16 MAR - SAINT OF THE DAY [S CLEMENT MARY HOFBAUER (1751-1820)]

 Clement was the ninth child of the Germanic Hofbauer. 

    His father died when Clement was six years old. The young man felt a call to the priesthood, but his family was too poor to afford his education. 

    Apprentice and journeyman baker at a monastery at Bruck when hermitages were abolished by the Emperor. Clement worked as a baker in Vienna, Austria. 

    During the third pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the Redemptorists. He studied at the University of Vienna, and at Rome and ordained in 1785, 

    and assigned to Vienna. Missionary to Warsaw, Poland, he introduced the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer to Poland. There they encountered numerous 

    German-speaking Catholics who had been left priestless by the suppression of the Jesuits. From there he sent Redemptorist missionaries to Germany and Switzerland. 

    Clement and his companions were imprisoned in 1808 when Napoleon suppressed religious orders, 

    then expelled to Austria. Persecution followed Clement and there were those in authority who were able for a while to stop him from preaching. 

    An attempt was made at the highest levels to have him banished. But his holiness and fame protected him and prompted the growth of the Redemptorists. 

    Due to his efforts, the congregation was firmly established north of the Alps by the time of his death. Clement was canonized in 1909 by Pope Pius X




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