HERIBERT HOLZAPFEL Historia Ordinis
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! HERIBERT HOLZAPFEL OFM HISTORY OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER Original German edition Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens, Freiburg 1909 Latin edition Manuale Historiae Ordinis fratrum Minorum, Friburgi Brisgoviae, Herder 1909 Translated into English by ANTONINE TIBESAR OFM and GERVASE BRINKMANN OFM Introduction by NOEL MUSCAT OFM Pro Manuscripto 1942 Digitized 2010 ! Heribert Holzapfel: History of the Franciscan Order ______________________________________________________________________________________ © Fr. Noel Muscat ofm http://www.i-tau.org/franstudies/ Franciscan Texts 2009 Reproduced by kind permission of Fr. Maximilian Wagner ofm Minister Provincial Franciscan Province of St. Anthony of Padua, Bavaria, Germany This electronic edition can be freely downloaded and is not for sale 2 Heribert Holzapfel: History of the Franciscan Order ______________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION One hundred years ago, in 1909, the Franciscan historian brother Heribert Holzapfel published the Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens. He composed this manual of Franciscan history when Dionysius Schüler was Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor (1903-1911), on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Order (1209-1909). Heribert Holzapfel was born in Neckarsulm in northern Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart, Germany, on 22nd November 1868, feast day of Saint Cecilia. His baptismal name was Joseph. His father, a shoemaker died very early. His pious mother raised her five children solidly and religiously. As a young student Heribert attended the Gymnasium in Landshut. He finished it as a Franciscan student after 7 years. In the meantime he had been accepted in the Order of Friars Minor in the Franciscan Province of Bavaria, and entered the Novitiate house at Dietfurt, 38 kilometres west of Regensburg, on 1st October 1884. After the Gymnasium he was called for military service in the second infantry regiment in Munich as a volunteer for one year. Heribert then continued to study philosophy and theology in Tölz and Munich. He was ordained in 1891 in the cathedral of Freising by Archbishop Antonius von Thoma. After a short time of pastoral work in the friries of Mühldorf and Dingolfing he became a rector of the seminary in Landshut for three years. He was then guardian and director of the friary of Pfreim. In 1897 he began teaching theology for the Franciscan students in Tölz and then in Munich, where he continued to live after 1900. On 8th November 1902, feast day of Blessed John Duns Scotus, brother Heribert acquired his doctorate in theology. In the Bavarian Province brother Heribert occupied the post of master of clerics. For 12 years he belonged to the definitory, or council, of the Province. He was also responsible for canonical visitations of various provinces in the Order, including the provinces of Tyrol, Austria, Thuringia and Silesia. On 1st October 1934 Heribert celebrated his golden jubilee in the Franciscan Order. For more than half of his life brother Heribert lived in the Franziskanerkloster of St. Anna in Munich. All the friars who were ordained after 1897 had been formed by him. He was very active as a priest, confessor, retreat director, and he entered into dialogue with atheists and communists. Brother Heribert specialized in mediaeval studies. He published works on St. Dominic and the Rosary, the Manual on the History of the Franciscan Order, a study on the Portiuncula Indulgence, a historical study about the disputation regarding Rites in China, to name just a few of his many publications. From 1912 to 1918 brother Heribert was Minister Provincial of the Bavarian Province. It was a difficult period, because of the Great European War. Heribert took care to open the friaries for the care of wounded soldiers. Heribert Holzapfel died on 26th May 1936 in the clinic of Kopernicus house in Frauenburg, from an embolus after a car accident on the way to visit the bishop of Ermland. At that time Heribert was travelling from Munich to Berlin in order to start the canonical visitation of the Province of Silesia. He was buried on 30th May, vigil of Pentecost, after a funeral led by Cardinal Faulhaber. 3 Heribert Holzapfel: History of the Franciscan Order ______________________________________________________________________________________ The Necrologium of the Bavarian Province states that the best way to describe brother Heribert is that of the words of St. Bonaventure: cum scientia pietas pulcherrima societas (with the science of piety there is a most beautiful company). Brother Heribert was a pious man, and he was also a man of science. The aim of what he wanted in life was that of striving to attain what the Church states in the antiphon of the divine office of the feast of St. Francis: non soli vivere, sed aliis proficere vult Dei zelo ductus (he did not live for himself, but wanted to strive for the good of others, led by zeal for God). The moment of the publication of Holzapfel’s Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens, translated