Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (August 24, 1613 – May 20, 1658) was a German

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

, a founder of a religious community, and a visionary and writer of prophecies.

Early life

Bartholomew Holzhauser was born in Laugna, into the family of Leonard and Catherine Holzhauser, who were poor, pious, and honest people. Leonard and Catherine had eleven children, including Bartholomew. Leonard Holzhauser practiced as a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

. Young Bartholomew developed a great love for

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

s and an earnest desire to enter the sacred ministry. At

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

, he was admitted to a free school for poor boys, earning his living by going from door to door singing and

begging Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public pla ...

. He fell sick of an

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

raging at that time. After his recovery, Bartholomew went home and for a time helped his father at work.

Education

He then continued his studies at

Neuburg an der Donau Neuburg an der Donau (Central Bavarian: ''Neiburg an da Donau'') is a town which is the capital of the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in the state of Bavaria in Germany. Divisions The municipality has 16 divisions: * Altmannstetten * Bergen, Neu ...

and

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...

, with the aid of kind friends and the Jesuits in particular. His teachers were unanimous in praising his talents, his piety, and his modesty, and entertained great hopes of his usefulness in the service of the Church. On July 9, 1636, he received the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

, and then studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, in which he merited the

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

on May 11, 1639. He was ordained into the priesthood by the Bishop of

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese ...

, and said his first

Holy Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Christ ...

on Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 1639 in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, at Ingolstadt.

Priestly life

He exercised his priestly functions at this place for some time and was soon much sought after as a

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.licentiate of

on June 14, 1640. On August 1 of the same year, he came into the

Archdiocese of Salzburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg ( la, Archidioecesis Salisburgensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese ...

, and was made

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

and

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of Tittmoning. On February 2, 1642, he became pastor of St John's at Leoggenthal, in the county of

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

, at the behest of the Bishop of Chiemsee. In the spring of 1655, at the invitation of Archbishop

Johann Philipp von Schönborn Johann Philipp von Schönborn (6 August 1605 – 12 February 1673) was the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz (1647–1673), the Bishop of Würzburg (1642–1673), and the Bishop of Worms (1663–1673). Life Johann Philipp was born in ...

, he went to

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

where he was soon appointed pastor at Bingen on the Rhine, and in 1657, dean of the district of Algesheim. He died at Bingen in the spring of 1658 at age 44. On the occasion of the second centenary of his death, a celebration was held at Bingen in the presence of the Bishop of Mainz. The location of his remains was again found and in 1880, a new monument was erected over his grave at the parish church. He was declared

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Founder of the Bartholomites

Bartholomew Holzhauser founded the ''Bartholomites'', called ''United Brethren'' or officially ''Institutum clericorum sæcularium in communi viventium'', also receiving the designation Communists in the aftermath of the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Because

Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

had become lukewarm among the faithful, and morals and discipline had relaxed not only in the laity but also in the clergy, he decided to establish a new religious society as a remedy. This would become a congregation known as the Apostolic Union of Secular Priests. This order would lead an apostolic life in the community and become models of priestly perfection and zealous leaders of the people. Their principal task was to educate in the seminaries. The members of the secular congregation were expected to live in the seminaries, or in groups of two or three in the parishes, and to follow a set routine of daily prayers and exercises. Funds were to be in common, and all female servants were to be dismissed. No vows were to be taken, but a simple promise of obedience to the superior was to be made, confirmed by an oath. Father Holzhauser first tried to establish such a community in the diocese of Eichstätt, but did not succeed. At Tittmoning, encouraged by John Christopher von Lichtenstein, the Bishop of Chiemsee, a suffragan and principal adviser of the

Archbishop of Salzburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg ( la, Archidioecesis Salisburgensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese ...

, he had made a good beginning. Priests joined from the diocese of Chiemsee and from other dioceses. Holzhauser was a visionary, and made his visions public by presenting them in 1646 to Emperor Ferdinand III and to Duke

Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria Maximilian I (17 April 157327 September 1651), occasionally called the Great, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, ruled as Duke of Bavaria from 1597. His reign was marked by the Thirty Years' War during which he obtained the title of a Prince ...

