Emaus
1894 – 1909
Emaus is Abbot Francis’s last foundation. The events that led up to its beginnings are quickly told.
On October 13, 1892, the Trappist General Chapter removed the founder, Francis Pfanner, from office as abbot of Mariannhill. It was a disciplinary measure imposed on him at the recommendation of Abbot F. Strunk of Ölenberg who – at the founder’s own request! – had been appointed visitator of Mariannhill and its missions. Following a thorough investigation into the state of monastic observance, his conclusion was devastating. The decree issued to Abbot Francis was masterminded by him and stated: “We declare you suspended from all your functions for one year. … You are to withdraw to the furthest outpost on Mariannhill property, … avoid all contact with priests, brothers, and sisters … and refrain from any literary activity, oral or in writing.” Anton Roos CMM says that it was “the founder’s death sentence.” Was it? Abbot Francis outlived it by 15 years or, to be more precise, he lived longer than any of his successors in office!
Fr. Amandus Schölzig of Mariannhill was appointed administrator. He handed Abbot Francis the decree on December 12, 1892, whereupon the chastised man withdrew to Mariannhill’s remotest mission, Lourdes, donned the brown habit of a brother and split firewood. He had not unlearned obedience.
Without going into the various charges levelled against Abbot Francis, we ask how Fr. Amandus coped with the controversial issue, “Trappist observance and mission” which polarized the monks. Briefly, he felt utterly powerless to govern the “small state” that was Mariannhill. Therefore, he traveled to Rome as early as the beginning of February, 1893 to submit his resignation. On May 2, Abbot Francis was summoned to
Rome as well, whether to be reinstated or not, we do not know. However, he telegraphed his apologies, pleading frail health and old age. Next, ex-visitator Strunk was asked to take over as abbot. He declined and when pressured, appealed to the Pope to intervene. It was Fr. Amandus who was appointed abbot and thus challenged to “carry the cross.” With the appointment of Abbot Amandus, Abbot Francis concluded that his role as abbot was now finished and his suspension, null and void. He resumed contact with fellow monks and acquaintances and wrote to Br. Nivard Streicher, who, like most of the brothers, remained loyal to him: “Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross [3 May, by the Tridentine Calendar] and I too have found a precious particle of the Cross; … may it draw me to the Father in heaven.” Exile was hard on him, very hard. On two separate occasions he asked Peter Strobino, coadjutor of Bishop Ricards, to assign him a small post in his vicariate; any minor ministry would do: “as long as it is far away from Mariannhill.” Bishop Ricards warned Strobino against it.
On Pentecost 1893, the exiled founder said his goodbyes at the Mariannhill Monastery and afterwards explained to Br. Stanislaus Haselbacher, whose work was soliciting mission funds in Austria and who was his steadfast supporter: “I wanted to settle accounts with the whole world. Therefore, I asked everyone for forgiveness and offered it to anyone as long as I still could do so. My farewell speech was like a funeral oration at my own grave. … Praise be to God that in the five months of my exile I have learned to endure even the worst things being believed, spoken and written about me. Indeed, I am pleased that I am thoroughly despised. If only I could bear more of this kind of cross for love of God.” (May 28, 1893)
Finally, in October 1893, the General underscored a most deplorable chapter in the order’s history by stating in couched language: “Abbot Francis may no longer exercise his office for very important reasons.” Fr. Amandus was “formally” elected his successor.
And Abbot Francis? In 1896, he stated in a letter to Propaganda Fide: “I never resigned. … But after I was deposed [electing Fr. Amandus was tantamount to deposing him], I resigned myself with all my heart to the fait accompli. Since then, I sign ‘Abbot resigned’.” To a friend he elaborated: “I would not have dared to resign, as I otherwise still feel fit, and I would have been prepared, for the good cause, to bear the burden to my last breath, a burden that could be expected to be unbearable for any newcomer. … May the Just Judge grant me endurance to the end.”
The founder’s strength was unbroken. As proof, he asked Cecil Rhodes for a grant of mission land in the newly established Rhodesia [Zimbabwe]; he persuaded Br. Nivard to bid for land at an auction for what was to become Mariazell Mission; he urged his successor to assign him a place to spend his last years. In fact, no sooner had Fr. Amandus complied, than he went by means of an oxcart to Chimper’s Nek (Lourdes Mission) to establish a new mission. He named it Emaus [one m] and celebrated his first Mass there on April 24, 1894, the day Mariannhill would be celebrating the abbatial blessing of his successor by Bishop Jolivet.
