It is not only monasteries and mission stations that can be traced back to the monk-missionary Francis Pfanner, but also religious communities. Although “The Missionaries of Mariannhill” (CMM) were not founded by Abbot Francis, they owe themselves to his inspiration. By their present constitutions, they want to “remain faithful to the spirit of Abbot Francis Pfanner” [427]; their superior general “should be a strong and courageous leader in the footsteps of Abbot Francis Pfanner” [479]; and “their vows should be the guideline for a life of faithfulness and creativity, as exemplified by Abbot Francis Pfanner” [706].

The early history of The Missionaries of Mariannhill has already been sketched (see Art. 04 “Dunbrody-Mariannhill” and Art. 06 “The Monk-Missionary”). It was never purely monastic but also missionary. The will to harmonize these two ideals initiated a process in the course of which the year 1905 represents a milestone. 24 missionaries, including Abbot Francis, petitioned Propaganda Fide to grant Mariannhill’s 25 missions with their approx. 10,000 Christians and 3,000 catechumens, “a viable legal basis” (A. Roos, “A Piece of the Kingdom of God”). Their purpose was to save these missions before Abbot E. Obrecht could cede them to other missionaries; it was not to give Mariannhill another identity. The petition was shelved.

The Mariannhillers were determined to be missionaries and would not accept Obrecht’s manner of not consulting them. When Obrecht left South Africa for good in August 1907, the chronicler commented that “he was feared by all, hated by many and loved by none.” Immediately after his departure, Prior Isembard Leyendecker made every effort to keep the missions.

Their true identity, monastic or missionary, was a much-disputed topic among the Trappists of Mariannhill. When after twenty years they had not yet reached an agreement, Abbot General Augustinus Marré intervened. At his initiative, the 1907 General Chapter appointed a special commission to propose a solution. Obrecht was a member, and the recommendation was: “to separate Mariannhill from the order.” It was adopted on September 17 and endorsed by Propaganda Fide. However, no one wanted to break the news of the decision to the Mariannhillers. Therefore, Marré involved Dr. William Miller, OMI, Apostolic Vicar of Transvaal. His advantage was that he was familiar with the situation in Mariannhill; his disadvantage – he did not speak German. Marré provided him with two letters: an official one, authorizing him to convene a meeting which the Mariannhillers had already planned, and a private one, advising him to chair it in such a way that the Mariannhillers themselves would opt for separation.

53 participants – excluding Abbot Francis and two other priests – gathered in Mariannhill on May 10, 1908. Brothers had no vote. Miller hinted that, strictly speaking, they had only one choice: either to remain a Trappist monastery, but without missions, or to leave the order. The whispering began (Roos) and continued until Miller decided that the right moment had come to put the following motion to the vote: “The assembly requests the Holy See to grant Mariannhill and its missions a viable administration.” 51 participants voted yes. Miller’s mission was accomplished. Afterward, the assembly adopted, with only minor adaptations, the Trappist Book of Usages and then Miller announced the outcome of the vote to the brothers. Completely taken by surprise and consternated, they blamed the capitulars for having carelessly compromised their birthright as Reformed Cistercians. Marré, to whom some of them took their complaints, denied his responsibility in the matter and referred them to Propaganda Fide, which, with its sights set on Mariannhill’s flourishing missions, justified the separation, arguing that, after all, the Mariannhillers had asked for it themselves.

The next instance, the Congregation for Bishops, Priests, and Religious delegated its consultant, Abbot Primate Hildebrand Hemptinne, OSB to review Mariannhill’s application. He took five months to come to the conclusion that Mariannhill should be separated from the Trappist Order and not seek affiliation with any other. Rather, it should be erected as a canonical institute and its members made responsible for the missions and for the recital of the Divine Office, and the formation of novices and clerics. A suitable title would be “Religiosi Missionarii de Mariannhill” [Religious Missionaries of Mariannhill, RMM]. He also recommended a three-year period of transition.

Pope (St.) Pius X signed the decree of separation on February 2, 1909. Miller immediately informed Superior Leyendecker of the decree but preferred to announce it to the community by himself upon his return from Rome, on July 28, 1909. The priests, not to mention the brothers, were outraged. Separation was not what they had intended, but only that Rome would grant them an administration that assured both the advocates of the monastic ideal and those of the missionary ideal among them a life in peaceful co-existence. Abbot Francis, however, who was informed of the decree before his death on May 24, 1909, is reported to have exclaimed: “Thank God! What I always intended has come about.” (Sr. Angela Michels, Reminiscences)

Only gradually did the Mariannhillers recognize that the missionary lifestyle, not the monastic, was the more adequate one for them. This is reflected in their present constitutions (2025) which state: “In the spirit of Abbot Francis Pfanner and the early community of Mariannhill … our congregation adopts its missionary objectives” [104]. And: “We have the courage, following the example of Abbot Francis Pfanner and the early community of Mariannhill, to also take up new paths.” [111].