into Latin with the title Manuale Historiae Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, was one of the most fruitful in the study of Franciscan history. In 1877 the Minister General Bernardino dal Vago da Portogruaro had founded the College of San Bonaventura at Quaracchi, Florence, whose principal aim was the preparation of the critical edition of the works of Saint Bonaventure. The task was undertaken by a group of Franciscan scholars led by Fedele da Fanna (†1881), and then by Ignatius Jeiler (†1904). The eleven-volume edition of the Opera omnia was published in 1882-1902 at Quaracchi. The same scholars also took charge of the publication of the writings of Saint Francis and those of the great medieval Franciscan masters like Alexander of Hales, John Duns Scotus and Bernardine of Siena. Since 1908, just one year before Holzapfel’s volume was published, they have been publishing the Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, with the aim of furthering historical research in Franciscan history. The College of Quaracchi was transferred to Grottaferrata in 1971 and is now in Saint Isidore’s Irish College in Rome. The aim of the Manual, as stated by the author, was that of providing a comprehensive history of the Order of Friars Minor, in order to strengthen the sense of unity and religious discipline of the Order. One should read these words against the historical background of events unfolding in the Order of Friars Minor in 1909. On 4th October 1897, solemnity of Saint Francis, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) had published the Constitution Felicitate quadam, which marked the unification of the four branches of the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance (Observants, Reformed, Recollects, Alcantarines) into one family, henceforth to be known simply as Ordo Fratrum Minorum, Order of Friars Minor. This unification had not been easy and was bound to find resistance from within the inner ranks of the Order, particularly by the group of ex-Reformed friars. The other Franciscan families of the First Order, namely the Friars Minor Conventuals and the Friars Minor Capuchins, were not at all happy with the turn of events, since they regarded the name Order of Friars Minor without any further additions as a usurpation by one particular religious family of the official name of the Order founded by Saint Francis. Although the strong will of Leo XIII and of the general government of the Friars Minor succeeded in getting the unification through, problems cropped up once more during the pontificate of Saint Pius X (1903-1914). This time the protests regarding the name Order of Friars Minor arrived at the proper channels in the Roman Curia, and particularly in the Congregation for Regulars, headed by the Capuchin Cardinal José de Calasanz Vives y Tutò. The year 1909 marked the 700th anniversary of the approval of the first Franciscan Rule by Pope Innocent III in 1209. For the occasion the German Franciscan historian Hebert Holzapfel OFM presented his Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens, 4 Heribert Holzapfel: History of the Franciscan Order ______________________________________________________________________________________ published with the permission of the Minister General Dionysius Schüler OFM on 23rd March 1909 and the imprimatur of the ecclesiastical authorities on 16th April of the same year. The volume was a milestone in presenting a comprehensive history of the Franciscan family, but it was met with criticism, probably within the framework of the turn of events at that particular moment. In fact, it was exactly on 4th October 1909 that Pope Pius X published the Apostolic Letter Septimo iam, in order to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the approval of the Franciscan Forma Vitae, but also to state that, since it was becoming clear that there were protests regarding the name Order of Friars Minor being given to one Franciscan family, he henceforth willed that the Order would be known as Order of Friars Minor “of the Leonine Union”. This name was hardly ever used in official Church documents, but it left a legacy of bitterness and a polemical atmosphere among the three families of the First Franciscan Order. Holzapfel’s Manual of Franciscan History, however, was never meant to provide a polemical reading of Franciscan history seen from the eyes of the Observant tradition. Unfortunately it was thought that Holzapfel was out to prove that the Friars Minor were the true descendents of the original Order founded by Saint Francis. An attentive reading of the volume would show that Holzapfel was a genuine historian, although he could not refrain from being influenced by the polemical atmosphere in the Franciscan family during the early decades of the 20th century. Holzapfel’s Manual became a classic textbook of Franciscan history and was immediately translated into Latin for use in the classrooms of Franciscan student houses in the Order of Friars Minor. It was followed by another documented history of the early period of the Order by the Capuchin Gratien de Paris, Histoire de la Fondation et de l’Évolution de l’Ordre des Fréres Mineurs, Paris 1928.