Rev Florian Schwenninger OSB
(Martin Francis Schwenninger)
Martin Francis Schwenninger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, on January 30, 1809. Feeling a call to both the priestly and monastic life, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of Fiecht, located about 25 miles from Innsbruck. He was given the religious name of Brother Florian. He was ordained a priest on July 29, 1832 and offered his first Mass in the Jesuit church of Innsbrook. He quickly developed a yearning for the foreign missionary apostolate (one not at all alien to the Benedictine call) and Fr Florian was sent to the United States in 1844 with his abbot’s blessing.
Several years were spent serving the German population in various cities of northern New York but the future Padre of Paradise Flat really came into his own when, in 1852, he received a letter from Bishop Joseph Alemany OP who, after two years of service as Bishop of Monterey in California desired the services of a priest to work among the Germans of his flock who were in San Francisco and dispersed through northern California. Soon the young Benedictine monk was on his way to California, arriving in San Francisco in August of 1852. The next spring, he was sent by the now Archbishop Alemany to the mountains in the northern part of this diocese where a priest was needed. And so it came to pass that the hardy little Benedictine monk from far off Innsbruck entered into 15 years of devoted priestly service which were to merit for him a special place in the gallery of Catholic leaders who mark the American phase of the Catholic history of California.
Fr Florian built a small chapel in the mining town of Shasta but it was not long before he branched out into the many towns which had sprung into being with the discovery of gold in the northern mountain area of California. Weaverville was his center for several years and he built the first church there. Most of all, though, Fr Florian seems to have been an apostolic wanderer in the truest sense as he made his way by foot along perilous mountain trails to minister to the scattered sheep of his flock. He must surely have marked the similarity between the beautiful mountains he traversed (some of them now known as the Trinity Alps) and those of his native Austria. By 1859, Fr Florian was able to send his Abbot a long report of his activities and with it went a newspaper clipping preserved in the monastic records of Fiecht in Austria.
It was between 1855 and 1857 that the now historic church was erected to St Joseph by Fr Florian, in Sawyer Bar. There it stands today, a proud possession of all of the townsfolk, only a few of whom are Catholic, but who are all united in their determination to thwart occasional attempts of mining interests to invade the Flat and thus imperil or perhaps destroy the pioneer church. Fr Florian died there, in Sawyer Bar, on July 28, 1868. He lies buried in the old Catholic Cemetery in Marysville, far from his native Austria and monastery.
Courtesy of: Mémoriaux Atlantique (#47102973)
(Martin Francis Schwenninger)
Martin Francis Schwenninger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, on January 30, 1809. Feeling a call to both the priestly and monastic life, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of Fiecht, located about 25 miles from Innsbruck. He was given the religious name of Brother Florian. He was ordained a priest on July 29, 1832 and offered his first Mass in the Jesuit church of Innsbrook. He quickly developed a yearning for the foreign missionary apostolate (one not at all alien to the Benedictine call) and Fr Florian was sent to the United States in 1844 with his abbot’s blessing.
Several years were spent serving the German population in various cities of northern New York but the future Padre of Paradise Flat really came into his own when, in 1852, he received a letter from Bishop Joseph Alemany OP who, after two years of service as Bishop of Monterey in California desired the services of a priest to work among the Germans of his flock who were in San Francisco and dispersed through northern California. Soon the young Benedictine monk was on his way to California, arriving in San Francisco in August of 1852. The next spring, he was sent by the now Archbishop Alemany to the mountains in the northern part of this diocese where a priest was needed. And so it came to pass that the hardy little Benedictine monk from far off Innsbruck entered into 15 years of devoted priestly service which were to merit for him a special place in the gallery of Catholic leaders who mark the American phase of the Catholic history of California.
Fr Florian built a small chapel in the mining town of Shasta but it was not long before he branched out into the many towns which had sprung into being with the discovery of gold in the northern mountain area of California. Weaverville was his center for several years and he built the first church there. Most of all, though, Fr Florian seems to have been an apostolic wanderer in the truest sense as he made his way by foot along perilous mountain trails to minister to the scattered sheep of his flock. He must surely have marked the similarity between the beautiful mountains he traversed (some of them now known as the Trinity Alps) and those of his native Austria. By 1859, Fr Florian was able to send his Abbot a long report of his activities and with it went a newspaper clipping preserved in the monastic records of Fiecht in Austria.
It was between 1855 and 1857 that the now historic church was erected to St Joseph by Fr Florian, in Sawyer Bar. There it stands today, a proud possession of all of the townsfolk, only a few of whom are Catholic, but who are all united in their determination to thwart occasional attempts of mining interests to invade the Flat and thus imperil or perhaps destroy the pioneer church. Fr Florian died there, in Sawyer Bar, on July 28, 1868. He lies buried in the old Catholic Cemetery in Marysville, far from his native Austria and monastery.