When the separation went into effect, Mariannhill did not have to make a completely new start; rather, it could build upon its Trappist foundations. It boasted a whole column of hardworking, qualified brothers, extensive tracts of arable land, flourishing missions, and a stable home base. Francis Pfanner’s efforts to promote vocations and solicit funds by establishing a respectable printing and publishing facility and overseas agencies now benefitted it. It enjoyed a good reputation. However, though clearly oriented in name and purpose towards the missionary ministry, the transition to fully claiming its new identity was long and painful. The Mariannhillers still prayed the Cistercian Office, wore the Cistercian cowl and observed Cistercian customs. Contrary to Hemptinne’s explicit warning, they even made several attempts to join another order, for example, the Cistercians (OC), until Rome put an end to all provisional arrangements and declared Mariannhill an independent religious institute of simple vows (March 21, 1914). It was to elect its own administration for a six-year term of office. Mariannhill never did. World War I broke out, and Gerard Wolpert, the last elected abbot of Mariannhill (who resigned in 1904) was made provost.

The war spread insecurity, severed contact with Europe, emptied the coffers and novitiates, and threatened all German expatriates with internment. Mariannhill stagnated.

After World War I, two canonical visitators, Edward Schröder, SJ and Ildefons Lanslots, OSB, gave Mariannhill’s missionary orientation fresh impetus. They facilitated the 1920 General Chapter at which the very successful missionary, Fr. Adalbero Fleischer from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was elected superior general. The Cistercian liturgy was replaced with the Roman rite, the choral office suspended, religious names abolished and the cowl exchanged for a black habit and red cincture (black leather belt for brothers). The one-man overseas agencies were turned into small local communities. When the novitiate house St. Paul’s in The Netherlands (est. 1911) hesitated to adopt the changes, Cardinal van Rossum, Prefect of Propaganda Fide, without further ado, gave the novitiate a Jesuit director and made the Mariannhill Institute responsible to his own dicastery (June 26, 1920). He himself became cardinal protector in 1921 and Mariannhill and its missions became a vicariate in 1922. Fleischer was appointed vicar apostolic and, by way of a rare exception, administered both institute and vicariate simultaneously for four years. Immediately upon taking office, he looked for ways to implement Pope Benedict XV’s encyclical “Maximum illud” by establishing “The Daughters of St. Francis” (1922) and a year later, “The Familiars of St. Joseph,” both indigenous congregations of episcopal right.

In 1926, Fr. Hermann Arndt was elected Superior General and Mariannhill became an institute of pontifical right (CMM). In Germany, despite post-war constraints, the “Pius X Seminary” was built at Würzburg and land in Africa mortgaged to meet the expenses. In 1928, the general administration moved its residence to Würzburg, placed all European houses under its jurisdiction and erected “The Mariannhill Monastery and Missions” as a province. 1930 was particularly hard on the institute, for by the puzzling but explicit order of Propaganda Fide, it had to trade its flourishing missions in Mashonaland for those of the Jesuits in Matabeleland (both in Zimbabwe), a most undesirable exchange. But then, as if to compensate it, Rome appointed two of its missionaries as prefects apostolic: Fr. Emanuel Hanisch , CMM for Mthatha (1930) and Fr. Ignatius Arnoz, CMM for Bulawayo (1932).

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power. He was unpredictable. To be armed against any harassment, Superior General Reginald Weinmann, elected in 1932, acquired a house in Austria to serve as a refuge in the event of expulsion from Germany. In 1936, he relocated the generalate, first to Altdorf (Switzerland) and then to Riedegg (Austria). What everyone had feared came true. In 1938, Hitler engineered Austria’s “Anschluss ans Reich” (Germany’s annexation of Austria). Superior General Reginald Weinmann was fortunate in having a South African passport that enabled him to escape, via Switzerland to England, where in mid-June he moved into an old monastery in Hatfield-Peverel, Essex, and dedicated it to the “Mother of Good Counsel.” The houses in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria were made provinces. The start of World War II was only a matter of time.

Abbot Francis’s words: “Our mission field is the Kingdom of God and that has no boundaries” came true. By 1939, Mariannhill had become a tree which spread its branches and continued growing in Francis Pfanner’s spirit. (For the further development of the Missionaries of Mariannhill, see the next article, “His Foundations Today.”)

