**PFANNER, FRANZ** — Born Wendelin on 21 September 1825 at Langen near Bregenz, died at the mission station of Emmaus on 24 May 1909. Ordained priest in 1850, he served as parish priest at Haselstauden, resigning due to illness and moving to Agram (Croatia) as confessor to nuns. After a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem (1863), he entered the Trappists at Maërevald (Rhineland). In 1869, he founded the monastery of Mariastern near Banja Luka in Bosnia, transforming it into a center of culture and evangelization in that Muslim country.
In 1880, he left with 31 brethren for the Apostolic Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope, where the foundation at Dunbrody failed due to lack of water. On 27 November 1882, he transferred to the Vicariate of Natal. On 27 December 1882, Fr. P. celebrated Mass for the first time at Mariannhill. From their arrival, the Trappists began evangelizing the Zulus. In 1885, Mariannhill was established as an abbey, with Fr. P. as its first abbot. From the abbey emerged the Congregation of the Missionary Religious of Mariannhill. In the same year, he founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Most Precious Blood (v.). In 1892, Abbot P. was suspended from his abbatial duties for a year due to calumnies, after which he resigned from his dignity. He founded the mission station of Emmaus, where he lived as a simple missionary until his death.