Joseph von Klinkowström (30 August 1813 – 30 March 1876) was a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary and by birth, member of the Prussian Klinkowström noble family.

Biography

Joseph was born as the eldest son of

Friedrich August von Klinkowström Friedrich August von Klinkowström (31 August 1778 – 4 April 1835) was a German artist, author and teacher from an old Duchy of Pomerania, Pomeranian noble family. Biography Klinkowström was born in Loissin, Ludwigsburg in Swedish Po ...

and his wife, Friederike Louise Charlotte von Mengershausen. He received his early education at his father's school, and in 1831 entered the Jesuit

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. After completing his novitiate and the study of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and philosophy, he taught for three years in the lower forms of the Gymnasium. He made his theology in Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1846. On his return to Graz he taught rhetoric, and subsequently, during the confusion caused by the

revolution of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

, held the position of tutor in a noble

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

n family. When, two years later, a popular missionary movement began in Germany, Klinkowström was allotted to the German missionaries and proved himself to be efficient. He continued his efforts in Austria in 1852, and his sermons in Vienna led the emperor to express a desire to see him. The result of the interview was the establishment of a Jesuit community in Vienna. Here from 1859 to 1872, in which year his strength began to fail, Klinkowström continued his preaching activity.

Sources

1813 births 1876 deaths 19th-century Austrian Jesuits Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Austria Pomeranian nobility Austrian people of Prussian descent {{Austria-bio-stub