SAINT CLEMENT MARIA HOFBAUER

St. Clement Maria Hofbauer
Clement Maria Hofbauer, C.SS.R. (RM)
(ne John Dvorák)
Feast day: March 15
Born on December 26,1751, at Taswitz, Moravia,
Death: Vienna, Austria, March 15, 1820
Canonized in 1909 by Pius X

Redemptorist preacher and reformer.




Born in Tasswitz, Moravia, December 26, 1751; died in Vienna, Austria, March 15, 1820; canonized in 1909 by Pius X, who named him patron of Vienna in 1914. "O My Redeemer, will that terrible moment ever come when but few Christians shall be left who are inspired by the spirit of faith, that moment when Your indignation shall be provoked and Your protection shall be taken from us? Have our vices and our evil lives irrevocably moved Your justice to take vengeance, perhaps this very day, upon Your children?

"We beg You, the Beginning and the End of faith, with contrite hearts, not to let the light of faith be extinguished in souls.

"Remember Your mercies of old, turn Your eyes in compassion upon the vineyard planted by Your own right hand, and watered by the tears of the Apostles, by the precious blood of countless martyrs, and made fruitful by the prayers of so many confessors and innocent virgins.

"O divine Mediator, look upon those zealous souls who raise their hearts to You and pray without ceasing for the maintenance of that most precious gift of Yours, the True Faith. Keep us safe in the true Catholic and Roman Faith. Preserve us in Your holy faith, for if we are rich with this precious gift, we shall gladly endure every sorrow and nothing shall ever be able to change our happiness. Without this great treasure of faith, our unhappiness would be unspeakable and without limit.

"O Good Jesus, Author of our faith, preserve it pure within us; keep us safe in the bark of Peter, faithful and obedient to his successor, and Your vicar here on earth, so that the unity of the holy Church may be maintained, holiness fostered, the Holy See protected in freedom, and the Church universal extended to the benefit of souls.

"O Jesus, Author of our faith, humble and convert the enemies of Your Church; grant true peace and concord to all Christian kings and princes and to all believers; strengthen and preserve us in Your holy service to the end, that we may live with You and die in You.

"O Jesus, Author of our faith, let me live for You and die for You. Amen."

--Saint Clement-Maria Hofbauer

John Dvorák was the youngest of the nine children of a Czech butcher and a German mother. His father changed the family name from the Moravian Dvorák to the German Hofbauer. John was raised in a humble, pious family. As a baker's apprentice and then as a journeyman baker, as a servant at the Premonstratensian Klosterbruck, and as a student, he strove to draw nearer to his constant goal: the priesthood. However, neither he nor his family could afford the cost of educating him for service to the Church. Unable to attain his goal of the priesthood, he became a hermit. When Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages in Austria, Hofbauer became a baker in Vienna.

On a pilgrimage to Rome, he received the habit of a hermit at the hands of the Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli, the future Pope Pius VII, who changed John's name to Clement. Thus, he again became a hermit with a friend, Peter Kunzmann, but found that he was more suited to an active life than to that of a recluse. One day after Mass, Hofbauer struck up a friendship with two ladies who agreed to pay for his studies at the University of Vienna and in Rome.

During this second pilgrimage to Rome, Hofbauer and his friend, Thaddeus Hubl, became acquainted with the Redemptorist order and entered it in 1784, while Saint Alphonsus Liguori was still alive. At that time Hofbauer took the name Maria.

In 1785, he and Hubl were ordained; and, after two years of further study, they were sent to Vienna to found a Redemptorist house, but under the regime of Joseph II it was impossible to found a monastery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During all of Clement's life, the influence of the Enlightenment and Joseph II's anti-papal Erastianism were at their height. So, the two friends were sent to Courland.

En route Clement's old friend Kunzmann joined them as a lay brother. At the request of the papal nuncio, they went to Warsaw, Poland, and, in 1787, founded the first Redemptorist house beyond the Alps. Hofbauer's untiringly zealous work in Warsaw from 1787 to 1808 in the German national church of Saint Benno was profoundly effective, although it was somewhat retarded by the Napoleonic Wars. Five times each day he and his companions preached in Polish and German. During his stay in Poland he established other houses, initiated many charitable and educational (including a free school for 350 poor children, and a high school) enterprises, preached so well that both Jews and Protestants were converted, and sent Redemptorist missionaries to Germany (the first house was built at Jestetten near Schaffhausen in 1802) and Switzerland.

In 1808, the French government had him removed and imprisoned with his companions at the fortress of Kuestrin, and after four weeks each was sent to his homeland. Thus, Hofbauer ended up back in Vienna, where he spent the last 12 years of his life firmly planting the Redemptorist Institute in Germanic lands. His work led to the establishment of the order in Belgium, Ireland, England, and the Commonwealth. Hofbauer, the propagator of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer north of the Alps, is venerated by his order as a second founder.

In Vienna the saint became the center of a group of German romantics, who gave a decisive impulse to the 19th century. To this circle belonged men like Adam von Mueller, Friedrich von Schlegel, and Zacharias Werner. The saint had no advantage of birth or general education, but he earned a great reputation for wisdom in religious and social matters.

He worked unobtrusively in the Italian quarter and later was chaplain to Ursuline nuns and rector of their church. Again, he became widely known as a preacher and director of souls. Hofbauer's confessional was crowded not only with humble folk, who venerated him as the father of the poor, but also with men and women of the highest rank, influential government officials, statesmen of the Congress of Vienna, leading scholars and artists.

In Vienna, Hofbauer founded a Catholic college and became enormously influential in revitalizing the religious life of the German nations. Hofbauer and Prince Rupert of Bavaria even thwarted a plan at the Congress of Vienna to set up a German Church independent of the papacy. Clement also fought the whole concept of Josephinism, that is secular domination of the Church and hierarchy by the secular ruler. Hofbauer was accused by the Austrian chancellor of being a Roman spy, but the archbishop of Vienna supported him, knowing the value of Hofbauer's contribution to the Catholic revival, so Emperor Francis I forbade his expulsion. Hofbauer also tirelessly cared for the sick and the dying and showed sensitive consideration to devout and conscientious Protestants because he had a deep understanding of the causes of the Protestant Reformation and its religious motives among the German peoples.

In 1819, he was mortally ill of several diseases. He died the next year after participating in the funeral of a notable benefactor. His funeral in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral was attended by thousands. Soon afterwards the cause for which he had long labored, the founding of Redemptorist houses in Austria, became a reality. His friend Werner said that he knew only three men of superhuman energy--Napoleon, Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer