Nov 4, 2021 | NEWS
Today, on the liturgical commemoration of all the departed faithful, we Sisters of Mary Immaculate gather in this Church of Our Lady in Piasek Island , which is very dear to us. In the side chapel with the stained glass window of St. Maximilian Kolbe, there are the mortal remains of our Founder. He was buried there in April 1969, after he was exhumed from the cemetery of St. Wawrzyniec, where he rested from 1944 in the quarters of the Marian Sisters. This transfer happened at the request of Cardinal Bolesław Kominek, who considered Father John Schneider a priest of merit for the Wrocław church.
With the church and parish of Our Lady in the Piasek Island, servant of God, Fr. John Schneider worked for three years – from 1851 to 1854. Bishop Melchior von Diepenbrock sent him on 9 September 1851 as a vicar for the priestly ministry in this place. Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1851 had about 1,500 believers. The parish temple was built in the years 1334-1425, in the mid-nineteenth century it had a baroque decor. The monastery of the Augustinian Fathers adjoined the temple. In 1810, the monks had to leave the monastery and church, which was taken over by the Wrocław diocese. Inside the church, there was a large pulpit and richly decorated altars and stalls, which were irretrievably destroyed during the defense of Wrocław in 1945. Our Founder is remembered by the walls of this temple, the baptismal font and the figures of angels under the ribs of the vault.
Fr. John Schneider first worked at the side of Fr. Franciszek Hoffmann, who was formally the parish priest in the years 1848-1852, and from November 12, 1852, Fr. Józef Wick. From 1848, the vicar was Fr. Robetr Spiske, with whom our Founder established a friendly relationship.
From 1848, the association of Catholic Married Women under the invocation of St. Hedwig was established. It included about 3,000 members from all over Wrocław. Most of them were teachers. Thanks to the good formation provided by Fr. Robert Spisky, these women had a good understanding of the plight of the poor people in the city. They took care of sick people, prisoners and neglected children. From this association emerged in 1959 the female congregation of the Sisters of St. Hedwig of the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, based on the rule of St. Augustine.
The service of the Servant of God, Father John Schneider in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Piasek Island and contacts with the above-mentioned priests were an important contribution to the development of his pastoral and social formation. They prepared him for the tasks of an apostle of mercy and a religious giver. In the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he gained the opinion of an excellent preacher, confessor and organizer.
Father John Schneider did not enjoy good health. Difficult material conditions in childhood and poor nutrition in adolescence influenced his physical condition. In July 1853, he was forced to stop his pastoral work and go to a four-week treatment.
The successor of Cardinal Melchior von Diepenbrock, Bishop Henryk Förster, who learned about his pastoral talents, especially in the spiritual care of girls and servants, appointed him on April 3, 1854 as an administrator of the parish of St. Matthias.
Sr. M. Elżbieta Cińcio
Oct 27, 2021 | NEWS
The beginning of November for many of us is a special time of remembrance of the dead. We visit cemeteries, light candles, pray for the souls of the dead. Each of us certainly has a loved one “on the other side”. Usually there are people who gave us some goodness during their earthly life. I think we can celebrate this important time in at least one more way. On the Feast of All Saints, remembering our departed, let’s try to look for their traces of holiness in our lives. Let us look in our lives for the good that our deceased relatives and our sisters have done for us, and which still lives in us. May our prayer for the dead also be thanksgiving for the traces of holiness they have left on earth.
M.M. Sybilla
Oct 27, 2021 | NEWS
The words of today’s Gospel will show us the strength of the growth of the mustard grain.
Such a grain of mustard seed became the priestly ordination of the Servant of God, Father John Schneider, which he received through the ministry of Cardinal Melchior von Diepenbrocka.
The shepherd of the Wrocław diocese from the mid-19th century wanted a religious revival in the Silesian region. He wanted to build the Kingdom of God on the testimony of the lives of people consecrated to God. In his sermon before ordaining them to the priesthood, he encouraged the neo-priests of the year of ordination in 1849, that, following the example of St. John the Baptist, with their purity and fidelity to their priestly vocation, confirmed the Word of God that they preached in the pulpits.
Cardinal Diepenbrock greatly appreciated his priests. He wanted them to multiply their spiritual goods together with religious people. For his ministry in Silesia, deprived of all monasteries after the Napoleonic Wars, Borromeo Sisters, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Hospital Franciscan Sisters, Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul, now the Daughters of Charity, and on St. Anne, the Franciscans settled again.
Servant of God Fr. John Schneider celebrated his first mass after his ordination on July 2, 1849. Before the reform of the liturgical calendar, this day was the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He did not celebrate his first day Holy Mass in his home parish in Rudziczce, because the parish priest, Father Antoni Hoffmann, his benefactor, died suddenly in 1847, so before John Schneider joined the seminary the parish in Rudziczce was then managed by an administrator, unknown to him.
At the site of the first Mass he chose the Marian chapel behind the presbytery of the Wrocław cathedral. From the main altar of the chapel, the Mother of God looked at the neo-presbyter as she rose to heaven. The ceremony was very modest. It was attended by the relatives, the father of the first officer and his two sisters with their families. Sermon during Holy Mass was delivered by his compatriot five years older, ordained, Fr. John Klein, vicar from Ścinawy.
The rector of the Wrocław Alumnate, Father Józef Sauer, came from the parish of St. Nicholas in Wiązów, and asked the Order of the Diocese to give his family parish a good chaplain. And the fate fell on fr. John. In the mid-nineteenth century, the parish of Wiązów had about 3,500 believers. In the town, many girls worked in a cigar factory. They often fell into all sorts of addictions and bad associations. Father John Schneider gathered them when they had free time, on Saturdays and Sundays, in the parish hall. He took care of their fair entertainment and deepened their religious and moral knowledge. He also took in a large number of maidservants who worked on estates in fifteen rural settlements belonging to the parish of Wiązów. Young girls financially dependent on their employers, including a large group of young ladies, were at risk of demoralization. Fr. John Schneider wanted to sensitize them to the matters of sacramental life, cultivating prayer and respecting one’s own girlhood.
Together with his parish priest, Father Francis Elpelt, with whom he understood well, he met regularly with parents and guardians of school children. He spoke with them about the moral dangers to which young people grow up. He collaborated with the local conductor of the parish choir, encouraging talented young singers to participate in rehearsals and the preparation of services in the parish church.
After two years of work in Wiązów, Fr. John Schneider was transferred on September 9, 1851. as a vicar to work in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Piasek Island in Wrocław
Sr.M. Elżbieta Cińcio
Oct 25, 2021 | NEWS
The canonical visitation of the Superior General to the Germany Province is planned for the entire month of November. Recently, covid restrictions have changed a lot the plans for visits to the Congregation. We hope that this time it will be possible to meet every community, every sister and visit our co-workers without any problems. It is a special time for the Superior General and for the Sisters in the Germany Province. We encourage all the sisters of the Congregation and our friends to pray for the intentions of the Sisters of the Germany Province and for a blessed time of visitation.
Generalate SMI
Oct 23, 2021 | HISTORY, NEWS
In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus will command his disciples; Let your loins be girded, and let your torches be lit. And you, be like those who are waiting for your master when he returns from the wedding feast, to open to him immediately when he comes and shakes.
Servant of God Fr. John Schneider wanted to prepare as best as possible to meet Christ when he received the sacrament of priesthood. After passing the matriculation examination at the Carolinum in Nysa, which took place on September 20, 1845, he went to study in Wrocław with 13 classmates. Only one of the high school graduates chose medical studies, the rest enrolled in theology.
In the time of our Founder, if a candidate for the priesthood wanted to enter a theological seminary, he had to first, as a layperson, graduate from theological studies. The University of Wrocław had a faculty of Catholic theology with 199 students, of course only men, and a faculty of Evangelical theology with 72 students in the academic year 1845/46. The students lived in private stations. John Schneider rented a room in Ostrów Tumski next to the church of St. Krzyża, in the tenement house at No. 9. He suffered a lot from cold. He lived with a friend in an unburned room. To warm the stove a bit, they put a candle stump in it. When the owner of the lodgings noticed this, she started to burn them in the stove at her own expense.
For three years, from 1845 to 1848, he studied theology and served as a volunteer in the 11th Grenadier Regiment in Wrocław. He used the experience gained in the army during the revolution that broke out on March 6, 1848. in Wrocław on the wave of the spring of peoples and solidarity with social movements in France and Austria. In Wrocław, there were bloody clashes with the revolutionary-minded inhabitants of the city. The speeches were left-wing and anti-clerical. During the riots, revolutionaries attacked the apartments of members of the cathedral chapter in Ostrów Tumski. It was then that John Schneider organized a team of fellow students, leading it himself, and defended the endangered canons of Wrocław against the attackers. His brave attitude won him the kindness of the members of the Wrocław chapter and his colleagues awarded him the title of “generalissimo”.
