Joseph Knauer (1 December 1764 – 16 May 1844) was great

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of Kladsko from 1808 to 1843 and

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Bishop of Wrocław from 1843 to 1844.

Biography

Childhood and youth

He was born in Czerwony Strumień,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

, into a poor family of cottagers from Czerwony Strumień on 1 December 1764. His parents were Jan Knauer and Teresa Lux. After graduating from elementary school in Międzylesie he continued his education at a Catholic high school in Wroclaw. He earned his living as a chorister and through a private tutor, he could began his studies in philosophy and

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at the

University of Wrocław , ''Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau'' (before 1945) , free_label = Specialty programs , free = , colors = Blue , website uni.wroc.pl The University of Wrocław ( pl, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, U ...

Pastoral work in the county of Kladsko

On 7 March 1789 Knauer was ordained

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, after which he was sent to Międzylesie, where he served as a chaplain. In 1794 he was appointed parish priest of the Marian Shrine in Wambierzyce and in 1814 he was appointed parish priest in Bystrzyca Kłodzka.

Grand Dean of Kladsko

In 1808 while still a priest he was nominated by the

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Frederick William III of Prussia grand dean of the earldom, a position he filled on 16 January 1809 when Archbishop of Prague, Wilhelm Florentin Fürst von Salm appointed him archbishop's

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of the

County of Kladsko The County of Kladsko ( cs, Kladské hrabství, german: Grafschaft Glatz, pl, Hrabstwo kłodzkie) was a historical administrative unit within Bohemia as a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia and later in the Kingdom of Prussia with its capital at Kł ...

. In 1810, the name for the Dean of Klatsko was renamed to Großdechant. Since this was merely a title of honor to which no authority was given, Knauer doubted its purpose. During his bishopric,

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, issued the

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De salute animarum on 16 July 1821 which confirmed the membership of the Kłodzko to the archbishopric of Prague, but also introduced a stronger link between the Deanery of the

Diocese of Wroclaw In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

.Herzig A., M. Ruchniewicz, Dzieje Ziemi Kłodzkiej, Hamburg-Wrocław 2006. p367. and each dean was to become an honorary

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of Wrocław. Knauer was then chosen as priest from Kladsko land. In 1837 the faculty of theology of the University of Wroclaw awarded him with an honorary doctorate. On 27 August 1841 Knauer became a member of the Wroclaw Cathedral's chapter.

Roman Catholic Bishop of Breslau and death

On 6 February 1843

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appointed him bishop of Wroclaw. His

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took place on 23 April 1843 and his episcopal ordination was performed by Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Latussek. Knauer was already very old. During his brief reign he was in conflict with a German national church founded by Fr.

Johannes Ronge Johannes Ronge (16 October 1813 – 26 October 1887) was the principal founder of the New Catholics. A Roman Catholic priest from the region of Upper Silesia in Prussia, he was suspended from the priesthood for his criticisms of the church, and we ...

. He died on 16 May 1844 in Wroclaw, and was buried in the basement of Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Wrocław.

Bibliography

*Pater, Józef, Poczet biskupów wrocławskich , Wrocław 2000, DTSK Silesia, 2000, p. 143, https://books.google.cz/books/about/Poczet_biskupów_wrocławskich.html?id=IEAmAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y&hl=pt-BR. *Herzig A., M. Ruchniewicz, History of the Kłodzko Region, Hamburg-Wroclaw 2006. * Franz Heinrich Reusch: Knauer, Joseph. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 269 f, https://de.m.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Knauer,_Joseph. * The County of Glatz. Volume V. Lüdenscheid 1968. * Staff schematics of the Catholic clergy from the county of Glatz. 1994. * Michael Hirschfeld: Joseph Knauer, Grand Dean of the County of Glatz and Prince-Bishop of Wroclaw. In: AGG-Mitteilungen, Vol. 15 (2016), pp. 1–10.

References

External links

*http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bknauer.html *http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/wroc0.htm * http://www.grafschaft-glatz.de/kultur/kultur17.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Knauer, Joseph 1764 births 1844 deaths People from Kłodzko County People from Prussian Silesia Bishops of Wrocław 19th-century German Roman Catholic bishops