favourite name they gave me was velik hedschim, the great doctor. They brought their sick from all over the country, transporting them on horseback, ox cart or sleigh. Those who came from Dalmatia and Herzegovina sometimes spent several days on the road before they knocked on our door. Sick people were transported to Mariastern from as far as Austrian Croatia! When I traveled through Bosnia I always made sure I carried my homeopathic kit.”
His own health, as we have noticed, had never been robust. After all, it was for reasons of ill health that he had to interrupt his seminary studies and renounce his wish to go to the North American missions. As parish priest in Haselstauden he had purchased a burial site because he expected to die young. Finally, he had entered Mariawald precisely to prepare for death. Even though, God had other plans. Fr. Franciscus, as his fellow monks at Mariawald called him, recovered, thriving, as he said, on the frugal Trappist diet and work in the fresh air. After four years he was judged fit to make a new foundation in the Balkans. He did remain vulnerable, though, for the rest of his life. He could not travel at sea without becoming seasick. He contracted malaria in the Roman campagna and in Croatia and Bosnia frequently suffered from bouts of fever. Personal health issues led him to take a keen interest in the sufferings of others and in natural cures. Having only little confidence in school medicine, he became a staunch advocate of homeopathy. In Bosnia, he was able to help many people who could not afford a doctor any more than the Trappists could. In time, he made the acquaintance of Pastor Sebastian Kneipp of Woerishofen (Germany), for whose natural health methods he had the highest regard.
There were other reasons why the Prior of Mariastern created a stir. He himself once overheard a Turk say to another: “You can learn more from these monks than in Vienna. I have spent several days in Vienna but did not see so many extraordinary things as I see here.” Another time a Turkish friend asked quite seriously if the Prior’s head was not bursting from all the things it absorbed and remembered. But more astounding than his vast knowledge and various skills was the sight of him working with his own hands. People could not trust their eyes when they spied him bending over a laundry tub with his sleeves rolled up, or, armed with chopper, axe or pick, helping to lay a road. “A Gospodin (boss, lord) does not work!” they objected. “A Gospodin has others to work for him!”
Abbot Francis:
“The sheer size and beauty of our monastery (compared with the hovels in which they themselves lived) impressed people, especially when the sun dipped our many windows in the bright light reflected across the valley. Strangers believed that Mariastern was the residence of a great and powerful Gospodin. Perhaps it hoarded a precious and inaccessible treasure! Sometimes it happened that when these people wanted to know from our hired hands where I was, they did not believe when they were told that I was the one working with the Brothers or Bosnian labourers. “A ti radis (you work also)?’ The Turks do not think highly of manual labour particularly when it means working with soil or doing some menial job … – Later, when the Pasha had become more approachable he also began to wonder about our lifestyle – work, diet, celibacy, etc. Once he asked me quite seriously: ‘What profit will all this be to you when you die?’ I answered him with another question: ‘Look at your self. You now cling to wives and money! When you die, you will have to part with everything you possess. What reward will you have then? We are not attached to anything in this world but renounce many goods before we die. Therefore we die easy.’ He preferred not to answer but stared into space. Only God knows what went on in his mind.”
Thunderclouds over the Balkans
Serbs and Turks continued to clash. Bosnia was in a state of permanent turmoil or emergency. The Catholic Church in Banjaluka had been burnt down, not so much out of hatred for religion but from resentment against the hated Pasha. Mariastern was spared and for the time being its monks were safe. For one, they had a powerful protector:
“St. Joseph holds his hand over us, but we also do our part to avoid dangerous situations. For example, when we drive the long distance to the border to meet new postulants we always take armed guards with us. Until now no one has come to harm.”
The frequent political skirmishes were one thing to worry about; malaria was another. The Prior went several weeks at a time to Meran or Bozen in Tyrol to recuperate, but even then he was busy with soliciting vocations. At one time he recruited twelve candidates. He instructed them to wait for him in Agram on their way to Mariastern; he would meet them to take them safely across the border. By the late 1870’s, Mariastern had developed to such an extent that it could have become an abbey even then.
1877 was a turbulent year for the Balkans. Russia declared war on the Turks while Bulgaria was made a Principality and placed under Russian protection. Though Mariastern was not directly affected by these power shifts, the general political unrest hovered like a dark cloud also over the monastery. But thanks to God’s blessing and St. Joseph’s continued protection the monks carried it off well. As their institutions flourished, their reputation spread. Self-reliance and sustainability were top priorities. Several additions were made to the monastery complex: a bone (and flint) mill to make meal for fodder and manure; a new kiln in a location where better clay for brickmaking was available; a row of six houses, built as shelters for farmhands and timber men along the road to the woods. The Trappists of Mariastern were the first to plant the potato, known in Bosnia by its Frankish name “Krummbirn”. (crooked pear). Occasionally, they received aid from outside, for example when Vienna sent – at a hint from the Prior – a shipment of young fruit trees: “compliments of the ministry of foreign affairs”.
Abbot Francis:
“I don’t know where I took the time to oversee so many departments and projects! Again and again it happened that I remembered only at lunch that I had missed breakfast or that I had lunch only in the evening. My correspondence grew out of all proportion, its sheer volume awe-inspiring. Thank God, we had vocations but we also lost quite a few men to malaria. Death snatched the best. Two young managers, pillars of the monastery both of them, were unexpectedly taken from us! One suffered a brain stroke as a result of overextension; the other drowned when the fully loaded ferry on which he was traveling, was swept off course by the raging Vrbas. The rope snapped and the ferry – wagon, horses and men – was swept down-stream. The animals swam ashore and, with God’s help, superhuman effort and a lot of luck two Brothers were also able to save themselves.”
Second Visitation
The next visitator to come to Mariastern was Abbot Jerome Guenat, the new Trappist procurator general in Rome, successor to Francis Regis. He chided the Prior for what he called “too many new-fangled ideas”. Why did he give his monks whole rye bread besides the usual black variety? Why did he have two brands of beer brewed, small beer and the common one? Such innovations were undesirable. The hermitage, too, which he had built in the woods above the monastery, was a violation of the strict Trappist observance!
Abbot Francis:
“I had introduced the extra bread and beer for no other reason than the better health of my hard working men, while the hermitage was only fifteen minutes away from the monastery. It was meant for monks who did not have time for their eight-day spiritual exercises during the summer. It consisted of a room for prayer and a bedroom which, during winter, could be heated by a small stove. Every occupant had to chop his own firewood. A small garden was attached to the house to provide exercise to those who needed it. Regular meals had to be fetched from the monastery kitchen. No ‘hermit’ was allowed to leave the premises. I myself stayed at the hermitage one winter for an eightday retreat.”
Visitator Jerome had another objection: Brothers ought not to be allowed to take off their habits when they had malaria. However, before he left Mariastern, even Jerome had words of recognition and encouragement: “Continue, beloved Brothers! You need not fear that God will abandon this house. On the contrary, he will continue to shower his blessings upon it.”
Military Occupation
The peace accord reached between Russia and Turkey in March 1878 filled the western powers with apprehension. Vienna had hoped that with the decline of the Ottoman Empire the bigger part of Bosnia and Herzegovina would fall to Austria. But that did not happen. England