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Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer
Image: Photo: Andreas Praefcke · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer

A Moravian baker who became the apostle of Warsaw and Vienna

Rank
Saint
Kind
Priest, Religious
Life
1751 – 1820
Era
19th century
Feast
15 March
Countries
Austria, Poland, Czechia
PolandAustriaCzechia

Life story

Clement Mary Hofbauer, baptised John, was born on 26 December 1751 in Tasovice, in Moravia, now in the Czech Republic. His father died early, so he trained as a baker and worked in a bakery. For a time he lived as a hermit, and then he went to Vienna to study while still earning his living as a baker.

With a companion he travelled to Rome and joined the Redemptorists, and he was ordained a priest in 1785. In 1787 he was sent to Warsaw, where he took charge of the church of St Benno for around twenty years. There he opened a school for poor boys, set up an orphanage and preached regularly to crowds that included many Germans and Poles. His years in Warsaw, a city then under changing political rule, are remembered as a notable chapter in the history of the Redemptorists north of the Alps.

In 1808, under pressure from the Napoleonic authorities, the Redemptorist community in Warsaw was dissolved and he was expelled. He moved to Vienna, where he worked as a confessor and spiritual guide for many people. There he served as spiritual director to the Ursuline nuns and to many intellectuals and artists in the city.

He died on 15 March 1820 in Vienna. He was canonised by Pope Pius X in 1909 and is regarded as one of the patrons of Vienna. The Church keeps his feast on 15 March.

Works and witness

  • Trained as a baker in his youth and for a time lived as a hermit
  • Ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1785
  • Opened a school for poor boys and an orphanage in Warsaw
  • Expelled from Warsaw in 1808 and moved to Vienna
  • Worked as confessor and spiritual guide in Vienna until 1820

Patron of

Vienna

Saints from the same country

Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Wenceslaus, Saint Stanislaus of Kraków

References

  • Martyrologium Romanum
  • Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.