De Waal, Anton Joseph Johann Maria

DE WAAL, ANTON JOSEPH JOHANN MARIA. - Born at Emmerich on 3 May 1836, died at Rome on 23 Feb. 1917. Ordained a priest at Münster on 11 Oct. 1862, he was sent to teach at the minor seminary at Gaesdonck, the Collegium Augustinianum. On 19 July 1868 he came to Rome and took his doctorate in theology there the following year. From the Collegio S. Maria dell'Anima, where he was chaplain, the rector (antig) called him to the Collegio Teutonico di S. Maria in Campo Santo; he became its pro-rector on 23 Dec. 1872 and rector the following year, an office he held until his death.

He began by renovating the church, the heart of the house, so as then to renew the whole of it; first with the reform of the statute that Pope Pius IX granted by brief of 21 Nov. 1876, then by founding one after another, by means of gifts and bequests, five chaplaincies, and by enlarging the buildings to accommodate an ever-growing number of boarders. Still more important to him meanwhile was the animating spirit of the foundation. He was always intent on investigating the origins and vicissitudes of such institutions in Rome (Das böhmische Pilgerhaus in Rom, Prague 1873; Die Nationalstiftungen des deutschen Volkes in Rom, Frankfurt 1880; Der Campo Santo der Deutschen zu Rom, Freiburg im Br. 1896), on following pilgrims along their way (Die Wallfahrt zu den sieben Haupthirchen Roms, Freiburg im Br. 1870; Des Apostelfürsten glareiche Ruhestätte, Regensburg 1873; Die Katakomben des hl. Callistus, Salzburg 1886; Das heilige Jahr in Rom, Mainz 1900; Ein Besuch im Vatikan, Munich 1913; Die Kirche St. Johannis ante Portam Latinam in Rom, Cologne 1914) and on illustrating the vicissitudes of the Roman Church in the present hour (Gedenkblätter an die Jubelfeier des hl. Vaters, Münster 1869; Erinnerungen an die Romfahrt zum Bischofsbild am Pius IX., Regensburg 1877; Unseres hl. Vaters Papst

Leo XIII. Leben, Münster 1878; 25 Jahre in Rom von 1870 bis 1895, Hamm 1985; Papst Pius X. Lebensbild, Munich 1903; Vom Grab Pius X. zum Throne Benedikts XV., ibid. 1914). He gathered a library for the young men and directed them in the libraries of Rome, especially in the Vatican Library, and in those archives that had become accessible as of 20 June 1879; he drew attention to the monuments and also wrote on the famous sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (Rome 1900); he formed a small museum and, in order to gather the fruits of all these labors, founded in 1887 the periodical Röm. Quartalschrift and later, with A. Baumstark, Oriens Christianus, and undertook excavations at his own expense. In 1892 he obtained permission to explore at S. Sebastiano the so-called Platonia, where he had the good fortune in 1893 to find the inscription in honor of a. Quirinus (La Platonia ossia il sepolcro della via Appia, Rome 1892; Die Apostelfrucht ad Catacumbas an der via Appia, Freiburg 1894). He then succeeded, again at his own expense, still in 1915, in obtaining from the Commission of Sacred Archaeology, of which he had become a member, permission to extend the researches beneath the church (Gli scavi sul pavimento della basilica di S. Sebastiano sulla via Appia, in Röm. Quartalschr., 29 [1915]), rejoicing that the chaplains of his Camposanto, p. Styger and O. Fasiolo, had succeeded in discovering the famous Memoria Apostolorum. As a guide for pilgrims, he wrote the Rompilger (1st ed., Freiburg im Br. 1888, 12th ed., ibid. 1925) and the Roma sacra (Munich 1905). With Christian charity he helped all who came from beyond the Alps. He gathered artists, concerned himself with the Geselleneverein, founded in 1870 the Leseverein to promote culture, gave young women a home in the Marienheim (1887), helped poor women with the Liebfrauenverein (1874), was a member of the conferences of St. Vincent, took part in the founding of the hospital of the nuns of the S. Croce (1877) and on his priestly jubilee (1912) thought of the old and the infirm, devoting all his gifts to the erection of the St. Antoniusheim. For his organizations he wrote various plays, while for a wider public his numerous stories were intended, such as Valeria (Regensburg 1885) and the very well-known Katakombenbilder (1891); he always concerned himself with the care of souls and promoted with great zeal the cult of the martyrs, for which he offered his house as headquarters to the Cultores of the Collegium cultorum martyrum, which he presided over for many years. His affection for the Holy See took on a heroic aspect when, on the night of 13 July 1881, he accompanied with his chaplains the body of Pius IX to S. Lorenzo, thus opening the procession. Simple and sincere, severe but full of self-denial and disinterested, of a rich mind and a great heart, he enjoyed much esteem, won the friendship of distinguished personages besides the devoted affection of his pupils. Proof of this is found, among other things, in the two volumes dedicated to him for his priestly jubilee (Röm. Quartalschrift, Supplementheft, 19 and 20), the honors bestowed on him by emperors and princes, and his appointment as domestic prelate (1875) and apostolic protonotary (1900). The Collegio Teutonico del Campo Santo, which jealously guards his tomb, will remain his monument.

Paolo Kunzler