The Mariannhillers, also known as the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill, are a religious institute of the Catholic Church founded by Dom Franz Pfanner. They were originally a monastery of Trappist monks founded in 1882 by Pfanner, but were later branched off as a separate congregation by decree of the Holy See. The name of the congregation comes from Mariannhill, a suburb near Pinetown in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where the congregation originated.
History
In 1882, Pfanner, then prior of Mariastern Abbey, founded a Trappist monastery in Mariannhill at the invitation of Bishop Jolivet, OMI. It grew rapidly, and by 1885 it was raised to the status of an abbey, with Pfanner elected as its first abbot. It engaged significantly in missionary work, establishing a number of mission stations where priests and brothers taught the native Zulu people to read and trained them in trades and skills such as farming. The missionaries also emphasised learning Zulu and Xhosa, and even developed standard Zulu grammars. In 1892, Pfanner retired, and was succeeded by two abbots: Dom Amandus Schoelzig who died in 1900; then Abbot Gerard Wolpert who died in 1904. In 1904, the abbot of Gethsemani Abbey, Edmond Obrecht, was appointed by the Holy See as administrator of Mariannhill. He studied the compatibility between monastic life and missionary work, submitting his report after three years of study. Following his report, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda directed Bishop William Miller, OMI, the vicar-apostolic of Transvaal, to facilitate the independence of the Mariannhill monks. A general chapter of Mariannhill monks in 1908 under Bishop Miller recommended that the monks be formed into a missionary society loosely-associated with the Trappists. By 1 January 1910, nearly 20,000 persons, mostly adults, were baptized in the 55 churches and chapels scattered throughout the 26 missions and stations. However, in 1909, the Holy See decreed that the monks of Mariannhill would be completely separate from the Trappists. Their new constitutions were approved by Pope Pius X in March 1914, however further development stalled due to the outbreak of World War I. After the conclusion of the war, they held their first general chapter in 1920, when they named themselves the Religious Missionaries of Mariannhill, and elected Adalbero Fleischer as their first superior general. As their religious habit, they adopted a black cassock, paired with a red cincture for priests, black cincture for other clerics, and black belt for brothers. After separation, the Mariannhillers continued to work inSouth Africa, but also established presences in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the United States, England, Canada and Spain. Their generalate is based in Rome. During the Holocaust, Blessed Engelmar Unzeitig, a priest of the congregation, was arrested for preaching against the Third Reich and persecution of Jews. He later died on 2 March 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp, where he was known as the "Angel of Dachau". He was later declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, recognised by Pope Francis as a martyr in January 2020, and beatified on 24 September 2016. His feast day is 2 March. On 10 March 2019, George Kageche Mukua, a priest of the congregation, died as one of the passengers onboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
