Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood

CELEBRATING 200 YEARS OF ABBOT FRANCIS PFANNER

He Walked with God, and Left Footprints of Grace

In 1825, a visionary leader and devout priest was born in Vorarlberg, Austria: Wendelin Francis Pfanner. As we commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth, we reflect on the life, legacy, and profound impact of this remarkable individual. Abbot Francis Pfanner’s journey—from his early years in Austria to the establishment of Mariannhill Monastery in South Africa and the founding of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPS) – stands as a testimony to his rootedness in God, unwavering dedication to serving others and spreading the message of hope, love, faith, compassion, hard-work and inclusivity.

We invite you all to walk with us through his remarkable story. Each month, we’ll share a chapter of his journey in this special 12-part series. Let the life of Abbot Francis Pfanner inspire yours. This is where the journey begins.

Dunbrody – Mariannhill 1880 – 1894 (Part 5)

“Donnez-moi, s’il vous plaît, des hommes, des Trappistes, pour mon diocèse. J’en ai désespérément besoin.” (“Please give me men, Trappists, for my diocese: I desperately need them.”) It is September 12, 1879, during the Trappist General Chapter at Sept-Fons in France. Bishop James Ricards of Grahamstown in South Africa is asking for monks to come to his diocese and develop the farm he has bought to support his missions. The assembled abbots and priors do not feel that they fit the bill; they have neither men for such an expedition nor anyone to lead them, but mainly, they lack courage.

“If no one wants to go, then I will go.” Francis W. Pfanner, the prior of Mariastern in Bosnia, who was to be made an abbot at this chapter, jumps into the breach. “I felt sorry for the bishop,” he writes, “because he had already spent money on the farm and was now putting his last hope in the Trappists to develop it.” (Unless otherwise stated, all quotes are taken from the Memoirs of Abbot Francis.)

September 12, 1879 at Sept-Fons marks a turning point from monk to missionary in the prior’s life. At Mariastern, the enthusiasm for the expedition was overwhelming; all wanted to be part of it, especially as the requirement he laid down for coming along could not have been simpler: “All must be sunburned. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be assigned to work outside,” and on July 1, 1880, at Southampton, a 34-strong team embarked for South Africa. On July 28, after an eventful passage on a small boat, they reached Port Elizabeth and were taken straight to “Dunbrody,” the farm on the edge of the Addo Wildlife Park which Ricards had named after an ancient abbey in his native Ireland. He felt that winning Trappists to cultivate it was his greatest achievement.

But what was Dunbrody? “Nothing except sand, briars, man-sized cacti, a dry Sunday River and a cloudless sky!” The “monastery” was an array of corrugated iron sheds on which the sun beat down mercilessly. “Quo vadis?” (“Where are you going?”) the prior asked himself. He had committed for three years, or as long as the bishop would pay for their upkeep. But now this! Wondering already at Sept-Fons what resources Ricards had to buy a farm, he was now made to realize that it was not paid for at all. Instead, the bishop was under pressure from his creditor to make the Trappists cultivate it as quickly as possible so as to relieve him of his part of the contract. Unfortunately, that plan had all the potential to spark the first differences between him and the prior, who was expected by Trappist Rule to make it his first priority to build a monastery for his monks where they could live by the Rule and eventually take their vow of stability. As long as Dunbrody did not meet that need, they remained members of Mariastern and Fr. Francis its prior. Added to this predicament was Ricards’ notorious inability to handle money. Thus, differences were bound to culminate in a breach of contract. Not the drought – Dunbrody had received no rain for three years! – but the bishop’s mismanagement raised the first serious doubts in Prior Francis about the feasibility of the project.

The Trappists were in Dunbrody hardly a year when the prior was called to Sept-Fons to attend the annual General Chapter (September 1881). Unknown to him, Ricards used that opportunity to persuade the vicar general of the order and the prefect of Propaganda Fide to keep him in Europe and send a French prior to Dunbrody instead. However, he had not reckoned with the brothers who stood solidly united behind Fr. Francis. Meanwhile, Fr. Francis went on a promotional tour for Dunbrody until his subprior informed him that the bishop had declared insolvency.