After three years of studies at the University of Wrocław, the Servant of God entered the seminary in October 1848, which at that time was called the Alumnate and was located in the place where the Archdiocese Library building stands today. Candidates for the priesthood were trained in pastoral theology, liturgy and asceticism for 9 months.
The superiors of the Students gave Father John the following opinion: “Big, healthy. sufficient talent, satisfactory zeal, satisfactory behavior, diligent character, compatible – with good will, sermons also satisfactory, catechism satisfactory ”.
During his stay in the Aluminae, John Schneider received a clerical attire, tonsure and four lower priestly orders: ostiarate, language, exorcist and acolyte, and three higher ones: sub deaconate, diaconate and presbyterate. He was ordained to the deacon by auxiliary Bishop Daniel Latusska on June 21, 1849 in the Church of St. Cross. Along with him, 38 alumni from the Archdiocese of Wrocław and 4 from the Archdiocese of Olomouc were ordained.
He was ordained a priest by the bishop of the Archdiocese of Wrocław, Prince Bishop Melchior von Diepenbrock on July 1, 1849 in the Church of St. Cross. The day of priestly ordination of Fr. John Schneider considered it the most important in his life. It was a day for him on which, after several years of preparation, he met his Master in the sacrament of priesthood. He was prepared for this solemn moment by difficult events, marked by material poverty, requiring great denial and faithfulness to his own life vocation.
How do I perceive the difficult events that I face in my own life? Do they prepare me to meet Christ?
Sr.M. Elżbieta Cińcio
Oct 19, 2021 | HISTORY, NEWS
At the Holy Mass that will be celebrated later, the priest, while praying the collective, will pray to God on behalf of all of us: May your grace always precede us and always accompany us, prompting our zeal to do good deeds.
The first place in everyone’s life where we have the opportunity to learn to be zealous and do good deeds is the family home. Such was also the house of the Servant of God Father John Schneider.
Our Founder was born on January 11, 1824 in Mieszkowice in the Prudnik region. Two days later he was baptized in the local branch church of St. George. He was given the names John Jerzy, which were borne by his father and his paternal grandfather. Father and godmother came from Mieszkowice, in addition, he also had another godmother from his mother Katarina’s home village, i.e. from Łąka Prudnicka.
In the Schneider house, two more sisters were born after John, so a family of five was the environment that shaped the attitude of our hero, sensitive to human poverty and hurrying to save people standing on the chasm of moral evil.
Today, on the outskirts of Mieszkowice, we will no longer see Father John’s family home. At this point, my Congregation placed a white statue of Our Lady Immaculate on a pedestal.
Catholics in Mieszkowice constituted a religious minority in relation to the local Protestants. The Catholic primary school was located in the neighboring town of Rudziczka, which also had a parish church. So the Servant of God, from the age of six, traveled two and a half kilometers each way to school every day, until he finished seven classes. He regularly served at the Holy Mass. in the church in Mieszkowice. He had a dream that was humanly impossible to realize, he wanted to serve God as a priest. It was associated with obtaining secondary and higher education. And his parents couldn’t afford to send their son to school.
Divine Providence put on his way the noble priest serving in Rudziczka, Father Antoni Hoffmann, who was concerned with helping children to get education in accordance with their abilities and fulfill their bold dreams. During his parish priesthood, he helped three boys to obtain ordination. One of them was John Schneider. The parish priest persuaded his parents to send their son to Nysa, to Carolinum and offered material help. It was a high school with traditions, graduates of which were, among others, the king of Poland, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, son of King John III – Jakub. Our Founder spent eight years of education in Nysa on diligent learning, experiencing material shortages and serving as an altar boy in the school church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. John did not have a watch and he would wake up by feeling at night to punctually at 5.00, stand at the foot of the altar and serve the Father Director of the Carolinum for the Holy Mass. More than once he stood at night for several hours with the church door closed, and the city night guard sent him back with the words: go back home , because it is only one o’clock in the morning. For the service of an altar boy he received 1 talara annually, which at that time was a payment for a farm worker for one working week.
He took the secondary school-leaving examination in 1845. It was written on the matriculation certificate that John Schneider devoted himself to all subjects with great diligence, and in what he did, you could see punctuality, a love of order and diligence. He received excellent grades in religion and mathematics. Unfortunately, his mother could not enjoy her son’s successes, because she had passed away to the Father’s House a year earlier.
John Schneider set off for Wrocław with his high school diploma in hand.
In the moment of reflection, let us ask ourselves the following questions:
What is left of my teenage dreams? Who supported me in realizing my noble desires?
Sr.M. Elżbieta Cińcio
