ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 24th of December
WELCOME!
WOLFGANG ONUPHRIUS, PRIEST
Wolfgangus (Onuphrius) introduced the hermits of St Jerome according to the Pisan rule to Bavaria, South Germany. He was the son of a rosary dealer named Caspar Holzer of Psessenhausen, and was born on January 16, 1651 in Warngau, where the married couple was temporarily staying at the time. He was given the name Wolfgang in his baptism.
Since his father died soon afterwards, his mother, reduced to poverty, from then resided in Munich. Wolfgang's godfather, the schoolteacher Kögelsberger of Warngau, took care of the boy. In his tenth year Count Waldegg of Regensburg took him into his service, but his love for his mother, who gradually was no longer able to earn anything at all, called him back to Munich.
HELP FOR WOLFGANG AND HIS WIDOWED MOTHER
A kind aristocratic lady called Adelheid saw his plight. She facilitated for Wolfgang to obtain a position as sacristan at the women's collegiate church she had founded, so he and his mother were taken care of.
Since his office occupied him with holy things every day, the thought occurred to him that he had to become more holy himself. This earnest desire for sanctification appeared ever more vividly before his soul, and the reading of the life stories of holy hermits awakened in him such a longing for the solitary life that he decided to embrace this way of life. When Adelheid, at his most urgent request, promised to take care of his mother and arranged for her to be admitted to the St Elisabeth Hospital and Home, he was able to leave.
He didn't quite know where to go from here, and after a short stay in the forest near Zorneding, he moved via Tegernsee - where they didn't want to keep him because of his strange clothes - to the Dreikirchenberg near Clausen in Tyrol (in English: "Mount Triple Church" near "Hermitage" in Tyrol)
SEVERE TRIALS
In the winter of 1670, on a mountain near Nauders, he went through a period of severe testing, in which not only the evil enemy did his utmost to persuade him of the impossibility of living the life of a saint as was Wolfgang's aim, but snow and cold also tried to convince him, bringing him close to dying of hypothermia.
GOD IS CLOSE TO THE SEEKING AND THE PATIENT
God, who is close to the seeking and the patient, rewarded his steadfastness by granting him admission to the third order of the Carmelites at Trent, where he was given the name Onuphrius of St Wolfgang.
PRIESTHOOD
From now on his venture had the best of luck. He took in like-minded people, got a chapel on the Josephberg (Mount St Joseph), and even undertook to learn the Latin language with great difficulty and to prepare for the ordination to the priesthood, which he eventually received.
However, as his tombstone confirms, his science was more acquired through constant contact with God than through academic study. But he passed trials imposed on him by his clergymen so well that he was given permission to hear confessions, and even allowed to absolve in reserve cases.
"MIRROR OF A GOD-LOVING SOUL"
The pious little book he wrote: "Mirror of a God-Loving Soul" demonstrates that he knew how to utilise his own and other people's experiences to advance in the spiritual life.
THEY FOUNDED MORE BRANCHES
In 1695 he and his comrades were accepted into the Association of the Order of the Hieronymites and founded branches in Wallersee, later also at St Anna in Munich, Forst, Schönbach in Lower Austria and Ortenburg in Carinthia.
HIS HOLY DEATH
Following his holy death on December 24, 1724, in Vienna, the people crowded in droves to his very fresh and blooming-looking corpse to kiss his hands and clothes. His grave is located in Schönbach.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
Comments
Post a Comment