Frederick George Holweck
{{Short description|German-American Roman Catholic parish priest and scholar (1856–1927)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox clergy
| honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend Monsignor
| image = Frederick George Holweck (1856–1927).png
| birth_name = Friedrich Georg Holweck
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|12|29}}
| birth_place= Wiesloch, Baden
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1927|02|15|1856|12|29}}
| death_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
| burial_place = S. S. Peter & Paul Cemetery,
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
| religion = Catholic
| church = Catholic Church
| ordained = {{date|1880-06-27|MDY}}
}}
Frederick George Holweck (born Friedrich Georg Holweck; December 29, 1856 – February 15, 1927)[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10525980/frederick-g.-holweck findagrave.com] was a German-American Catholic parish priest and scholar, hagiographer and church historian. Monsignor Holweck contributed some articles to the Catholic Encyclopedia.[https://books.google.com/books?id=oZQuAAAAYAAJ&q=W.H.+Grattan+Flood&pg=PA10 "Holwech, Right Reverend Monsignor Canon Josef", The Catholic Encyclopedia and Its Makers, Encyclopedia Press, Incorporated, 1917, p. 79]{{PD-notice}}
As rector of St. Francis de Sales Church at St. Louis, Missouri, he was tasked with rebuilding the church after the original was destroyed by the Great St. Louis Tornado of 1896. The second edifice, incorporating many of the characteristics of German ecclesiastical architecture is familiarly known as "the Cathedral of South St. Louis." He also served as vicar-general of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Life
Frederick George Holweck was born in Wiesloch, Baden, on December 29, 1856, the son of Sebastian and Mary E. Holweck. He was educated at the gymnasia in Freiburg and Karlsruhe.[https://books.google.com/books?id=H6AZAAAAYAAJ&dq=Frederick+George+Holweck&pg=PA79 "Holweck, Frederick George", The Catholic Encyclopedia and Its Makers, Encyclopedia Press, 1917, p. 79] Because of the Kulturkampf in Germany, he emigrated with his parents to the St. Louis area. Holweck studied at the German Roman Catholic Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was ordained on June 27, 1880. Father Holweck served as an assistant in Jefferson City before returning to St. Louis, where he was assigned as assistant pastor at the Church of St. Francis de Sales in South St. Louis. The parish had been founded in the 1860s to serve the German immigrant community.[http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/cathedral-of-south-st-louis-undergoes-rebirth/article_8010f8dc-fa5f-5045-8b54-4c9f9061c840.html Jonsson, Greg. "Cathedral of south St. Louis undergoes rebirth", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 2010]
File:Saint Francis de Sales Oratory.jpg
Holweck could speak nearly 15 European languages fluently.[http://archives.slu.edu/agents/349?agent_type=agent_person "Biographical Notes", Archives, St. Louis University] From 1896 to 1892, he served as rector in Riviere aux Vases, Missouri. In May 1892, Holweck was appointed to the new St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in the city's famed "Hill" Neighborhood. A temporary frame church building, in honor of St. Aloysius, was dedicated on 16 October 1892 as well as a school building. Masses were largely in German. Around the turn of the century, numerous Italian immigrants arrived in the district. In 1903, Rev. Holweck invited Rev. Caesar Spigardi of St. Charles Borromeo Church in St. Charles, Missouri, to organize a mission for Italians in the St. Aloysius building. This mission raised funds to organize the St. Ambrose parish, which served primarily the recent Lombard immigrants, who were able to move into their own temporary building by year's end.[http://preservationresearch.com/2005/12/preserving-st-aloysius-gonzaga-church/ Allen, Michael. "Preserving St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church", Preservation Research Office, 18 December 2005]
In 1903, Holweck returned to St. Francis De Sales Church as pastor. As the church had been destroyed by the tornado of 1896,{{cite web|url=http://stlouis.genealogyvillage.com/earlychurches.htm |title=Early (pre 1900) St. Louis Places of Worship |publisher=stlouis.genealogyvillage.com |access-date=7 June 2014}} he was charged with building a new one to meet the needs of the growing parish.{{cite web |url=http://www.institute-christ-king.org/stlouis/stlouis-about/ |title=About § St. Francis de Sales Oratory, St. Louis Latin Mass |publisher=Institute-christ-king.org |date=26 November 1908 |access-date=19 October 2011 |archive-date=September 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907192723/http://www.institute-christ-king.org/stlouis/stlouis-about/ |url-status=dead }} The building was completed in 1908.
At the end of his life he was awarded the title Monsignor,{{cite web |url=http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/dogtown/pj-book/pj-28-53.html |title=Dogtown History of Cheltenham and St. James Parish by P.J. O'Connor |publisher=Webster.edu |access-date=19 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218103042/http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/dogtown/pj-book/pj-28-53.html |archive-date=18 February 2012 |url-status=dead }} an honorary appointment as domestic prelate to the Pope, and he served as Vicar-General for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Monsignor Holweck served as pastor of St. Francis de Sales until his death in 1927. He was buried in the Priests Lot at S. S. Peter & Paul Cemetery.
Works
Holweck had received an extensive advanced theological education. His 1892 Freiburg dissertation collected 940 Marian feasts and customs.John Francis Baldovin, Maxwell E. Johnson, Between Memory and Hope (2000), p. 400. He supported the St Louis Catholic Historical Society, as an original researcher into the local history of the diocese and in other fields.John Paul Cadden, The Historiography of the American Catholic Church, 1785–1943 (1978), p. 110. Holweck was a contributor to the Catholic Encyclopedia. His manuscripts are held by Saint Louis University.
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=QtIQAAAAYAAJ Fasti Mariani] sive Calendarium Festorum Sancte.Mariae Virginis Deiparae Mcmoriis Historicis Illustratum. Auctore F. G. Holweck (Archdiocese of St. Louis) Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1892. (Googlebook in Latin original) Reviewed critically in
: - UK Jesuit periodical [https://books.google.com/books?id=OGtIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA288 This Month Vol 76 October 1892] and another contemporary
: - US periodical [https://books.google.com/books?id=cHwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA235 American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume]
- Historical archives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (1918)
- {{cite book|author=Holweck, F. G.|title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints|place=St. Louis, MO|publisher=B. Herder Book Co.|year=1924|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000holw/page/n9/mode/2up}}
- The seal of confession: A drama in five acts. Adapted from Father Spillman's story "A victim to the seal of confession." (1924)
- Calendarium liturgicum festorum dei et dei matris Mariae (1925), edition of the Fasti Mariani
- The American Martyrology
References
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Category:19th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:American Roman Catholic priests
Category:Christian hagiographers
Category:Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia