Joseph Kentenich | |
---|---|
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
School | Pallottine College |
Order | Schoenstatt Movement |
Personal | |
Nationality | German |
Born | Peter Joseph Kentenich 16 November 1885 Gymnich, Germany |
Died | 15 September 1968 (aged 82) Schoenstatt, Vallendar, Germany |
Resting place | Church of the Adoration, Vallendar, Germany |
Senior posting | |
Rank | Priest |
Religious career | |
Ordination | 8 July 1910 |
Profession | Theologian, educator |
Present post | Founder and first Director of the Schoenstatt Movement; first Superior General of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers |
Website | http://www.pater-kentenich.org/en/ |
Father Joseph Kentenich (b. 16 November, 1885, Gymnich, Rhine Province; d. 15 September 1968 in Schoenstatt, Vallendar, Germany) was a Pallottine priest and founder of the Schoenstatt Movement. He is also remembered as a theologian, educator and pioneer of a Catholic response to an array of modern issues, whose teachings underwent a series of challenges from political and ecclesiastical powers. He attempted to teach Christians how to live out their faith.
Considered by many of those who came into contact with him to have been a saint, his cause for sainthood is currently at the diocesan level in the Diocese of Trier, pending the compilation of his writings and correspondences.
He was born on November 16, 1885, in Gymnich, near Cologne, and christened Peter Josef Kentenich November 19 at the parish church of St. Kuniberts. His mother was Katharina Kentenich, his father, Matthias Köp, a manager on a farm lived in Oberbolheim, where Katharina was one of the domestic staff. Because his parents were not married (and never married), Joseph was born in the house of his maternal grandparents, Anna Maria and Matthias Kentenich, where he spent the first years of his life.
From the end of 1891 until the second half of 1892 Joseph lived with his mother in Strasbourg, where she worked as housekeeper for her elder brother, Peter Joseph, after his wife’s death on 25 December 1891. The boy attended a school there for a few months. After her brother remarried on 25 June 1892, Katharina and her son returned to Gymnich. Katharina had to look for a permanent job in order to support her child. Joseph Kentenich was sent to St. Vincent orphanage in Oberhausen on 12 April 1894.
Upon arrival, Catherine grips on the neck of a statue of Our Lady one of the few precious objects she owns: a gold chain with a cross; she asks the Mother of Jesus to take care from now the education of her son; then she puts the cross in Joseph's neck.