Rev. Msgr. Frederick G. Holweck

Frederick George Holweck (born Friedrich Georg Holweck; 1856–1927) was a German-American Roman Catholic priest and scholar, hagiographer and church historian.

He was a priest in St. Louis, from 1889 to 1892 as assistant pastor at the St. Francis de Sales Church, and from 1892 to 1903 as pastor at the St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church, in a temporary structure, for a mostly German congregation. He returned to the St. Francis de Sales Church in 1903 as pastor, in a time of reconstruction after the damage by the tornado of 1896. The church was completed in 1908.

His 1892 Freiburg dissertation collected 940 Marian feasts and customs.[9] He supported the St Louis Catholic Historical Society, as an original researcher into the local history of the diocese and in other fields. His manuscripts are held by Saint Louis University.

At the end of his life he was honored with the title Monsignor and appointment as domestic prelate to the Pope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_George_Holweck

US Census 1900

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3DH-YC5

Source for Emigration

"Die Chronik der wiedervereinigten Dörfer Mingolsheim und Langenbrücken" S. 37 ISBN: 978-3-89735-861-4

Birth: Dec. 29, 1856, Germany Death: Feb. 15, 1927 Saint Louis St. Louis City Missouri, USA

NOTED PIONEER GERMAN IMMIGRANT ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST and CHURCH BUILDER. MSGR. FREDERICK G. HOLWECK, V.G., was one of the remarkable career immigrant ethnic priests who emigrated to the USA to work among newly-arrived immigrants--and built a number of thriving ethnic parishes, among them the historic Gothic ST. FRANCIS DeSALES CHURCH in South St. Louis.

Msgr. Holweck, born in Germany, emigrated with his parents to the St. Louis area. He studied at the German Roman Catholic Seminary in Milwaukee, WI and returned to St. Louis on his ordination on June 27, 1880, where he went on to found St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in the city's famed "Hill" Neighborhood (which closed recently in 2005).

He was named Pastor of St. Francis DeSales Church in the early 1890's by Archbishop John J. Kain, and charged with building a new church for the thriving immigrant parish. He selected architects Engelbert Seibertz from Germany and Victor Klutho,Sr. and Otto Ranft from St. Louis to pattern the new Gothic church on St. Paul's in Berlin, Germany (now demolished). The bilingual Holweck could speak nearly 15 European languagues fluently, and had received extensive advanced theological education. He eventually was appointed Vicar-General for the Archdiocese--second in command to Archbishops Peter Richard Kenrick, John Kain, and John Joseph (later Cardinal) Glennon.

St. Francis DeSales Church is his monument--featuring a 309-foot Gothic steeple and 75-foot high interior Gothic vaulting, as well as ornate stained glass by Emil Frei Studios of St. Louis and Munich. Statuary and altars were made by the Friederich Hackner Co. of LaCrosse, WI, the Kaletta Statuary Co. of St. Louis, and Prof. Max Schneiderhahn of St. Louis. Altar ware and tabernacle were fabricated by the Mueller (Kaiser) Plating Co. of St. Louis.

Msgr. Holweck served as Pastor of St. Francis DeSales until his death in 1927. During his pastoral administration, St. Francis DeSales became the foremost German-American parish in the City. He also served the Archdiocese extensively as Vicar-General for the German-speaking Catholics.

After a Solemn High Funeral Mass celebrated by Archbishop John J. Glennon, he was buried on the Priests Lot at Old S.S. Peter and Paul Cemetery. His ornate cross and chalice headstone, fabricated by Speh Monument Company of St. Louis, has the Latin epitaph, "Pertransit Benefaciendo." (ACTS 10)

Inscription: Pioneer Immigrant German Priest who built the present St. Francis DeSales German Roman Catholic Church in St. Louis, MO. (listed on the National Register of Historic Places).

Note: Pioneer German Immigrant Priest--- Archdiocese of St. Louis

Source: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10525980