The third article of this series was about the priest, Wendelin Pfanner, who at age 38 became a Trappist. In this article the question is: How did the monk Francis turn missionary? The short answer is: by God’s design; the long answer: by a painful process in fidelity to his calling.
Unlikely though it may seem, the Trappist and the missionary already stirred in Fr. Francis when he was still a seminarian. Abbot Francis writes: “Whenever we prayed the ‘Miserere’ [Ps. 51], I felt … an irrepressible urge to go to the missions. The desire to work for the missions tormented me and gave me no peace.” (Unless otherwise stated, all quotations are taken from the Memoirs of Abbot Francis.) His bishop decided that he was not strong enough for missionary work.
So, after his ordination, Wendelin was assigned to parish ministry. He served for nine years at Haselstauden, Austria and afterwards as confessor to sisters in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1863, a long-standing lung condition and other circumstances forced him to turn over a new leaf. Like the seminarian, he was again drawn to both monastic life and the missions. He wanted “to enter an order where the rule is strictly observed,” and at the same time he felt called “to become a missionary in Central Africa,” after the example of his countryman, Ignaz Knoblecher, missionary and explorer in the Congo Basin. However, a life-threatening intestinal inflammation which he had contracted in Suez, Egypt in May that year signaled to him “that I was not fit for Africa.” Therefore, he entered Mariawald Monastery. For the time being, the Trappist vocation prevailed over the missionary.

Prayer, work, and fasting restored Fr. Francis’s (his Trappist name) health and the call to the missions receded to the background. In 1869, he founded Mariastern Monastery in Turkish Bosnia. It was an Islamic country, listed in the books of Propaganda Fide as mission territory. But in July 1880, at the invitation of a missionary bishop, he led an expedition of 33 Trappists to the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, not to become a missionary, but to develop Dunbrody Farm. Two years later, he and his monks exchanged Dunbrody for the province of Natal and founded the Mariannhill Monastery.
What were the chances of a Trappist becoming a missionary?
Trappists are an order of cloistered contemplative monks. Their rule, centering on prayer, penance and perpetual silence, does not provide for missionary work. When they did engage in such work, it was at the express requests of Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII. Abbot Francis (abbot since 26. 12. 1885) explained the specific Trappist vocation before anyone might wonder if the silent monks of Mariannhill were going to turn missionaries. He wrote: “The actual missionaries and the Trappists can be compared to a fire brigade. Some firemen deliver water to the engine; others stand by the hose and direct the water to the fire. … The missionary priests are the actual leaders of the mission and attract attention, but what contemplative men and women contribute to the mission is no less necessary, though less conspicuous; namely, prayer which calls down the grace of the Holy Spirit. If we [Trappists] can no longer be used for anything in Africa except to implore God’s grace upon the missions, we are content and make no other demands.” (Forget-me-Not Nr.5 & 8, 1885)
Their vocation aside, Bishop Jolivet of Natal did not want the Trappists at Mariannhill to be assigned a mission territory of their own, nor should they be supported by missionary organizations such as the Paris Foreign Missionary Society. The monks were to live the life of ora et labora but not work as missionaries. However, the bishop seems not to have reckoned with the people living close to Mariannhill. The Zulus soon discovered Abbot Francis for themselves, not only as a stern Nkosi (lord, landlord) whom they feared, but also as a caring provider. They did not know “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2), and Abbot Francis wondered, why not. Were they not entitled to the Good News of their salvation? Who was he to withhold it from them? Gradually, closer contact with the indigenous people re-awakened the missionary in him.

