Simon Saenderl

Background

He was born on September 30, 1800 in Malgerzdorf, Lower Bavaria (now Germany).

Career

He was ordained in 1825 and entered in 1829 the order of the Redemptorists. In the latter year the Rev. Frederick Rese, then vicar general at Cincinnati, visited Vienna and persuaded the Redemptorists to send missionaries supported by the Leopoldine Foundation to his diocese. Father Saenderl, as superior, with two other priests and three lay brothers left Vienna in 1832 and arrived at Cincinnati on July 17.

In the autumn of 1832 he was sent to Green Bay, Wis. , where he dedicated a church on Nov. 1 and for a year ministered to the French inhabitants and to the Menominee Indians, with whom he had considerable success. The plan had been to establish a Redemptorist center at Green Bay but, finding economic conditions unfavorable, the Redemptorists left there, Saenderl going as missionary to the Ottawa Indians at Arbre Croche, Mich. , where he studied Indian languages and worked on a dictionary.

He officiated at this mission from 1833 to 1835, and again from 1836 to 1839. In the interim, with the new superior, Joseph Prost, he again visited Green Bay, walking for nine miles over the ice in order to reach there. His desire for a community life led him to leave Arbre Croche; his superior, however, sent him in 1841 to Rochester, N. Y. , to minister to the German Catholics, and after two years there he was at Pittsburgh for a few months.

After 1843 he became involved in strife with his superiors concerning a murderer, whom he attended to the scaffold. He finally left for Toronto, where he had a small mission, and later ministered at Monroe, Mich. , and several neighboring towns. Becoming involved in new controversies, however, he was in 1848 suspended from the order.

In 1852, after visits to the Holy Land and Austria, he joined the Trappist order, professed on Easter, 1853, and was made master of German novices. After joining the Trappists he shut himself from the world in their convent at Gethsemane, Ky. , where he passed his remaining years.

Achievements

• He arrived to Cincinnati, as a superior and Roman Catholic missionary, and ministered to the French inhabitants and to the Menominee Indians, with whom he had considerable success. Later Saenderl left the Redemptorists to enter a Trappist monastery at Gethsemane, Kentucky. He continued his mission to the Ottawa Indians at Arbre Croche, Mich. , studied Indian languages and worked on a dictionary. Totlly, on coming to America he was too inexperienced for his responsibilities in establishing the order in a new country but is important for his position as the first superior.

Personality

He was a quiet, simple man, and, though inclined to controversy, was of a saintly personal character, and devoted to his mission work.

Connections

influencer:

Frederick Rese

coworker:

Joseph Prost