The Apostle of South Africa. Adalbert Ludwig Balling

      “We, Father Eduard, Prior of the Monastery of Mariawald in the Order of Citeaux or La Trappe, extend to the priest Francis, professed member of this monastery our best wishes for his journey.

      It has long been our desire to see our Order – the Reformed Order of Citeaux originating in France – spread also to countries in the south eastern parts of Europe. But until now we have not been able to carry it out because of the few admissions we have had to our relatively new monastery in Germany. However, with God’s help membership has increased. Therefore we have decided to open another monastery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We send you, Fr. Francis, to find a place for it in Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia or one of the neighbouring countries. We grant you a three-months leave-of-absence to carry out this mandate and we ask all rectors of churches to grant you, a genuine monk, admission to the Sacraments and other spiritual assistance … We affix our signature and the Seven Seals of Mary of Citeaux to this letter as proof of its authenticity. – Given at the Priory of Mariawald, on the 23rd day of July, 1867. Fr. Eduard, Prior.”

      There it was. Fr. Francis and Br. Zacharias were given a bare three months to make a new foundation in totally unknown territory! But they were monks under obedience and would do their level best. The first thing they did was to split company: Zachariah continued to solicit support and vocations for the new monastery and Francis went to Vorarlberg from where he would travel to the Balkans. So one fine day a Trappist monk appeared in Langen-Hub to the surprise of everyone. His mother, however, soon realized that her son needed assistance and without further ado she paid his ticket to Hungary. There his search for a site began in earnest. Success, however, was not in coming. So he crossed into Croatia, where he could at least hope for free bed and board with the Mercy Sisters whom he had abruptly left four years earlier. If he had thought that Croatia would put no obstacles in the way of a monastic foundation, he was mistaken, for even that Catholic country held next to no chance.

      The going was rough and traveling, an uninterrupted hardship.

      Abbot Francis:

      “We lived as it were between heaven and earth and I am sure that most gypsy families were better off than we. The only advantage we had was that we travelled light, unencumbered by personal effects. Not that Mariawald was too poor to provide us with more, no, it was simply the rule. A Trappist was given no traveling coat and only very rarely a hat or a second vest, underpants or anything like that. Common underwear was distributed every fortnight; habits and scapulars were washed twice a year. We had two habits: a coarse (hairy) one for winter and a second hand one for summer. Socks were sewn from thick cloth. Instead of boots we usually wore wooden shoes and leather ones only for church. It was a rule which also applied to the Prior. So it simply did not occur to us to ask for more.”

      While Br. Zacharias promoted the new foundation, Fr. Francis inspected one estate or manor after another, hoping against hope to find something suitable and affordable. To complicate matters, two more Brothers were sent from Mariawald: Jacob, the smith, and Benedict, the cook. But when checking their decrees he found that they were issued for Oelenberg, not Agram. So he sent them back to get themselves proper papers lest by their disobedience they jeopardize the new foundation. However, the two Brothers had no desire to go to Oelenberg where Abbot Ephrem might hold them back and never let them join the new foundation. Could Fr. Francis not let them go somewhere else? After due thought he sent them to Vienna to make themselves useful with the Capuchins and from there apply for fresh letters of obedience.

       “Big Bang”

      The first mandate of the pioneers had not yet expired when Prior Scheby extended their leave of absence by three more months. If this surprised them they were even more puzzled when another letter arrived on the heel of the first one. This one was not official but private and written by Abbot Ephrem, who ordered Br. Zacharias to come to Oelenberg and advised Fr. Francis to return to the world. This is what according to Abbot Francis’ Memoirs he wrote: “My dear Fr. Francis, you may not return to the monastery. I forbid you to return to either Mariawald or Oelenberg. Instead, go back to the world where you can still do a lot of good. I gladly provide you with a letter of reference to any bishop to whom you may wish to apply.”

      Dumbstruck at this sudden turn of events, Fr. Francis did not know what to do. Years later he explained:

      “The abbot’s order was tantamount to asking me to break my vow of stability. How could a superior, any superior, leave alone the highest superior of our Congregation, because that is what Ephrem was, act like that? I prayed and reflected, reflected and prayed. Finally, I put the case before the very best canonist of the day, none other than my former professor, Dr. Joseph Fessler. He had become vicar general of Feldkirch and then Bishop of St. Poelten in which capacity he was appointed secretary general to the Vatican Council. – The one thing about which I was certain was that I would never go back to the diocesan clergy. I had become a Trappist and a Trappist I wished to remain.”

      Fessler replied at once. He could not deal with the case personally, he explained, but he would refer Fr. Francis to a competent authority in Rome. This was good advice. Fr. Francis and the Brothers Zachariah, Jacob and Benedict, who had meanwhile received proper papers, left for the Eternal City. They arrived on New Year’s Eve 1868 and reported to the Trappist procurator general who resided at the French National Church of St. Louis overlooking Piazza Navona. Abbot Francis Regis11 gave them accommodation, listened to their story and promised to do everything in his power to assist them. The Brothers might chop wood for him, but Fr. Francis would need to stay by himself to write an official letter of complaint – in Latin. He hired a room for him at the German College dell’Anima, where by God’s gracious Providence his host was Rector Msgr. Gassner, another Vorarlberger!

      The story of four stranded Trappists soon made its round in the City. The German curial Cardinal August von Reisach heard of it and offered to mediate. Before long, Pope Pius IX sent them to Tre Fontane.12 The year was 1868, the 18th centenary of the Beheading of St. Paul in the very ruins of Tre Fontane. Flocks of pilgrims were expected to pour in for the occasion and someone had to be on hand to show them around. So on 18 February 1868, the would-be founders from Mariawald left Rome. For the next eight months they carted away the debris that had accumulated in the sacred places, cultivated a garden and in general got things ready for the centenary. With the Brothers working outside, Fr. Francis was porter and interpreter. Several times he sent Br. Zacharias to the cardinal to enquire about their case, but each time the answer was that this was Rome; things were done the Roman way and they should be patient. Abbot Francis tells us that once they went on an excursion to Subiaco, and it is not hard to guess what their purpose was. Surely they wanted to ask Saint Benedict, patriarch also of the Cistercians, to intercede for them in their difficult situation. But would it be too farfetched to suggest that they also needed to breathe fresher air than they got in the deadly Campagna? After all, malaria had already killed Br. Benedict, the cook.

      Pfanners Memoirs recount a strange incident. One day while he was working in the garden during the time of siesta, a silver-haired man stood at the outer iron-gate.

      “He kept looking at me but I took no notice of him. Annoyed, he shouted to me, ‘Why are you wasting your time here? Go to Turkey! There is more work there for you than here!’ – Now it was my turn to be annoyed. What business did that old man have to meddle with me? I turned around to shoo him away but did not see him anymore. Where was he? Gone, and not a trace of him! Strange, I thought, very strange! Only much later, when I was laying a road for our monastery in Bosnia (then part of Turkey), did I remember him again: the beggar of Tre Fontane.”

      Finally, on 17 July (1868), Fr. Francis was summoned to the cardinal. The case had been adjudicated in their favour and they were free to continue with the foundation. He handed him a decree of authorization, this time issued by the competent Vatican office, and wished him well. The three Trappists were overjoyed and intoned the Te Deum! After slaving away for nearly eight months at Tre Fontane they could not wait to leave. They had drained the swampy ground and started to plant eucalyptus trees to suck up the stagnant water. The favour they thus did future generations was not forgotten. The monastery of Franciscan Conventual Friars Minor across the road from Tre Fontane installed a plaque in their grounds to the memory of “Francis Pfanner, Trappist”.