Career
After several years, he was summoned to Rome to act as assistant secretary to the father general of the order, and subsequently was assigned to the American mission. Shortly afterward he organized at Saint Louis, Missouri, a German congregation, which, through his labors, became one of the largest in the country. He also built Saint Joseph"s Church for the use of the German Catholics.
In 1838 he organized the first German congregation outside of Saint Louis at Washington, Franklin County, Missouri, and founded a church.
From Washington he made his way through the wilderness, with compass in hand, to Westphalia, Osage County, where he organized a church and founded a mission. In course of time, he organized congregations and built churches in Rich Fountain in the same county, in Saint Thomas and Jefferson City, in Taos, in Booneville, Cooper County, and in several other places.
His missionary labors extended to Westport and Independence, the extreme western settlements of the state. Foreign the last 24 years of his life, he was principally stationed at Taos, near Jefferson City.
Notwithstanding his advanced age, he continued to perform his functions until the day before his death.