as a pastor in the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires (Our Lady of Victories), where he was a popular confessor and preacher. It is said that he often sat in the confessional for up to three days without interruption and only interrupted briefly to eat something or to go to the toilet. During the cholera epidemic of 1867, he visited so many sick and dying people that he often passed out from exhaustion during these confessional sessions. In this community too, he particularly took care of the socially endangered foreign workers, abandoned children and the sick.
Soon he could no longer do the charitable work alone. He looked for and found helpers who gathered around him in an order-like community. Father Braun consecrated the group to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on October 17, 1866. After initial difficulties, he finally received church approval to found an order. On February 28, 1868, the first formal dressing took place in the chapel of the Dominican Sisters in Sèvres near Paris.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the new “servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” took care of the wounded in the hospitals and outpatient departments. When the founder of the Vienna Voluntary Rescue Society , Jaromír Mundy , saw the sisters at work in a Paris ambulance in 1871, he came up with the plan to bring them to Vienna. The project was realized in 1873 at the Vienna “Rudolph Foundation”.
After the war, Abbé Braun's “German” sisters were not wanted in France and had to leave the country first. The contacts to Vienna turned out to be almost providential, because after the difficulties in France, a strong branch of the order could now emerge in the Habsburg monarchy, as well as in Germany, near Cologne. It was there that Braun, now usually called “Pater Stifter”, met Pastor Schaubmeyer from Niederfell , who asked him for two sisters to take care of the sick. In 1872 these two sisters laid the foundation for expanding the religious community in Germany. The sister house in Niederfell still exists today.
In the meantime Braun was severely marked by pulmonary tuberculosis . Nevertheless, he dragged himself back and forth across Europe in order to guide and advance the development of his sister community. On Ascension Day 1882, the founder of the order died in the motherhouse of the Argenteuil congregation. It was generally called for holiness, which is why material was collected for a possible canonization process. This was finally initiated in 1991 by a corresponding beatification procedure for Peter Viktor Braun. Because of the headquarters of the order there, the Archdiocese of Vienna was in charge. In 2003 the process came to a positive conclusion at the diocesan level and was sent to Rome for further decision.
Three provinces were formed from the community of sisters: France, England and Austria, each with three parent houses in Argenteuil (1884), in Chigwell (1902) and in Vienna (1893), which together still have around 500 members in 2009. The French branch of the Order operates in France, Belgium, Mali, Colombia and the Philippines. The sisters, who belong to the English motherhouse in Chigwell, work in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, California (USA), Colombia, Zambia, Uganda, El Salvador and the Philippines. In addition to Austria, the Vienna branch also operates in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Since 2010 in Vienna - Landstrasse (3rd district, Landstraßer Hauptstrasse 137), Victor Braun-Platz has been named after the founder of the order.
literature
- Abbé Peter Viktor Braun. An apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In The Messenger of the Divine Heart of Jesus. Monthly of the apostolate of prayer and devotion to the most sacred heart. Issue 5. Rauch, Innsbruck 1932.
Web links
- Literature by and about Peter Viktor Braun in the catalog of the German National Library
- Festschrift for the 130th anniversary of the foundation, with detailed historical information and images (PDF file; 705 kB)
- Website on the history of the city of St. Avold, with photo by Peter Viktor Braun
Individual evidence
- ^ Congregatio Religiosorum S. Vincentii a Paulo
- ↑ On the naming of streets in Vienna
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Braun, Peter Viktor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French Catholic priest, founder of the order, venerated as holy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1825 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Avold , Lorraine |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 18, 1882 |
| Place of death | Argenteuil |