Page 186 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

paotoral charge nt New Germany ( hlaryhiii) in Waterloo County.
Aceording to Spetz, Fr. Holzer arrivd iii New Germeny in the late
f~ll of 1W; it was he wha arranged for the coinpletion 01 a new ehureh
tliere and ior its dedicatiûn on the first Sunday ol Advent, 1848.(sw 'en
Guelph mission fell vaeant in 1852, de Cliarbonnel nrged him io go
tliere. Fi.. Holzer %a3 the major force in stabilizing Catholicism in that
Lciwn. aiid in 1854 lie founded its Jesuit hause, beeoming its 6rst superior.
He envisaged a great churcli in Guelpli, comparable in magnificence tci
the Basiiica of St. Peter in Raine, and projected an extensive personal
fund-raisirip campaign tri liis native country, as ive11 as to Mexico, where
lie hope~i to enlist the financial support of his friend, tlie Emperor Maxi-
milian. Ilowever, Fr. Wolzer becauie il1 &[ore he could eerry ont these
plans. lii September, 1863, lie was strjcken with severe paralysis.
Forced tri relinqiiish the superiorship at Guelph, he nevertheless lived for
niany yciai.? as an invalid iii varioiis Jesuit houseo in tlie United States.
HP died at Gcor~etown College in May, 1888.(31)
Tbe setilements of German Catholics in Waterloo County were
amon: i he earliest eenlrea oi Cetholicism in the new dioceee O l Hamil~on.
The foeal priint of religious aetibity in the 1820's and early 1030'6 was
Wiirnot 1st. Agatha). The first resident priest to mini~kr to the wttlers
in tlie area was ~he Rev. John Louis Wiriath, sent liy Bishop Macdoiiell.
He laboured as a niissirinary in the area for 6(imE three years, heiorc
returning to his native Aleace in 1837. Appartntly he later askcd for
and obtained permission froni his Bishop lor a second mjourn in Canada;
but no records have been iouiid to indicate that he attueUy undertook
a seeond 111 issjonary jour ney. Fr. Wiriatli died a t Marienthal, Lower
Aleace, in lM.(3')
After Fr. Wiriath's dcpariure in 1837, the Cahialics of Waterloo
County were again ivithout ~hc scivites of a priest, until the Rev. Peter
Schneider, alsci an Alsaiian, arrived in the district early in 1838. Fr,
Schneider settled in New Gcrniany. and remeined until Flarch, lm,
when Fr. Sanderl arrived in Wilmot. He then moved Iarther west to
the Stratford-Goderich area, remaining thete until 1869, although he
returned to Waterloo County for a thrw-monih period in 1897, when
Fr. Sanderl left Wilmot for Guelph. In 1869, Fr. Schneider resigned
his charge in Goderich and returned to Europe. He died neer Lyons,
France, on July 30, 1880.(")
Catholicism among the Gerrnan settlements in the Wa~erloo County
area ah owes a con_sidereble debt to its eetly Jesuit miasionarjes, who
laboured thete from 1847. Bishop Power secured the services of two

(Bo> Spetz, op. ci!., p. 57.
!ai} An obiruary of Fr. Hoizei appears in The Catholic Record, May %, 1BBB.
The Chutch of Our Lady Immaculaie in Guelph, perbaps lesa mamificent
Lhan ihai enviaged by Fr. Holzet, but nonetheleaé e trdy impressive manu.
nient ta Cnthuljcim in that iown. waa dediceted e leu mouths aller Hoh.r's
deatli, on October 10, 1BB8.
192' Speir op. tir., pp. b5.
(") Spe~l, op. cil., pp. 13.M.
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