For two months Abbot Francis managed to live in a tin shed but – typical for him – already in May, he had his own private mailbag. In June, the first sisters, Angela Michel and Edmunda Fraundorfer, arrived and immediately set to work. Even before Christmas they moved into a two-story house that they had insisted on being built for them. Meanwhile, the 69-year-old founder, using the most primitive tools, carved 174 steps of a Way of the Cross out of a steep rocky hill and from then on climbed and prayed the Stations every morning until his death. His meditation remained unchanged: “As the Lord Jesus, so also I.” He erected a giant cross on the summit and consecrated Calvary on the feast day of St. Bernard. The sisters made it a memorable day for Christians and non-Christians alike.
Due to the untiring work of the sisters, aided by local farmhands, Emaus was soon self-reliant, boasting its own draft and plow oxen and 150 heads of cattle, all splendidly stabled. Harvests were abundant and Abbot Francis did not spare his praise: “My sisters evangelize by example.” Government officials, en route to Kokstadt (district town), sent congratulations. In 1904, the sisters built a church with bricks they had made by themselves.
When Abbot Francis was not lending a hand with the chores around the mission, he sharpened his pen to keep up contact with benefactors, or he wrote articles and commentaries as his contribution to current discussions, such as “The economic viability of a mission farm,” or “Better methods of evangelization.” He had his finger on the pulse of the time; all important events are reflected in his written legacy. His treatise, dealing in 72 points with the solution of the “Native Question,” was published in July 1894 after a three-year controversy that was carried out in the press. Disasters such as the Rinderpest (1896), the Griqua Uprising (1897) or the Boer War (1899-1902) caused great devastation nationwide in South Africa but passed by Emaus, as did a devastating blizzard (1903) and a swarm of voracious locusts. When the Transvaal fell to the British, the pioneer spirit stirred in the 75-year-old founder: “Now we can advance into the Transvaal and evangelize,” he wrote to his friend Haitinger on April 2, 1900.
He remained involved in Mariannhill’s development. Still grieving the premature death of his successor (January 1900), he viewed the election of Fr. Gerard Wolpert as the third abbot with skepticism and predicted his abdication (Wolpert resigned in 1904). He enjoyed the 3-day celebrations of his 75th birthday and golden jubilee of priesthood in October 1900 in Mariannhill and downplayed his failing health except, of course, his deteriorating vision and loss of hearing. His memory became unreliable; his right arm began to tremble; his pain increased, and Father Josef Biegner had to come to treat him for arteriosclerosis (1905).
At the end of February 1905, Abbot Edmund Obrecht arrived in Mariannhill, sent from Rome as administrator. The founder expected sweeping reforms from him but was deeply disappointed: “He doesn’t let anyone have their say,” he wrote to Sr. Paula. Obrecht deposed him as superior, censored his letters and made Emaus subordinate to Lourdes Mission. The 80-year-old obeyed. He recanted nothing; he glossed over nothing; he only regretted having acted too impetuously while he was in office. But when Obrecht began closing down mission stations, he protested. Together with 15 missionaries, he signed – as “Fr. Francis” – a Memorandum addressed to Propaganda Fide, requesting “a legal basis” for the Mariannhill Missions. It was shelved.
Two years later the General Chapter took action by deciding that Mariannhill was to be separated from the Trappist order and Prior Isembard Leyendecker was made acting superior of the monastery and its missions. Contrary to common opinion, Abbot Francis was not surprised. To Abbot General Augustin Marré he wrote on March 8, 1908: “To be a Trappist and a missionary at the same time does not work.” His vision had become broad, very broad. What counted was no longer “Trappist observance or mission,” but that Christ be preached in every way. (cf. Phil 1:18).
On May 11, 1908, a plenary conference at Mariannhill voted in favor of a separate government, not realizing that their vote amounted to a request for Mariannhill’s separation from the Trappist order, something they did not want by any means. However, by papal decree that is precisely what was decided. Mariannhill became a missionary institute (February 2, 1909). Abbot Francis heaved a sigh of relief: “My work is saved!” On May 24, 1909, he died – as a Trappist! – and was buried under the old fig tree at Mariannhill. “There,” he had said to a friend, “I wish to meet my Lord and Savior when I arise, even if to see Him, I have to climb a fig tree like Zacchaeus in the Gospel.”
