St. Clement Hofbauer, C.Ss.R. (1751-1820)

Today is the Feast of St. Clement Maria Hofbauer (1751-1820), Redemptorist and Patron Saint of Vienna. Born in Moravia to a poor family, his family couldn’t afford to pay for his education, so his vocation was delayed for a few years. In 1785, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a community founded in Italy by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1732. For over twenty years he ministered in Poland until the Redemptorists were expelled from that country. For the last twelve years of his life he worked in Vienna as chaplain to an Ursuline convent. He became a popular preacher and confessor there, He worled closely with college students, many of whom joined the Redemptorists. A contemporary said of him, “I know but three men of superhuman energy, Napoleon, Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer.” He was beatified in 1888 and canonized in 1909.