The Apostle of South Africa. Adalbert Ludwig Balling

traveled for about two hours over the rough and the smooth until we came to a coffee house. The innkeeper, barefoot, in an old pair of pants and a tatty shirt which was open all the way to his belly button, thus exposing his sweaty chest, extended a rare welcome to my two visitors, addressing me as Gospodin (Sir). When he brought in the coffee I asked him if perchance he also had cups. He did. Reaching into his shirt, he conjured up an array of dirty tin mugs, put them on the table in front of my visitors and muttered the courteous Isvolite! (s’il vous plait). Next he produced two lumps of sugar from his pocket and, placing the smaller one into my cup, bit the other in two on his foul teeth, to place one half into each of the remaining cups. It was all my pater immediatus could take, crying: ‘Mon Dieu! It’s enough’!”

      But he had only had a small glimpse of Bosnia. Abbot Francis adds that the innkeeper was actually “one of the finer specimens of a Greek”, and with regard to courtesy and etiquette certainly superior to most Bosnian and Turkish landlords.

      After rumbling along on the rack waggon for two more hours across country the party stopped at another wayside inn to rest and feed the horses. This time, Fr. Franz ordered a Lenten meal consisting of flour, milk and eggs. It was served on a flat dish together with bread but without a knife or fork, table cloth or serviette. Thus he “had the honour” of showing his bewildered visitors how to eat without the cultural accessories they were used to, by demonstrating how the bread could be broken into convenient pieces, dipped one piece at a time into the dish, picked up with some of the egg mix and brought safely to the mouth.

      The following illustrations are title covers of two brochures which the Founder published in Bosnia.

       The first two unique publications by Fr. Franz.1874 and 1875

      The first title reads:

      “Are you a Chimney Sweep? – A Redundant Question, annoying to some and comforting to others and answered here by Fr. Francis. – All proceeds towards the establishment of a boys’ orphanage in Banjaluka.

      Price: 10 crowns in Austrian or South German currency. –

      2nd Enlarged Edition, Graz 1874.

       The first two unique publications by Fr. Franz.1874 and 1875

      The second title reads: “Something for Unbelievers”. Experienced and narrated by Fr. Francis, Prior of the Trappists of Mariastern near Banjaluka in Bosnia.

      Signa non fidelibus, sed infidelibus: “Signs are intended, not for believers but unbelievers”. (St. Paul)

      Graz. Author’s Edition.

      When the party finally reached the monastery, it was the Prior’s turn to learn a new custom. He could not trust his eyes. Most evidently, “there were Trappists who ate meat while they were not sick”. He found out that a private physician had prescribed meat to his visitors. He was shocked. But hardly had he recovered from the first surprise when he was in for another.

      Abbot Francis, in jovial mood:

      “I discovered the French cure for obesity. Abbot Henri suffered from this condition but he had found a ‘cure’. His ‘physician’ used to cut a deep hole in his upper arm, place a pea or bean in the wound, bandage it and allow the blood to turn septic. I saw with my own eyes how Fr. Bonaventure, the ‘physician’, took a bean out of such a wound, put in another one and bandaged the arm again. He did so three times a day. Imagine: Instead of prescribing a diet low in blood-builders, he tried to cure his abbot with meat and beans!”

      The visitation as such was uneventful. Abbot Henri issued a few general admonitions concerning the novitiate and general cleanliness. He was apparently not able to cope with his responsibilities as abbot. A few years later he was retired and lived out his days on a small pension at a Roman convent: “a way of losing weight without beans”. (Abbot Francis) His companion and interpreter, Fr. Bonaventura Bayer, on the other hand, was transferred to Mariastern, mainly “to foster the good monastic spirit”. The chronicler concludes that the visitation was a benefit for Mariastern: “It strengthened the spirit of harmony and charity between superiors and subjects. Afterwards, Prior Francis was able to turn to his higher superiors for counsel and support whenever he faced internal or external difficulties. He did not need to legitimize himself anymore to those who doubted his monastic loyalty. As a result, he enjoyed greater recognition and honor in church circles, something that is not to be underestimated if a monastery is expected to prosper.”

VII.

       Building Projects Completed

       Plans for a New Foundation The Seer of Wittelsheim

      Though the Pasha of Banjaluka was aware that Prior Francis had a building licence from the Grand Vizier he pretended not to know. Whenever an opportunity presented itself he did everything in his power to outwit him. Fr. Franz, however, was not hoodwinked by a Turk. More often than not he drew a red herring across the Pasha’s track. With his opponent kept at bay, the number of monks and buildings increased. But not everything went smoothly at Mariasterrn. In the spring of 1873 “we lost all our cattle to anthrax”. This was a major disaster and one which taught the Prior a lesson. He made sure it would not be repeated. He asked his brother to “find him some fine Allgau cows and a breed bull.” The animals were transported to the border by rail and from there driven to Banjaluka. Prior Franz: “Once we had a new breed, farmers came for calves, as also did the Pasha, who of course wanted his for free!”

      In December 1874, the Prior reviewed Mariastern’s progress for the “Vorarlberger Volkszeitung”:

      “Where five years ago there was nothing but wood and the occasional Turkish maize field or a patch of ownerless land, you will now find a monastery and a church though both still need plastering. The two buildings form a quadrangle enclosing a garden. The longest wall measures 130’. (40 m). – The following projects have been completed: a farm house with stables and barns, a flour mill and a saw mill, a large prune drier, a small brewery and several trade shops. At a short distance from the monastery we have a brick yard to make bricks and shingles, and a little further, a quarry from which we get all our stones. We split the rocks with either a pick axe or dynamite. – Two major events this year were the arrival of our new novice master, Fr. Bonaventura Bayer, and the ordination to the priesthood of Fr. Joseph Biegner, who has been with us practically from the beginning. It was Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer who at the cathedral of Djakovo in Slavonia conferred Holy Orders on him.”

      As early as September 1874, Prior Francis presented a plan for a second Trappist monastery in Bosnia to the general chapter at Sept-Fons. The name he had chosen for it was “Mariannaberg”. But before he could begin with the construction there were obstacles to overcome. One was the Franciscans. To his greatest surprise he discovered that the bishop, also a Franciscan, was making common cause with the Pasha to obstruct Mariastern’s further development. Despite the fact that the bishop had been the first one to support his plan for expansion and despite the repeated requests by the surrounding Catholics for pastoral assistance, Vuicic turned against the Trappists. His opposition went as far as “not to allow our priests to hear Confession except of fellow monks”.

       Visit to the Seers of Wittelsheim

      In 1874, Prior Francis was late for the annual general chapter at Sept-Fons. This was due partly to poor train connections but partly also to his own scheduling. On their way to France he and Br. Zacharias stopped at Wittelsheim in the Alsace to meet “the seers”. In a brochure entitled “Something for Unbelievers”. (Graz, 1874) he tells us that he was driven mainly by curiosity. He wanted to know if the visionaries and their visions were as trustworthy as they were given out to be. If so then one or the other might tell him whether God wanted a second monastery in Bosnia or not. They began their inquiries by calling on the parish priest at Krueth. He gave them what information he had about the seers – twenty altogether. After that