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Parishpriest,ecclesiastical writer, and founder of areligious community; born 24 Aug., 1613, at Laugna in theDiocese of Augsburg,Bavaria; died 20 May, 1658. He was one of the eleven children of Leonard and Catherine Holzhauser — poor,pious, and honest people. His father plied the trade of a shoemaker, and was barely able to support hisfamily. Young Holzhauser developed a greatlove for books and an earnest desire to enter the sacred ministry. At Augsburg he was admitted to a freeschool for poor boys, earning his living by singing at the doors and begging. He fell sick of an epidemic then raging, and after his recovery went home and for a time helped hisfather at work. Then, with the aid of kind friends and especially of theJesuits, he continued his studies at Neuburg and Ingolstadt. His teachers were unanimous in praising his talents, hispiety, and modesty, and entertained great hopes of his usefulness for theChurch. On 9 July, 1636, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, then studiedtheology, in which he merited the baccalaureate on 11 May, 1639. He wasordainedpriest by theBishop ofEichstätt, and said his first Mass on Pentecost Sunday (12 June, 1639) in the church of Our Lady of Victory atIngolstadt. He exercised hispriestly functions at this place for some time, and was soon much sought after as a confessor. In the meantime he attended the lectures at theuniversity and was declared licentiate oftheology on 14 June, 1640. On 1 August of the same year he came into theArchdiocese of Salzburg, and was made dean andpastor of Tittmoning. On 2 Feb., 1642, theBishop of Chiemsee called him aspastor to St. John's at Leukenthal (then Leoggenthal) in the Tyrol.
In the spring of 1655, on the invitation ofArchbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn, he went toMainz and was soon appointedpastor at Bingen on the Rhine, and in 1657 dean of the district of Algesheim. Here he died at the age of only forty-five, after a life well spent in the service ofGod and for the welfare of his people and of his fellow-priests. Many wonderful things are related of him, extraordinary cures and the like. Lately a petition has been drawn up atRome for hiscanonization. On the occasion of the second centenary of his death a great celebration was held at Bingen in the presence ofBishop von Ketteler ofMainz; his remains were again found, and in 1880 a new monument was erected over his grave at theparish church.
He founded theBartholomites (United Brethren), or, as they are officially called, the "Institutum clericorum sæcularium in communi viventium", also called Communists. Great and many were the evils caused by theThirty Years War among thefaithful. Faith had become lukewarm;morals and discipline had relaxed not only in thelaity but also in theclergy. In consequence Holzhauser, even in the early days of hisuniversity course, had been planning the formation of a congregation ofsecular priests, who would lead an apostolic life in community and become models ofpriestly perfection andzealous leaders of the people. Such as excelled inscience and virtue he intended to place as teachers in theseminaries toeducate a new generation ofpriests willing to use all their energy for thehonour ofGod and thesalvation ofsouls. Thepriests thuseducated he would induce to join the community. The members were expected to live in theseminaries, or in twos or threes in theparishes, and to follow out a set routine of dailyprayers and exercises. Funds were to be in common, and allfemale servants were to be discarded. Novows were to be taken, but a simple promise of obedience to the superior was to be made, confirmed by anoath. Holzhauser tried to establish such a community in the Diocese of Eichstätt, but did not succeed, though severalpriests were found quite willing to join him. At Tittmoning, encouraged by John Christopher von Lichtenstein,Bishop of Chiemsee, suffragan and principal adviser of theArchbishop ofSalzburg, he made a good beginning. His first colleagues were George Kettner, apriest of notedpiety who held abenefice atIngolstadt, George Gündel,pastor of Mailing nearIngolstadt, and Michael Rottmayer,pastor of Leinting. Priests joined from the Diocese of Chiemsee and from otherdioceses. At the death of Holzhauser the community had members at Chiemsee,Salzburg, Freising,Eichstätt,Würzburg, andMainz.
In 1643 Holzhauser took control of theseminary atSalzburg, and placed it under the direction of Rottmayer; in 1649 it was transferred to Ingolstadt. The Seminary ofSt. Kilian and later many otherseminaries were entrusted to the care of the community. In 1653 Dr. Rieger, one of the members, set out forRome to obtainpapal sanction for the institute and its rule.Pope Innocent X lauded the work, but gave no formalapprobation. This was given 7 June, 1680, byInnocent XI at the request of Emperor Leopold I. After this the community spread inPoland,Sicily, andSpain. InRome a house had been assigned them by thepope, but it was not long occupied. The institute had many enemies and did not meet with the appreciation it deserved, so that at the end of the eighteenth century it became extinct, after having had 1595 members (according to the necrology preserved in the archives of thecathedral ofMainz). After Holzhauser, the general directors of the institute were George Gündel, died 1666; Michael Rottmayer, died 1681; Stephen Hofer, died 1693; John Appel, died 1700; Sebastian Wittmann, died 1725; Anthony Kippel, died 1730; Matthew Kerschel, died 1742; Lambert Gastel, died 1769; John Christopher Hunold, died 1770. During the last century the wish was frequently expressed that Holzhauser's institute might be revived or similar unions formed.
This commentary, which Holzhauser wrote at Leukenthal, exists in severalmanuscript copies; printed in 1784 atBamberg; in German in 1849 atRatisbon by Clarus; in 1850 atVienna. Holzhauser'sidea is: The seven stars and the seven candlesticks seen by St. John signify seven periods of thehistory of the Church from its foundation to its consummation at the final judgment. To these periods correspond the seven churches ofAsia Minor, the seven days of theMosaic record of creation, the seven ages before Christ, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Since, he says, all life is developed in seven stages, soGod has fixed seven periods for regeneration. The first age of theChurch,
The central features of this commentary — the strong ruler and theholypope, a favourite subject ofmedieval prophecy, as well as the division ofchurch history into seven periods; theidea that the Holy Roman Empire is to be the last on earth, and Chosroes, the Persian king, the predecessor ofAntichrist; the special significance of the 1260 days ofApocalypse 12:6, are borrowed from Joachim di Fiore (died 1202; cf. "Hist. pol. Blätter," CXVIII, 142). Still the commentary is considered an instructive and edifying book.
HURTER,Nomenctator, I, 432; HUNDHAUSEN inKirchenlex.; Studien u. Mittheil. aus dem Benediktiner Orden, XXIII, 403; life by GADUEL, Germ. by HEINRICH (Mainz, 1862); HEIMBUCHER,Orden u. Kongreg. der kath. Kirche, II (Paderborn, 1908), 452.
APA citation.Mershman, F.(1910).Bartholomew Holzhauser. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07439b.htm
MLA citation.Mershman, Francis."Bartholomew Holzhauser."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 7.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07439b.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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