Abbot Francis negotiating rapids on a float (@CPSarchiv)

Time was on the side of Prior Francis. Before anyone could recall him, he sent his men an ultimatum: “Return to Mariastern or try a new foundation in Natal!” They all preferred to stay in Africa; the Vicar Apostolic of Pietermaritzburg, Charles Jolivet OMI, welcomed them, and on November 21 and December 9 respectively, they left Dunbrody. On December 17, Prior Francis arrived at Port Natal (Durban) having been separated from his brothers for over a year. “The desire to see them again and to receive reliable news about them became so strong that it bordered on homesickness.” At sea he ascertained from co-passengers what the preferred places for settlement were, the soil conditions, rail connections and, above all, what reception the Trappists might expect to receive from the English colonial government. Prospects were favorable; Trappists as bringers of culture and particularly agriculture, could always be sure of a warm welcome, even if they differed in religious matters from most of the colonists.

Not so favorable was the reception Prior Francis was given by Bishop Jolivet the following day. First, he had to legitimize himself as the lawful superior of the Trappists from Dunbrody. Secondly, he had to convince Jolivet that he was not going to make debts (as Ricards had insinuated to his brother bishop that “Francis was prone to.”) Only after seven hours of heated debate was the bishop satisfied and exclaimed: “Mon Dieu! What a man!”

On December 21, Prior Francis bought the Zeekoegat Farm near Durban, and on December 26/27 the Trappists took possession of it. It was the birth of a new monastery which Prior Francis named Mariannhill. “I chose to call it so to honor three women by that name: my own mother, the benefactress Trappentreu and Saint Anne, grandmother of Our Lord, with whom one had better be on good terms. … So ultimately, the monastery which the Franciscans blocked in Bosnia [Maria-Anna Berg] came into being in South Africa.”

Three months later, Prior Francis was back in Europe. He relinquished his role as prior of Mariastern, recruited postulants and won benefactors for Mariannhill. While he was away his men improvised, constructed emergency shelters and workshops, cultivated the first plots and got to know the climate, the country and its people. Upon his return, the prior was in his element. Mariannhill soon boasted of a printing press, a photo studio, a turbine, roads and bridges, gardens and tree nurseries.

Benjamin Makhaba, a trained catechist of the Basuto tribe, was hired to make contact with the surrounding people and an Oblate missionary taught the monks Zulu. Soon the young Polish choir novice, Hyacinth Solomon, preached to the people who came out of sheer curiosity to Mariannhill on Sundays, while his English-born fellow novice, David Bryant, taught elementary subjects in a makeshift school. Bishop Jolivet brought white orphan boys for admission while Benjamin gathered black orphan boys – the Trappists made no distinction of color. With regard to religion, the prior’s principle was: “Everyone has a right to know who loved him so much that he died for him.” In other words, everyone was entitled to this knowledge. And since girls also clamored for education, he placed an appeal in Catholic papers in Germany for women to come and take care of them. Their arrival at Mariannhill in August 1885 marked the birth of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood.

In the same year, the Mariannhill community elected Prior Francis as their abbot. When chiefs from remote villages asked him to open schools for their children, the question arose as to whether it was opportune for contemplative monks to embrace missionary work. Abbot Francis submitted the matter to the General Chapter and was authorized to grant the necessary dispensations as long as monastic discipline was not neglected.

In 1886, Mariannhill was bursting at the seams with members. Therefore, the first satellite missions were established. (By 1891 there were already eleven of them.) Abbot Francis sent the “Red Sisters” (red on account of their red skirts) to develop them alongside the Trappist brothers whom they were eventually to replace so that the brothers could return to the regular life at the monastery. He established a monastery council and later also a mission council, because Mariannhill was a joint enterprise and not the work of one man, even though as abbot, he had the final say.

In the following years, events developed a momentum of their own. There was altogether too much to take care of and, although the abbot did not lose track of developments, he gradually lost control over his now numerous monks. Most of these, while still keeping the rule, regarded themselves as missionaries and felt that monastic observance was incompatible with missionary activity. The community became polarized. In 1892, after a canonical visitator, Abbot Francis Strunk, had made a thorough investigation, he prevailed upon the General Chapter (October 1892 at Sept-Fons) to suspend Abbot Francis from office for one year and appoint an administrator. However, the founder, thus disciplined, chose to step down already before April 1893 and Administrator Amandus Schölzig was elected in September to succeed him.

Abbot Francis was 68 when in 1894 he made his last foundation, Emaus, where he died 15 years later, on May 24, 1909. The dreams he had dreamed as a seminarian had come true: He had become a monk as well as a missionary.