The Trappist rule allowed for the regular works of Christian charity – care of orphans, basic schooling, proclaiming the Good News, nursing the sick, feeding the poor – to be performed within the precincts of the monastery, for such works did not fall under the category of missionary activities. However, when in 1886 tribal chiefs arrived in Mariannhill to ask for missionaries and schools, the principle of self-containment had to be reviewed. So far, Mariannhill had “evangelized” by presence; now it was challenged to leave the “safe haven” of monastic enclosure, cross boundaries and come to the aid of people in their physical as well as spiritual needs.
Abbot Francis responded to the call not by choosing missionary activity over monastic observance, but by attempting to combine both. His address at a reception ceremony of Trappist novices says that much: “The heart which is covered by the religious dress must always burn for the order, but head, hands and feet are to work for the missions.” (19.10.1887) His understanding of what Mariannhill’s missionary vocation was also echoes from his well-known maxim: “Our mission field is the Kingdom of God and that has no boundaries” (Josefsblättchen, 1889, No. 1).
According to the general Trappist self-understanding, however, observance and mission were incompatible. The question is therefore legitimate: Did Abbot Francis know what he was getting into? It seems not. But he was determined to try. The many hardships, risks, slanderous accusations, etc., that he faced speak of his determination and resilience.
By 1890, many Mariannhill Trappists were heart and soul missionaries, but not all. So, to forestall polarization, Abbot Francis tightened the rules, only to earn for himself the reputation of being an unyielding radical (“The Disobedient Rebel”). Only very few in the order were willing to credit him with genuine love for both mission and observance. But, controversy aside, his pride and joy was in being a Trappist: “We strictly follow the rule. We do not need mitigations,” he asserted, even at the last General Chapter he attended in 1891.
Nevertheless, confrontation was inevitable, for opinions differed too much. Partly forced by circumstances and partly by his own impetuosity/unyielding manner in opening “too many missions too soon,” he got caught between the camps. Those who knew him less well accused him of stubbornness and disobedience, saying either that he disregarded the rule or that he clung to it too fast. Not everyone managed to walk the tightrope between observance and missionary engagement, or, as the saying was: “primer [to teach reading to children] in one hand and [a Trappist] rulebook in the other.” By 1891, many Mariannhill monks asked themselves if it was reasonable at all to harmonize the two.
Of St. Ansgar, monk and bishop (801-65), his biographer Rimbert had written: “At heart, a monk – in deed, an apostle.” But Ansgar was a Benedictine, not a Trappist. No one in Mariannhill at that time would have agreed with Thomas Merton, himself a Trappist, who wrote that Mariannhill was “an astonishing spectacle of a Trappist mission of contemplative monks who, according to purely Benedictine principles, cultivated an apostolate of prayer and work, of liturgy and the plough.” (The Waters of Siloe. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1949, p. 157) Why? Because their self-image, unbelievable though it may seem, was that of Trappists until long after their separation from the order (1910). (See Article 6 of this series.)
In 1891, Abbot Francis submitted to the General Chapter 16 demands compiled by his missionaries. All expressed but one wish: that Trappist missionaries be treated as any other missionaries. He may still have done so with a divided heart, but barely a year later, challenged by Mariannhill’s visitator, Abbot Francis Strunk, he committed fully to mission. At this point, he still believed that Trappists were the best missionaries as they improved the local infrastructure and thus gave the Gospel a chance to take root among people. He stated firmly: “I am still the old conservative progressive who … as a missionary always strives further, but as a Trappist remains firmly rooted in the old ways.” (Forget-me-not, Special Issue, December 1892. No. I: “More enlightenment.”)
In December 1892, Abbot Francis went into exile rather than betray his convictions. As he stated, he considered himself both “conservative progressive,” but the stress was gradually shifting to “progressive” = missionary. The condition which the visitator Francis Strunk laid down was not so much for Abbot Francis to give up mission work (Strunk was not anti-mission, and the vicar general, Abbot Sebastian Wyart, was decidedly pro-mission), but rather, that Strunk outright rejected mission as carried out by Pfanner – a demand in which the latter felt the old Mariawald resentment against himself and his monasteries (Mariastern, 1869 and Mariannhill, 1882) confirmed. (Strunk had been prior of Mariawald in 1887 and two years later, abbot of Ölenberg, when the slanderous talk about Fr. Francis was still very much alive.) “Betraying his convictions” would have been to betray himself. The founder obeyed his superiors by carrying out the decree of suspension issued to him in 1892; he obeyed God by never betraying the trust he had been given by God for mission.
Only at Emaus, after much prayer and with new insights gained, did he begin to doubt the compatibility of missionary activity with Trappist observance. Accordingly, in November 1905, he signed a petition to Propaganda Fide drafted by Mariannhill’s leading missionaries asking for an adapted rule. 18 months later, however, he was convinced that the two ideals were incompatible. He wrote to his abbot general, Augustin Marré: “If I were young again, … I would certainly not become a Trappist…” Because he despaired of Trappists? Not at all, but because neither he nor his three successors in office had been able to bridge the gap between the two ideals. He continued: “I would rather join a missionary society where they do not constantly quarrel over rule and mission.” (28.3.1907) He then referred to a rule he had written (and sent to Rome with Administrator Abbot Edmund Obrecht) as early as December 1905 for a missionary institute which, under the tutelage of Propaganda Fide, should adopt only their system of manual labor from the Trappists.
Towards the end of his letter to Marré, the aging founder gave free rein to his heart: “I would be the first one [in the new institute he called Propaganda Piccola] to steam to Europe by train [of which he had dreamed] and give a thousand more talks about the progress of the missions in Africa and Russia.” And then – the young Pfanner from his parents’ farm in Langen, Austria comes alive! – “I consider the world a huge dairy cow; whoever knows how to milk it should do it. … I would like the new missionary society … not just in South Africa, but … all over the world … and the Trappists alongside it, so that they could compete with each other. Then it will show which is the better missionary principle, expansion or concentration. … Trappist and missionary under one umbrella are incompatible.”

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.”