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[German Version] (Jan 6, 1821, Illkofen – Jun 14, 1893, Bad Kreuth) studied Catholic theology at Munich, became Privatdozent there in 1850, associate professor in 1854, and professor of philosophy in the philosophy faculty in 1855. Frohschammer worked towards the reconciliation of Christianity and modern science. In 1857, at the instigation of J. Kleutgen, Rome placed his “generatian,” intended to combine the doctrine of creation with the theory of evolution, on the Index. From then on, Frohschammer increasingly …

[German Version] Feast day Jun 15. Churches dedicated to St. Vitus (Patrocinia) are attested since the 6th century. A legendary 7th-century vita identifies him as a martyr during the persecution under Diocletian (Persecutions of Christians: I). The Sicilian youth, accompanied by his tutor Modestus and his foster mother Crescentia, fled to Lucania to escape his father, who wanted to force him to apostatize. After performing miracles, he was tortured by the emperor, including being placed in a kettle of boiling oil. H…

[German Version] I. History, Process, Results 1. Annoucement and preparation. The idea of holding a general council for the church to assert its authority and its defensive stance against a modernity shaped by Enlightenment and revolution was first suggested to Pius IX during exile in Gaëta. The plan took shape after the pope – two days before the publication of the encyclical Quanta cura and the Syllabus on Dec 8, 1864, and in close connection with their condemnation of modern fallacies – carried out a first confidential consultation with the cardinals reg…

[German Version] I. Originally – in accordance with its etymology – ultramontane described a nation or party on the other side of the Alps from the person using the term. Since the time of the Enlightenment, however, advocates of reform-oriented spirituality have used Ultramontanism with pejorative connotations as a polemical watchword for a reactionary ecclesiological or canonical position within the Catholic Church, papalist and Jesuitical. Parties were formed within the church: reform-oriented positions open to the Enlightenment were …

[German Version] According to the legendary Passio of Theotimus, Margaret was martyred in Antioch under Diocletian (Persecutions of Christians: I). The daughter of a pagan priest, she maintained her faith and her virginity; after struggling with devils and miraculously surviving tortures, she was finally beheaded. She was venerated in the East at an early date, and her cult reached the West in the early Middle Ages. In the late Middle Ages, she gained great popularity as one of the 14 Holy Helpers (Au…

[German Version] I. Church History St. Veronica is a legendary figure, very popular in the late Middle Ages and the Baroque period (feast day Feb 4 ¶ or 27). The basis of her legend is the story of Abgar (Eus. Hist. eccl. I 13), according to which Jesus sent the king of Edessa a miraculous cloth icon with his face imprinted on it. In a later tradition, he handed the icon down to his daughter Beronike. In the West (earliest mention Acts Pil. 7), the legendary Veronica was identified with the hemorrhaging woman in Matt 9:20 par. (starting point already in Eus. Hist. eccl. VII 18) and one of the wom…

[German Version] (Mar 24, 1797, Glade Valley, MD – Sep 12, 1860, Harrisburg, PA). Educated at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) he was ordained in the German Reformed Church in 1820. His revivalist sympathies (Revival/Revival movements: II) led to a division in his Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, congregation, and he was removed from the Reformed Church by its synod in 1828. In 1830 he and his followers formed the Church of God, a restorationist denomination centered in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Rejecting C…

[German Version] (1210/1212, Monsagrati – 1278, Lucca). At the age of 12, Zita became a maid in the household of the Farinelli, which she managed superlatively until her death. Her supposedly incorrupt body became an object of veneration in San Frediano shortly after her death; her cult was approved by the local bishop and in 1696 by the papacy. She is the patron saint of servants and the city of Lucca; her vita dates from the 2nd half of the 14th century. Her feast day is Apr 27. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Sources: ActaSS, April III, 1866, 499–527 MartRom 158f. BHL 2, 1302, no. 9019ff. On Zit…

[German Version] (Jan 9, 1902, Barbastro – Jun 26, 1975, Rome), beatified, became a Catholic priest in 1925 and founded the society of Opus Dei in 1928. He remained its general president until his death and had much to do with the shaping of its characteristic profile. At the center of his work stood the notion of sanctification in everyday life and work, as well as the lay apost…

[German Version] According to Matt 2:1–12, μάγοι/ mágoi from the East came to the place of Jesus' birth in order to pay homage to the newborn king of the Jews. They appear to represent members of the Median-Persian caste of priests, whom the ancient world believed to be endowed with particular astronomical/astrological and prophetic skills. The account is reminiscent of a Midrash and makes use of elements borrowed from the Balaam tradition (Num 24). Pagan belief in Jesus as the Messiah pre-dated Israel's belief. From the three gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh, Origen ( Hom. Gen. 14.3) alr…

