Antonius Maria Bodewig
Antonius Maria Bodewig ( born November 2, 1839 in Bonn, † January 8, 1915 in Rome) was temporarily Jesuit missionary and founder of the order.
Life
He was born the son of Constantin and Elizabeth Bodewig. On August 21, 1856, he entered the Society of Jesus Province of Munster, studied philosophy and theology and was ordained a deacon on October 11, 1868. After that, he was a teacher at the Jesuit College in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg Stella Matutuina. On 3 May 1871, he was ordained a priest.
In 1872 he was posted to India and worked in the St. Mary's Institute in Bombay, where he learned both English and Marathi and Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy and mythology studied. On January 23, 1874, he was entrusted with the mission to Igatpuri. There he tried to live as a Christian sannyasi as Roberto de Nobili (1656 †). In the local community, he came so unsympathetic, sought to transfer to. In 1874 he was appointed by Bishop superior Meurin first to Nasik, Igatpuri, Bombay, Deolali and eventually sent back to Bombay. In 1875 it came to the final break with Bishop Meurin. 1876 Bodewig returned to Germany.
In the following years he was repeatedly added and worked in Feldkirch, Copenhagen, Lancashire, Wakefield, Buffalo, Exaeten in Holland, New York and Philadelphia. He wanted to continue to work for the evangelization of India. Since this was not possible within the Jesuit order, he left the Society of Jesus in 1888 and was received by Cardinal Philipp Krementz as a secular priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne.
While primarily focused in the German-speaking countries on the African Mission, Bodewig attempts to awaken through lectures, pamphlets and books, interest in the India mission. Here, he envisioned a mission, in which priests, religious brothers and sisters as possible to the Indian culture and way of life adjust ( inculturation ). The female members he wanted to train to be nurses and teachers to allow them entry to the women and to promote the education of girls. Sisters and brothers should be the pioneers of the mission, which was to be later supplemented by priests through preaching and administering the sacraments. As he emphasized so strongly the laity work and the lay apostolate, Bodewig came with his plans partly on violent rejection.
To be able to realize his ideas, he was released from parochial ministry on September 1, 1892, founded the same year in Cologne, the Missionary Society of the Immaculate Conception for the conversion of the heathen of India. Other branches of the sisters were opened in Bonn and Munich.
1894 Bodewig tried in Rome at the Pontifical Congregation for Propagation of the Faith for a permit his company and received on June 30, a letter of recommendation that a foundation made , however, dependent on the consent of the local bishop. Bodewig let reproduce and distribute this letter. Cardinal Kerentz felt left out, ordered in May and July of 1895 visitations of the new company and shared with Bodewig on 23 September that he would not approve the new congregation. Since Bodewig not dissolve his company, he was suspended after a new visitation in November from the priesthood.
The members of the community settled afterwards at Antwerp to Hoogstraten. 8 brothers and sisters, 14 were sent in December 1895 to India, where, however, no bishop wanted to include the members of a banned community. Most brothers and sisters therefore occurred in other religious communities.
Again tried Bodewig directly to obtain a permit in Rome for his company, but Pope Leo XIII. made in an audience on 23 May 1896 destroyed the last hopes. Several attempts Bodewig to lift his suspension failed in the following years. Only on September 4, 1909 his excardination was approved by the Archdiocese of Cologne, but it was only on December 20, 1913 Cardinal Désiré -Joseph Mercier took him on as a priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen.
Again Bodewig was trying to get an ecclesiastical approval of his society. Pope Benedict XV. granted him an audience for 9 January 1915 but died the day before Bodewig.
Aftereffect
Despite all odds and without ecclesiastical approval, the Community could spread during the lifetime of its founder in Italy and Austria. In Vienna in 1923 with the support of the members were former university professor Theodor Innitzer and Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl the Mission Congregation of the Sisters found " Queen of Apostles ".
Works
- India and his Gentile mission. c.1890