The Story of Abbot Franz Pfanner

Abbot Franz Pfanner, born September 21, 1825, is one of the pivotal people in the history of South Africa’s Church. Dr Mauricio Langa CMM looks at the life and legacy of the visionary abbot.

Abbot Pfanner established the Mariannhill monastery, one of the biggest and most successful monasteries in the southern hemisphere, and founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (CMM), now an international order.

Pfanner was born in Langen, near Bregrenz in Austria, on September 21, 1825, and was baptised Wendelinus (Franz became his religious name, after Francis of Assisi). It is 116 years since Abbot Francis Pfanner died, but his work did not die with him. It is still very much alive, so this bicentenary is a major milestone worth marking.

Pfanner arrived in South Africa with fellow Trappist monks in 1880, at the invitation of Bishop James Ricards of the Eastern Cape Vicariate, issued at a general chapter of the Trappist Order in France. His call was for Trappist monks to come to his vicariate to help establish a monastery and schools, as well as to convert Africans to Christianity. It was then that Franz Pfanner, the youngest prior present, pronounced the now-famous words: “If no one goes, I will go!”

Pfanner had experience in setting up missions. He had previously founded the Trappist Mariastern abbey in Banja Luka, in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, a successful foundation after failures in Croatia and at Tre Fontane in Rome. Thirty monks from Mariastern went with Pfanner to South Africa.

But the missionary work in the Eastern Cape, at Dunbrody, did not go well. The scorching sun, scarcity of rain, a poor harvest of crops, and an invasion of baboons led to Pfanner and his band of diligent monks leaving the area. Still, two years of unfruitful labour failed to dent the commitment of the determined Trappists. They left the area in search of a more agreeable climate.

They found such a climate in Natal, where they were welcomed by Bishop Charles Jolivet, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. After purchasing the Zeekoegat farm in the Pinetown area,  alongside the Umhlatuzane river, the monks initially slept beneath ox wagons and then worked from temporary buildings while building their quality red-brick structures. These are today a trademark of Mariannhill, used in the permanent Trappist buildings across Natal and beyond.

Quick expansion

After the foundation of the now-famous Mariannhill monastery in 1882, many other outstations followed in a very short space of time. The monks’ commitment to arduous labour was enshrined in the Trappist motto, “Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work).

“Whenever one sees the quality of buildings in Mariannhill and the mission stations that Pfanner built, one begins to admire his faith, total dedication, self-sacrifice, and spirit of selflessness,” reflected Archbishop Siegfried Mandla Jwara of Durban, himself a Mariannhill Missionary. But such admiration should go further, he said. “Abbot Pfanner’s faith, dedication, sacrifice and selflessness should spur all to emulate, sustain and keep his legacy.”

It is necessary to note that Pfanner was a controversial figure in that, if necessary, he would bend his order’s strict rules in order to achieve his missionary objectives. For instance, his practice of establishing pocket mission stations in various parts of Natal and the employment of religious novices outside the monastery precinct — thus exposing them to active missionary work — violated the Trappist rule.

The monastery grew at phenomenal speed. In 1898, it became the largest Christian monastery in the world, with 285 monks.

Empowering the locals

From its inception, Mariannhill monastery was a hub of activity as young and old people alike came to learn and work. The monastery set up workshops where, for the first time, local people could learn how to become blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, printers and bookbinders, with tuition given by highly qualified monks.

Pfanner bought farms where he allowed the local people to settle, teaching them different skills, including farming. This was part of his vision to empower them through social development projects, aimed at providing the local people with their own plots, in order to build better homes, and to develop better fields, and better hearts. Later, this idea was further developed by Fr Bernard Huss CMM, an influential advocate for social justice.

Decades later, the monks’ successors had to fight hard to protect that legacy. In the 1980s, the apartheid government sought to remove local people from Mariannhill land, to make way for the planned development of an Indian township. The Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill, under the leadership of superior-general Fr Fridolin Zuger and provincial superior Fr Damian Weber “fought tooth and nail against the forced removal of people”,  Archbishop Jwara recalled.

After a long battle with the government, Mariannhill eventually won the case, and the government had to allow the people to continue living on the land. As a result, Mariannhill had to develop St Wendolin’s, Nazareth, Tshelimnyama and other places, thereby maintaining and promoting the spirit of empowerment of the local church. While the CMM managed to save these settlements, however, others had already been rezoned, as an industrial park in Westmead, and as the Coloured township of Mariannridge.

Founding schools

Pfanner was concerned with the education of the African child. To this end, he included learning institutions at almost all the mission stations he established across Natal and in Maluti, in the Eastern Cape. His schools were open to children of all backgrounds, regardless of race or creed.

In the field of health, Pfanner founded St Mary’s Hospital and Nursing school, and hospitals in Centocow, Ixopo and Harding. These institutions were of immense value in caring for the people with dignity and empathy.

An enduring part of Pfanner’s legacy is the establishment of a congregation for women, the Precious Blood Sisters (CPS), whose members have performed sterling missionary work, teaching handwork, and other skills, and working as professionals in hospitals, schools and administration, to name a few.

Throughout his ministry Abbot Pfanner placed much emphasis on the livelihood and wellbeing of the people. He felt that the rules of the Trappist Order, which demanded that monks observed strict silence as they worked and prayed, were an absolute hindrance to his vision of engaging with the people so as to understand them and their needs.

It was always his aim “to reach out to the people and teach them manual labour and how to grow crops for their own sustainability”, said Fr Michael Maas, the present superior-general of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill.

Split from Trappists

Conflicts with the Trappists eventually led Pfanner to found the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill; a difficult process which caused the abbot much heartbreak and saw him exiled from his own monastery at Emaus mission.

In 1909, the Holy See decreed the separation of the monks of Mariannhill from the Trappists. Soon after, on May 24 that year, Abbot Pfanner died at Emaus. He was 83.

By January 1, 1910, nearly 20000 people, mostly adults, had been baptised in the 55 CMM churches and chapels of the 26 missions and stations.

“Like Abbot Francis, we need to continue reading the signs of the time in the various parts of the world where we may be working and living, as this will allow us to respond effectively to the needs of the local people,” Fr Maas said.

The Vatican approved the opening of a sainthood cause for Abbot Pfanner in 2003. Over the years, illness and deaths of its postulators have halted the process. Fr Maas has confirmed the appointment a new postulator, a canon and civil lawyer who is based in Rome — which, he said, is important for the next phase.

“It is our prayer that this process ultimately is concluded successfully [with Abbot Pfanner’s beatification], so that succeeding generations may gain a deeper insight and appreciation of the immense work done by Abbot Francis Pfanner, for the sake of the Kingdom of God,” Fr Maas said.

Published in the September 2025 issue of The Southern Cross magazine