Courtesy of: Mémoriaux Atlantique (#47102973)
Rev Florian Schwenninger OSB
(Martin Francis Schwenninger)
Martin Francis Schwenninger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, on January 30, 1809. Feeling a call to both the priestly and monastic life, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of Fiecht, located about 25 miles from Innsbruck. He was given the religious name of Brother Florian. He was ordained a priest on July 29, 1832 and offered his first Mass in the Jesuit church of Innsbrook. He quickly developed a yearning for the foreign missionary apostolate (one not at all alien to the Benedictine call) and Fr Florian was sent to the United States in 1844 with his abbot’s blessing.
Several years were spent serving the German population in various cities of northern New York but the future Padre of Paradise Flat really came into his own when, in 1852, he received a letter from Bishop Joseph Alemany OP who, after two years of service as Bishop of Monterey in California desired the services of a priest to work among the Germans of his flock who were in San Francisco and dispersed through northern California. Soon the young Benedictine monk was on his way to California, arriving in San Francisco in August of 1852. The next spring, he was sent by the now Archbishop Alemany to the mountains in the northern part of this diocese where a priest was needed. And so it came to pass that the hardy little Benedictine monk from far off Innsbruck entered into 15 years of devoted priestly service which were to merit for him a special place in the gallery of Catholic leaders who mark the American phase of the Catholic history of California.
Fr Florian built a small chapel in the mining town of Shasta but it was not long before he branched out into the many towns which had sprung into being with the discovery of gold in the northern mountain area of California. Weaverville was his center for several years and he built the first church there. Most of all, though, Fr Florian seems to have been an apostolic wanderer in the truest sense as he made his way by foot along perilous mountain trails to minister to the scattered sheep of his flock. He must surely have marked the similarity between the beautiful mountains he traversed (some of them now known as the Trinity Alps) and those of his native Austria. By 1859, Fr Florian was able to send his Abbot a long report of his activities and with it went a newspaper clipping preserved in the monastic records of Fiecht in Austria.
It was between 1855 and 1857 that the now historic church was erected to St Joseph by Fr Florian, in Sawyer Bar. There it stands today, a proud possession of all of the townsfolk, only a few of whom are Catholic, but who are all united in their determination to thwart occasional attempts of mining interests to invade the Flat and thus imperil or perhaps destroy the pioneer church. Fr Florian died there, in Sawyer Bar, on July 28, 1868. He lies buried in the old Catholic Cemetery in Marysville, far from his native Austria and monastery.
Courtesy of: Mémoriaux Atlantique (#47102973)
(Martin Francis Schwenninger)
Martin Francis Schwenninger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, on January 30, 1809. Feeling a call to both the priestly and monastic life, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of Fiecht, located about 25 miles from Innsbruck. He was given the religious name of Brother Florian. He was ordained a priest on July 29, 1832 and offered his first Mass in the Jesuit church of Innsbrook. He quickly developed a yearning for the foreign missionary apostolate (one not at all alien to the Benedictine call) and Fr Florian was sent to the United States in 1844 with his abbot’s blessing.
Several years were spent serving the German population in various cities of northern New York but the future Padre of Paradise Flat really came into his own when, in 1852, he received a letter from Bishop Joseph Alemany OP who, after two years of service as Bishop of Monterey in California desired the services of a priest to work among the Germans of his flock who were in San Francisco and dispersed through northern California. Soon the young Benedictine monk was on his way to California, arriving in San Francisco in August of 1852. The next spring, he was sent by the now Archbishop Alemany to the mountains in the northern part of this diocese where a priest was needed. And so it came to pass that the hardy little Benedictine monk from far off Innsbruck entered into 15 years of devoted priestly service which were to merit for him a special place in the gallery of Catholic leaders who mark the American phase of the Catholic history of California.
Fr Florian built a small chapel in the mining town of Shasta but it was not long before he branched out into the many towns which had sprung into being with the discovery of gold in the northern mountain area of California. Weaverville was his center for several years and he built the first church there. Most of all, though, Fr Florian seems to have been an apostolic wanderer in the truest sense as he made his way by foot along perilous mountain trails to minister to the scattered sheep of his flock. He must surely have marked the similarity between the beautiful mountains he traversed (some of them now known as the Trinity Alps) and those of his native Austria. By 1859, Fr Florian was able to send his Abbot a long report of his activities and with it went a newspaper clipping preserved in the monastic records of Fiecht in Austria.
It was between 1855 and 1857 that the now historic church was erected to St Joseph by Fr Florian, in Sawyer Bar. There it stands today, a proud possession of all of the townsfolk, only a few of whom are Catholic, but who are all united in their determination to thwart occasional attempts of mining interests to invade the Flat and thus imperil or perhaps destroy the pioneer church. Fr Florian died there, in Sawyer Bar, on July 28, 1868. He lies buried in the old Catholic Cemetery in Marysville, far from his native Austria and monastery.
Courtesy of: Mémoriaux Atlantique (#47102973)
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