Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill | |
Congregatio Missionariorum de Mariannhill | |
Abbreviation | CMM |
---|---|
Formation | 1909 |
Founder | Franz Pfanner |
Founded at | Mariannhill, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa |
Type | Clerical Religious Congregation of Pontifical Right (for Men) [1] |
Headquarters | Via S. Giovanni Eudes 91, 00163 Rome, Italy [1] |
Locations | |
Membership | 320 members (214 priests) as of 2018 [1] |
Michael Mass [1] | |
Website | mariannhill |
The Mariannhillers, [2] [3] [4] officially named the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (Latin : Congregatio Missionariorum de Mariannhill; abbreviated CMM) [5] are a religious institute of the Catholic Church founded by Franz Pfanner. They were originally a monastery of Trappist monks founded in 1882 by Pfanner, but were later branched off as a separate congregation by decree of the Holy See.
The name of the congregation comes from Mariannhill, a suburb near Pinetown in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where the congregation was first established.
In 1882, Pfanner, then prior of Mariastern Abbey, founded a Trappist monastery in Mariannhill at the invitation of Bishop Charles-Constant Jolivet, OMI, Apostolic Vicar of Natal (later Durban). It grew rapidly and by 1885 was raised to the status of an abbey. Pfanner was elected its first abbot. [5] It engaged in missionary work, establishing a number of mission stations where priests and brothers taught the native Zulu people to read and trained them in trades and skills such as farming. [6] The missionaries also emphasised learning Zulu and Xhosa, and they developed standard Zulu grammars. [3] In 1892, Pfanner retired and was succeeded by two abbots: Dom Amandus Schoelzig who died in 1900 and then Abbot Gerard Wolpert who died in 1904.
In 1904, the abbot of Gethsemani Abbey, Edmond Obrecht, was appointed by the Holy See as administrator of Mariannhill. He studied the compatibility between monastic life and missionary work, submitting his report after three years of study. Following his report, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda directed Bishop William Miller, OMI, the apostolic vicar of Transvaal, to facilitate the independence of the Mariannhill monks. A general chapter of Mariannhill monks in 1908 under Bishop Miller recommended that the monks be formed into a missionary society loosely associated with the Trappists. [6] By 1 January 1910, nearly 20,000 persons, mostly adults, had been baptized in the 55 churches and chapels scattered throughout the 26 missions and stations.
In 1909, the Holy See decreed that the monks of Mariannhill would be completely separate from the Trappists. [7]
Their new constitutions were approved by Pope Pius X in March 1914, though further development stalled due to the outbreak of World War I. After the conclusion of the war, they held their first general chapter in 1920, when they named themselves the Religious Missionaries of Mariannhill and elected Adalbero Fleischer as their first superior general. As their religious habit, they adopted a black cassock, paired with a red cincture for priests, black cincture for other clerics, and black belt for brothers. [2] [6] After their separation from the Trappists, the Mariannhillers continued to work in South Africa, but also established presences in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the United States, England, Canada and Spain. Their generalate is based in Rome. [6]
During the Holocaust, Blessed Engelmar Unzeitig, a priest of the congregation, was arrested for preaching against the Third Reich and its persecution of the Jews. He died on 2 March 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp, where he was known as the "Angel of Dachau". He was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, recognised by Pope Francis as a martyr in January 2020, and beatified on 24 September 2016. His feast day is 2 March. [8]
In 1946, Józef Wojaczek from Prudnik received a decree from the general superior of the congregation naming him provincial superior of the Mariannhillers in Poland. Six years later, Wojaczek was arrested by the Department of Security and imprisoned. [9] He was paroled in 1955 and settled in West Germany. [10]
On 10 March 2019, George Kageche Mukua, a priest of the congregation, died as one of the passengers on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. [11]
Pope Francis named a member of the order, Siegfried Mandla Jwara, archbishop of Durban on 9 June 2021. [12]
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from abba, the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ab, and means "father". The female equivalent is abbess.
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from the Cistercians. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks and nuns that are known as Trappists and Trappistines, respectively. They are named after La Trappe Abbey, the monastery from which the movement and religious order originated. The movement began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced in 1664, later leading to the creation of Trappist congregations, and eventually the formal constitution as a separate religious order in 1892.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest later recognized as a Catholic saint. The congregation was given recognition by Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826. As of January 2020, the congregation was composed of 3,631 priests and lay brothers usually living in community. Their traditional salutation is Laudetur Iesus Christus, to which the response is Et Maria Immaculata. Members use the post-nominal letters, "OMI".
The Catholic Church in South Africa is part of the worldwide Catholic Church composed of the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, of which the South African church is under the spiritual leadership of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference and the pope in Rome. It is made up of 26 dioceses and archdioceses plus an apostolic vicariate.
Casamari Abbey is a Cistercian abbey in the Province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy, about 10 kilometers east-south-east of Veroli.
The Vicariate Apostolic of Natal was a Roman Catholic missionary, quasi-diocesan jurisdiction in South Africa.
Tre Fontane Abbey, or the Abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, is a Roman Catholic abbey in Rome, held by monks of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, better known as Trappists. It is known for raising the lambs whose wool is used to weave the pallia of new metropolitan archbishops. The pope blesses the lambs on the feast of Saint Agnes on January 21. The wool is prepared, and he gives the pallia to the new archbishops on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Holy Apostles.
Mariannhill is a cluster of suburbs and townships in eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mariannhill is a diocese located in the city of Mariannhill in the ecclesiastical province of Durban in South Africa.
Engelszell Abbey was the last Trappist monastery in Austria. It is located near Engelhartszell an der Donau in the Innviertel in Upper Austria.
Franz Pfanner, CMM, also anglicised as Francis Pfanner, was an Austrian Catholic monk and founder of what would become the Mariannhillers. He was a member of the Trappists, from whom the new order was branched off.
Frigolet Abbey is a grand Premonstratensian monastery complex in Southern France. It is located in the territorial commune of Tarascon, in the region of the Montagnette, the parishes of which are served by the canons of the monastery. It was originally associated with the Order of Saint Benedict.
The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B., as a reform of the way of life of monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation, formed in 1408, toward a stricter contemplative observance, and received final approval in 1872 by Pope Pius IX. After discussions between the two congregations at the start of the 21st century, approval was given by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 for the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into its offshoot, the Subiaco Congregation. The expanded congregation was given this new name.
Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé was a French abbot of La Trappe Abbey, a controversialist author, and a founding father of the Trappists.
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Mariastern Abbey is a Trappist abbey in Bosnia and Herzegovina, situated near the country's second largest city Banja Luka. It consists of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the monastery of Trappist monks. It is the only Trappist monastery in Southeastern Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, with 219 monks, the Abbey was the largest Trappist abbey in the world; today it is the smallest, with only two monks.
Engelmar Unzeitig, born Hubert Unzeitig, was a German Roman Catholic priest who died in the Dachau Concentration Camp during World War II on the charge of being a priest. He was a professed member of the Missionary Order of Mariannhill and assumed the religious name Engelmar when he was admitted into the order. He became known as the "Angel of Dachau".
St. Patrick's Cathedral, also known simply as Kokstad Cathedral, is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and the cathedral of the Diocese of Kokstad. The cathedral church is located at 107 Hope Street.
Siegfried Mandla Jwara, CMM is a South African Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Durban since 2021. He was previously Apostolic Vicar of Ingwavuma beginning in 2016. He is a member of the Mariannhillers.
Thulani Victor Mbuyisa is a South African Roman Catholic priest who was appointed as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kokstad, in South Africa, on 6 April 2022.
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