. Ludwig Clarus published these visions, along with a commentary showing their partial fulfillment, in German, in 1849. One of the prophetic visions concerned

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Holzhauser foresaw the execution of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

and the complete ruin of the Church in that kingdom. He also foresaw that after the Holy Sacrifice had ceased for 120 years, England would be converted and do more for religion than it had done after its first conversion. This seems to have been fulfilled for the prohibition of the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

under penalty of capital punishment was enacted in 1658 and partially recalled in 1778. He also wrote a remarkable work on the last book of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

, the

Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

or the Apocalypse, which today is still held in high regard by Roman Catholics. He interpreted the book of the Apocalypse as follows: The seven stars and the seven candlesticks seen by St John signify seven periods of the history of the Church, from its foundation to its consummation at the final judgment. To these periods correspond the seven churches of

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, the seven days of the Mosaic record of creation, the seven ages before Christ, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Since, he claimed, all life is developed in seven stages, so God has fixed seven periods for regeneration. The central features of this apocalyptic commentary concerned the strong ruler, or the

Grand Monarch Great king, and the equivalent in many languages, refers to historical titles of certain monarchs, suggesting an elevated status among the host of kings and princes. This title is most usually associated with the ''shahanshah'' (shah of shahs, ...

, and the Holy Pope, a favorite subject of medieval prophecy, as well as the division of church history into seven periods. Holzhauser died, aged 44, at Bingen. At the time of his death, the community had members at Chiemsee,

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the ...

, Eichstätt,

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

, and

. The institute, however, made many enemies. At the end of the eighteenth century it became extinct, after having had 1595 members at its height.

Bibliography

Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser wrote the following religious works: * Constitutiones et exercitia spiritualia Clericorum sæcularium in communi viventium, Cologne, 1662; Würzburg, 1669, Rome, 1680, Mainz, 1782. These constitutions, used in many seminaries during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were of value also for the spread of primary education among the people. * Epistola fundamentalis, 1644. It was written for the consolation and encouragement of his disciples in their heavy trials, when enemies tried to destroy the community. * De humilitate. * Tractatus de discretione spiritum. * Documenta pro iis qui conversioni hæreticorum et infidelium se impendunt. * Visiones: This work contains the ten visions of Holzhauser: ** De septem animalibus ** De unâ monarchiâ et duabus sedibus ** De s. Michaele archangelo et sedibus ** De ecclesiâ sponsâ Dei ** De propriâ personâ Jesu ** De egressione Danubii ** De verme grandi ** De conversione Germaniæ ** Exprobratio vitiorum, exprobratio impœnitentiæ, quomodo revertatur? ** De duabus personis * Interpretatio Apocalypsis usque ad cap. XV, v. 5, 1784, Bamberg. It includes the seven ages of the Church: ** the status seminativus or the first age of the Church, from Christ and the Apostles to Pope Linus and Emperor Nero, ** the status irrigativus or the second age of the Church, the days of persecution, ** the status illuminativus or the third age of the Church, from Pope Sylvester to Leo III, ** the status pacifitcus or the fourth age of the Church from Leo III to Leo X, ** the status afflictionis et purgativus or the fifth age of the Church, from Leo X to a strong ruler or grand monarch and a holy pope, ** the status consolationis of the sixth age of the Church, from that holy pope to the birth of Antichrist, ** the status desolationis are the seventh and last age of the Church, from the Antichrist to the end of the world.

Literature

*Arneth, Michael, "Seelsorge am Seelsorger: Bartholomäus Holzhauser, 1613-1658, Leben und Werk," Trier: Burghard, 1993. (German)

References

;Attribution *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holzhauser, Bartholomew 1613 births 1658 deaths 17th-century German Roman Catholic priests Christian apocalyptic writings People from Dillingen (district)