CIPRIANO da EGGOLSHERM. — Capuchin friar of the Bavarian province, born Francesco Saverio Fröhlich on 12 March 1853, ordained priest on 19 September 1877, died in Munich on 6 February 1931.
In 1889, at the convent of Ehrenbreitstein, he began an apostolate for the care of abandoned or needy boys and girls, which developed under the name Seraphisches Liebeswerk. Under the direction of the superiors of his Order, with the assistance of the Third Order Sisters of St Francis and the collaboration of members of the Franciscan Third Order, its houses multiplied throughout Germany, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Austria, Hungary, Trentino and America. It has provided assistance to more than 120,000 children, both in its 46 institutions and by placing them in private families. C. directed periodicals and published pamphlets on the Christian restoration of the family, the protection of children, and the spread of Marian and Franciscan spirituality. He preached incessantly, organised pilgrimages to the famous shrine of Altötting, and established houses for retreats and spiritual exercises. To defend young women, he founded the Marianischer Mädchenschutzverein, from which in 1895 in Munich there arose the Katholische Bahnhofsmision for the protection of young women during railway journeys. With the pamphlet Die «Innere Mission» der deutschen Protestanten (Passau 1894), he spurred Catholic public opinion to establish, in 1897, the well-known organisation for social works, the Deutscher Caritasverband.