Francis Xavier Krautbauer

Franz Xaver Krautbauer ( born January 12, 1824 in Mappach, today a district of Bruck in der Oberpfalz, Bayern, † December 17, 1885 in Green Bay, Wisconsin ) was a Roman Catholic bishop in the Midwestern United States.

Life and work

Franz Xaver Krautbauer was born in the hamlet of Upper Palatinate Mappach, first studied in the Regensburg seminary, then in Munich and finally got there on July 16, 1850, the ordination of his native Bishop Valentine Riedel.

In the same year he went through the mediation of the Bavarian Ludwig Missionary Association and at the invitation of visiting because that is currently running in Germany Bishop John Timon of Buffalo, as a missionary to the United States of America. In the diocese of Bishop Timon Krautbauer worked for 8 years as a pastor; Buffalo itself, in Collins and in Rochester. Here the priest acquired on September 27, 1856 and American citizenship.

1859 appointed him to the Swiss Bishop John Martin Henni of Milwaukee in his diocese for the pastoral care of there newly settled Bavarian school sisters. Krautbauer took over the office of the Superior's and spirituals of the local nuns Congregation. Bishop Henni to the priest chose as a personal theological advisor to the Regional Council of Baltimore, 1866. On the Lake Michigan Franz Xaver Krautbauer survived in September 1873 during a trip to Buffalo, to attend the funeral of his brother, narrowly escaped the sinking of the steamer. He went into shock and has since remained nervous attacked.

On February 12, 1875, Pope Pius IX. Bayern bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin; on 29 June of that year he was consecrated by John Martin Henni in Milwaukee. Krautbauer was friends with the late Archbishop Frederick Xavier Katzer from Austria, which he took as secretary to Green Bay. There he settled the 1876-1881 St. Francis Xavier Cathedral built, which in Munich, the Ludwig Church as a model. For the choir area, he ordered at the Baden painter Johann Schmitt a monumental "Crucifixion ", which is still one of the most remarkable and most beautiful murals in the United States.

The Bavarian Supreme Pastor, the attention given to schools and education, as well as to the equality of different nationalities among its believers. 1877 continued the prelate in the ad limina visit to Rome and then spent a month in his native Bavaria, where he was celebrated as the "peasant boy who became bishop ". In 1884 he took as a theologian on the 3rd Plenary Council of Baltimore in part. His special concern was the Menominee Indians in the reserve of Keshena, while he sent the Franciscans for their care.

As Bishop Krautbauer on the morning of December 17, 1885 did not get up, his longtime friend and now to Vicar General Friedrich Xavier Katzer found him dead around 8:00 clock in bed. He had recently died of a stroke. Katzer was his successor in the episcopate.

Man buried Krautbauer on December 22 at the Cathedral of Green Bay, which had been built under it and consecrated his patron St. Francis Xavier. After testamentarischem will he found his grave in the north transept, under an access to the confessional, so that the faithful should receive the Sacrament of Penance pass over him. His countryman, Archbishop Michael hot Milwaukee celebrated the Pontifikalrequiem and which also came from Bavaria Bishop Kilian Flasch Kaspar was among the mourners. The New York Times described Bishop Krautbauer obituary 18 December 1885, when one of the " gutherzigsten and generous " men in America.

In Bruck in der Oberpfalz, the old country Franz Xaver herb farmer, is the "Bishop - Krautbauer Street " named after him.