Johannes Haw

Johannes Maria Haw (b. 26 May 1871; d. 28 October 1949) was a German Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Johannesbund of Leutesdorf and of the religious communities of the Community of the Sisters of St John of Mary the Queen (Ordensgemeinschaft der Johannesschwestern von Maria Königin) and the Society of Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist (die Gemeinschaft der Missionare vom Hl. Johannes dem Täufer).

Grave of Johannes Haw in the Ölbergkapelle ("Chapel of the Mount of Olives")
Chapel exterior

Biography

Johannes Haw was born in Schweich on the Moselle. He studied theology at the seminary in Trier and was ordained a priest on 30 March 1895 in Trier Cathedral by Bishop Michael Felix Korum. He was chaplain in the parish of Our Lady in Koblenz, vicar in Holz in Heusweiler (Saar) and later parish priest in Wintersdorf in Ralingen on the Sauer.

He became a leading figure in the anti-alcohol and temperance movement in Germany. The bishop appointed him the diocesan representative of the temperance movement based in Trier. Shortly afterwards Fr. Haw became leader of the movement for the whole of Germany.

In 1912 he went to Leutesdorf and acquired a house for groups of alcoholics. The foundation of the "Johannesbund" followed on 15 October 1919. Two religious orders arose from this: the Community of the Sisters of St John of Mary the Queen (Ordensgemeinschaft der Johannesschwestern von Maria Königin) and the Society of Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist (die Gemeinschaft der Missionare vom Hl. Johannes dem Täufer). Both are based in Leutesdorf, but their members also live and work in Portugal, Mozambique and India.

Fr. Haw died in Leutesdorf in 1949, where he is buried in the Ölbergkapelle ("Chapel of the Mount of Olives").[1] The process of beatification has begun.

Notes and references
  1. Johannesbund website (in German)

Sources
  • Schönhofen, Werner (2012): Pater Johannes Maria Haw. Lebenslauf des Ordensgründers und sein Wirken in Leutesdorf in Heimat-Jahrbuch Landkreis Neuwied 2012, pp. 284–289, ISBN 978-3-9814662-0-1
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