Father Jordan - Founder of the Savlatorian order

Life Dates

Father Francis Maria of the Cross Jordan was born on June 16, 1848 in Gurtweil near Waldshut in the Black Forest. He was given the name Johann Baptist at baptism. On September 8, 1918 he died in Tafers near Fribourg, Switzerland.

Education

First he learned the trade of painting, got his high school diploma at the age of 26 and then studied philosophy and theology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1877 he entered the seminary of St. Peter and was ordained a priest on July 21, 1878. Because of the “culture war” that was raging at the time, he was sent to Rome to study further, where he dealt with the languages ​​of the Near East.

Beginnings of the order and founding of the order

After an educational trip to the Orient, he founded the “Apostolic Teaching Society”, to which men and women should belong in the first stage and who lived according to the evangelical counsels. The founding day of the male branch was December 8, 1881, which Father Jordan then transformed a little later into a religious community with the name “Society of the Divine Savior” (Salvatorians). The purpose of this order was the outer and inner mission. Father Jordan himself took the name “Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan”.

On December 8, 1888, he and Baroness Therese von Wüllenweber from Schloss Myllendonk near Mönchengladbach founded the order of the “Sisters of the Divine Savior” (Salvatorians).

As early as 1890 he began to establish the two religious communities, first in what was then Assam in north-eastern India, then in some European countries and finally in North and South America.

Last years of life

In 1915 Father Jordan had to move with the Generalate to Friborg in Switzerland because of the First World War. In the same year the 3rd General Chapter of the Order approved his wish to resign from the leadership of the Society. Then Father Pancratius Pfeiffer (1872 to 1945) was given the leadership of the Salvatorians.

Father Francis Maria of the Cross Jordan died after a serious illness on September 8, 1918 in Tafers near Friborg (Switzerland) with a reputation for holiness. His remains were transferred to the Salvatorian Motherhouse in Rome in 1956.

Beatification