ZOBEL, JOHANN AMBROS. - Redemptorist, b. at Schattenwald (Tyrol) on 7 Dec. 1815, d. at Luxembourg on 6 Sept. 1893.
From 1843, the year of his priestly ordination, for exactly fifty years he preached in Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg, while at the same time devoting himself to spreading the Congregation to which he belonged. Among other things, he was responsible for the foundation of the houses at Bochum and Luxembourg.
A sacred orator of singular eloquence, he loved to address the popular classes, especially through penitential missions and catechism for adults, promoting devotion to the Holy Family of Nazareth. Indeed, his small volume of prayers and meditations (Die hl. Familie) went through some ten editions between 1853 and 1900 and is still widely circulated in German-speaking countries. Other writings of piety and several volumes of sermons by him have likewise been published (cf. A. de Meulemeester, Bibl. gén. des écrivains rédemptristes, II, Lovanio 1935, pp. 479-80). A particularly glorious page in Z.'s life was his vigorous defence of the rights of the Church against the Bismarckian Kulturkampf, conducted with such apostolic zeal as to cost him expulsion from the German Reich.