Wittmann, Patritius

WITTMANN, PATRITIUS. - Journalist, b. in Ellwangen (Württemberg) on 4 January 1818, d. in Munich on 3 October 1883.

He began his journalistic activity, entirely dedicated to the strenuous defense of the Catholic idea in Germany, by taking part in the editing of the review Sion, of which he was editor-in-chief in 1841. He subsequently founded and directed the Stadtund Landbote, the Neue Augsburger Zeitung and the Sendosten für Piusvereine, the association he promoted to unite Bavarian Catholics in a league. He also laid the foundations of the Society of St. Boniface (Bonifatiusverein), which constituted a precursor of Catholic Action. A man of exceptional industriousness, a lecturer as well as a foremost journalist, he gave rise to a very great number of works and institutions with the most diverse programs. He also concerned himself with male and female vocations, promoting the foundation of a hospital congregation of Sisters of Charity. He wrote an Allgemeine Geschichte der katholischen Missionen (2 vols., 1846 and 1850), the first of its kind in Germany, preceded by a volume entitled Die Herrlichkeit der kath. Kirche in ihren Missionen seit der Glaubensspaltung (2 vols., Augsburg 1841), an eloquent and moving exaltation of the greatness of the Church as teacher of truth in the world.

Renzo U. Montini