Karl von Haimhausen


Karl von Haimhausen was a German Jesuit theologian and missionary.

Life

On 20 October 1702, he entered the Society of Jesus, and, in 1724, went as a missionary to Chile. He was a professor of theology and for many years rector of the Collegium Maximum at Santiago. Chile having been constituted an independence province of the order in 1624, Father Haimhausen was made provincial procurator, master of novices, and instructor. He acted as confessor to Spanish bishops and the viceroy.
Haimhausen completed the college church in Santiago, and built a novitiate establishment and two houses for spiritual retreats, with churches attached to them. He also promoted local economic and industrial development. Haimhausen founded an arts-and-crafts school at Calera, near Santiago, with assistance from Germany. Here the ateliers of the bell-founder, the watchmaker and the goldsmith, the organ-builder and the furniture maker, and the studios of the painter and sculptor turned out products never before made in Chile.