HOFBAUER, CLEMENT MARY, ST.

Redemptorist priest; b. Tasswitz, Moravia, Dec. 26, 1751; d. Vienna, Austria, March 15, 1820. He was the youngest of 12 children of Paul, a grazier and butcher, and Mary (Steer) Hofbauer (German equivalent of Dvořák, the original family name). His father's death (1757) caused him to defer his early desire for the priesthood and to work as a baker until 1780, except for a period when he lived as a hermit. He changed his baptismal name John to Clement Mary. Financial help from three elderly Viennese ladies enabled him to prepare for the priesthood at the University of Vienna (1780–84). He and Thaddeus Hübl went to Rome, joined the recently founded redemptorists (The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer) in 1784, and were ordained (1785). The two priests were then sent to Austria. Since josephinism made it impossible to establish a house in Vienna, Hofbauer went to Warsaw (1787–1808) where he engaged in pastoral work, opened schools, introduced the order into Switzerland and southern Germany, and acted as its vicar-general for the regions north of the Alps. When napoleon i caused him to leave Warsaw, he returned to Vienna for the remainder of his life. He worked for a time in the Franciscan church, served as chaplain to the Ursulines and as pastor of St. Ursula's Church from 1813, and established the Redemptorists in the city (1819). He gained renown for his influence over the populace, students, learned persons, artists, and writers. Especially notable was his influence over leading Romanticists such as Karl von Schlegel, Adam Müller, and their numerous friends. Hofbauer won many converts and effected a spiritual rejuvenation of the capital and of Austria. He was called the apostle of Vienna and was named patron saint of the city by pius x (1914). He was beatified Jan. 29, 1888, and canonized May 20, 1909.

Feast: March 15.

Bibliography: j. hofer, St. Clement Maria Hofbauer, tr. j. b. haas (New York 1926). j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheueux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56) 3:333–342. e. hosp, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65); suppl., Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil: Dokumente und kommentare, ed. h. s. brechter, pt. 1 (1966) 5:413–414. e. dudel, Klemens Hofbauer (Bonn 1970). k. fleischmann, Klemens Maria Hofbauer: sein Leben und seine Zeit (Graz 1988). j. heinzmann, Preaching the Gospel Anew: Saint Clement Maria Hofbauer, tr. b.j. mcgrade (Liguori, Mo. 1998).

[d. j. sharrock]