then, are candidates fit for a Trappist monastery. God does not exclude anyone from his love who takes his hand and allows God’s all-powerful grace to draw him to heaven.”
According to Fr. Francis, even a farmer’s boy with no knowledge of Latin but a good voice could, after a while, be ordained a priest. It was also possible for a skilful artisan or capable priest to work in the monastery or in the parish ministry, but neither the artisan nor the priest would be admitted if they made such deployment the condition for entering.
Prior Francis was convinced that “every lay Brother preaches the Good News by his witness of silence, simplicity, prayer, fasting, modesty and contentment”. He reminded serious candidates that “Trappists prayed much for sinners, atheists and scoffers, so that these might have a change of heart. A candidate, who recognized the grace he was given to become a Trappist, did more good than one who donated a thousand ducats. But he should also realize that ultimately he chose that life for the good of his soul and not for the good of the monastery: “He does not do us a favour by joining us; rather God does him a favour by accepting him.”
German-speaking readers had probably never read anything quite as frank or straightforward about the Trappist vocation as this brochure. No wonder that “Are you a Chimney Sweep?” got snapped up like hotcakes”, its wit and humour becoming the talk of the day. Even Count Andrassy in Vienna felt that the title by which he had once called the monk from Vorarlberg fitted him like no other: he was “a bouncer”!
IX.
Opposition from all Sides
Denouncement. Defamation. Rejection
“If it’s free, it can’t be good”. Prior Francis knew the truth of this dictum from personal experience. Sooner or later anyone who was fervently committed to God’s cause was waylaid by the Evil One. Whoever laboured unselfishly for the benefit of others had a spoke put in his wheels. It was something he had learned, but he also found out the truth of another saying, that “man proposes and God disposes”, or in the words of our Portuguese proverb: “God writes straight also – or precisely – with crooked lines”!
God prefers to act big. Giving open-handedly and not counting the cost, he puts great trust in human beings, especially when he accepts the voluntary suffering of one who wishes to closely follow his Son.
Prior Francis shared in the Saviour’s suffering when he resolved to patiently face opposition from fellow Trappists and Franciscans. Though Bishop Vuicic had supported him at first, he very soon turned enemy, complaining bitterly against him in Rome. His charges were: “The Prior absents himself far too often from the monastery. He undertakes too many journeys. Unlike a true monastic, he is a perpetuum mobile, (constantly on the move)!”
In January 1875, Vuicic opposed the Prior’s plan for another monastery (Mariannaberg) because he had not yet consolidated the first. On the whole, he wrote, the Trappists and Franciscans did not get along. Personally, he had serious reservations against the monks taking care of orphans whose guidance and safety (read: personal integrity) they could not guarantee. It would be much better to order all the Trappists back to “Prussia”. (Mariawald)!
These charges were so appalling and farfetched that Fr. Franz took steps to refute them in Rome and at the Austrian consulate. Eventually, he abandoned his plans for a second foundation in Bosnia. Encouraged by his superiors in Rome, he concentrated his energies on the consolidation of Mariastern. But in the long run his resistance to the Franciscan monopoly bore fruit. To anticipate our story a little: After the Austrian occupation of 1878 and under considerable pressure from the imperial court and the papal nuncio in Vienna, Propaganda ordered Bishop Vuicic to be reconciled with Mariastern and support its canonical erection as an autonomous monastery. Relations between the Franciscans and Prior Francis, though still strained and reserved, improved further when Vuicic was relieved of his responsibilities in the same year, 1878.
Abbot Francis:
“I have often asked myself what a saint like Francis de Sales or Vincent de Paul or one like them would have done in my situation. Would they have let themselves be deprived of everything and also offered their cloaks when their tunics were taken? Perhaps they would not have got themselves involved in a quarrel or court case in the first place. I admit that I too was at fault. If I had been a saint like Francis or Vincent I would not have been so impatient. I wanted everything done at once – the second monastery completed before the first. However, the Franciscans did not want it so fast. Now, when fast and slow, people or oxen, meet, they are bound to collide! At that time (late 1870 s) I was so fiery that if I had had to create the world, I would have done it in one day rather than six and so I would have come to blows even with the Good Lord himself … During the Austrian occupation we realized in what a precarious situation we would have been at Mariannaberg had we gone ahead with it. God protected us by preventing it. We never stationed more than a few Brothers there and them only for security reasons.”
Wherever the Trappist Francis Pfanner lived – in Mariawald, Mariastern, Mariannhill or Emaus – chopping wood was his favourite pastime.
To further strengthen the ties with the Franciscans and keep the peace, Mariastern agreed to the following “rules of conduct”:
to refrain from interfering with diocesan affairs;
to concentrate on contemplation and manual labour;
not to build a monastery close to another religious community or institution;
to live in peace and harmony with all ethnic groups;
to recognize the pastoral rights of the Franciscans over the Mariastern orphanage;
to cede the supervision of the institutes of the Sisters of Mercy in Banjaluka to the local ordinary (Franciscan);
to ask no alms from Bosnian people, “as this would be against the interests of a mendicant Order like the Franciscans”.
Begging in London
Jump-starting Mariastern, the Prior’s undertakings were made possible mainly by the success Br. Zacharias, its chief begging monk, had in Germany and Austria. However, much more money than he could collect was needed to realize the plans the Prior entertained. Even the many letters and articles of solicitation Fr. Franz wrote did not bring in the required sums. Those sums were in fact not much more than a drop in the ocean. What was needed was a big donation or two. The Prior mused: Wasn’t there money in England? Should he not try his luck in the country which in the past had sent the first missionaries to mainland Europe? It might be worth a try. From the Austrian Embassy he obtained valuable letters of reference to Cardinal Manning of London as well as to several Lords and Ladies. Armed with these, he set out in December 1875 with customary aplomb, if with some trepidation on account of the spectre of becoming seasick in the Channel and his lack of English.
The following is his inimitable account:
“I was surprised to find only tricksters and thieves at Bishopsgate Terminal but no one to show me the way to the nearest Catholic Church. Finally, an honest gentleman came up. He spoke French and called a policeman. A coach was stopped and took me to the German Church. There, the faithful were happy to see me, for now they could count on having the three traditional Masses before the main service. Briefly, this is how I celebrated Christmas in England.”
At the German Church the “beggar” from Bosnia met a priest from Muenster in Westphalia (Germany) who had fled from the