[German Version] Incorporating older motif-complexes, the Geneviève legend exists in four 15th- and 16th-century Latin versions and, since the 17th century, has been the popular material of numerous literary treatments. The early medieval countess palatine was falsely condemned for adultery and, along with her newborn child, banished into the wilderness until, having been found six years later by her husband on a hunt, she was able to prove her innocence. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Sources: ActaSS, Apr. 1, 1675, 57 BHL, 5393f. On Geneviève of Brabant: A. Schneider, La légende …

[German Version] (Feb 3, 1887, Schopfheim – Mar 17, 1944, Brandenburg), Catholic priest and Dr.theol. who became secretary general of the Catholic temperance movement in 1915, and co-founded the Weltfriedenswerk vom Heiligen Kreuz in 1917 (World peace ministry of the Holy Cross), as well as the Christkönigsgesellschaft in 1919/1927 (Christ the King society), which he was obliged to relocate from Graz to Meitingen in 1928; once there, he also founded the community of the Sisters of Christ the King.…

[German Version] According to the legendary Passio (c. 500), as a virgin consecrated to Christ she was put to death by the sword, after much torture, in Syracuse during the Diocletian persecution (Persecutions of Christians: I). Her supposed relics came to Metz in 970, whence her cult expanded (feast day Dec 13). The Lucia catacomb and the grave inscription of Euskia, signs of early cultic veneration, were discovered in Syracuse at the end of the 19th century. The figure of Lucia found its way into poetry, popular song, and popular piety. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Sources: Martyrolog…

[German Version] (May 8, 1898, Brezarić, Croatia-Slavonia – Feb 10, 1960, Brezarić). After studying at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, Stepinac was ordained to the priesthood in 1930; in 1934 he was appointed coadjutor and in 1937 archbishop of Zagreb. In the new state of Croatia, he called for cooperation with the Catholic fascist Ustaše (est. in 1941), who would serve as a vehicle of the spread of Catholicism throughout the Balkans, although he condemned their genocide of Serbs and Jews. Convi…

[German Version] born Marie-Joséphine Élisabeth Catez (Jul 18, 1880, Avord – Nov 9, 1906, Dijon), beatified; entered the Carmelites of Dijon in 1901. A number of mystical experiences and the classical spirituality of her order shaped her piety, the chief content of which was vicarious self-sacrifice in seclusion and the mystical indwelling of the Trinity in the soul. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Works: C. de Meester, ed., Oeuvres complètes, 31991; ET: I Have Found God: Complete Works, ed. C. de Meester, trans. A. Kane, 2 vols., 1984 Der Himmel ist in mir, Gesammelte Werke, vol. I, 1994 B…

[German Version] The feast of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian is observed on Oct 15. The veneration of their burial place is attested by a 6th-century church in Soissons, where (according to the legendary Passio) they suffered martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian, after having made shoes for the poor without charge. In the 9th century, relics came to Osnabrück and they became that city's patron saints. Since the High Middle Ages, they have been venerated as the patron saints of shoemakers, tanners, and saddlers. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Sources: ActaSS Oct. XI, 1864, 495–540 Gre…

[German Version] Lourdes, Marian pilgrimage site in southern France. The roots of the pilgrimage are in alleged apparitions of Mary, beginning on Feb 11, 1858, to a poor 14-year-old miller's daughter, Bernadette Soubirous. In the first apparition, in the grotto of Massabielle she saw a girl wearing a white dress and veil, with a blue belt and yellow roses on her feet. The apparitions were repeated during the following three weeks; the silent apparitions ¶ were followed by a second phase, in which she was told to do penance on behalf of sinners. On Feb 25, at the direct…

Since the 15th century, the term  concordat (from Latin  concordare, “to be of one mind”) has denoted an agreement between the papacy or Catholic episcopate and secular authorities concerning a  res mixta (“common concern”). Since G.W. Leibniz, the same term has been applied retrospecively to the agreements ending the Investiture Controversy of the 11th and 12th centuries.In the medieval concordats, the concerns dealt with were largely limited to the right of appointment to episcopal sees and abbeys together with the associated fees demanded b…

1. Introduction The reciprocal but never symmetrical relationship between Church andState in early modern Europe was the result of a historical development that in some respects remained indebted to the political ethics of the New Testament (Rom 13; Rv 13), while in other respects confronting profound changes in both ecclesiastical and secular political institutions, specifically the emergence of the early modern territorial and nation state. At first, the underlying assumption was that the Europe…

1. EinleitungDas wechselseitige, aber nie symmetrische Gegenüber von K.u. S. im nzl. Europa ist das Ergebnis einer histor. Entwicklung, die einerseits an der politischen Ethik des NT (Röm 13; Offb 13) orientiert blieb, die aber andererseits tiefgreifende Veränderungen sowohl der kirchlichen als auch der staatlichen Institutionen, nämlich die Entstehung der nzl. Territorial- und Nationalstaaten, zu bewältigen hatte. Anfänglich war die Vorstellung leitend, dass die europ. Staaten in der Nachfolge des Röm. …