N
NeelyAnn
Guest
**A Visit to Konnersreuth
Revisiting the Extraordinary Life of Teresa Neumann**
**By Rev. Urban Snyder, RIP
Introduction by Michael J. Matt**
(Posted 1/19/10 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) When I was a child, a frequent guest in my father’s home was the late Trappist priest, Father Urban Snyder. One of the original “men in black”, Fr. Snyder had refused to offer the New Mass after Vatican II, determining instead to travel the world offering the old Mass and spreading the traditionalist doctrine. He was a close friend of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and, for a time, served as the Archbishop’s confessor.
A deeply spiritual man of exceedingly high intellect, Fr. Snyder prepared priests, seminarians and Catholic families around the world for the years of trial and tribulation that would follow the Second Vatican Council. He was a man of vision and tremendous foresight. I’ll always remember something he said while “holding court” one evening in our home in the early 1970’s: “It’s not Communism that should be our chief concern in the West…not really. It is Islam. Most of us will not live to see the rise of global, militant Islam but that young man over there [pointing directly at me] certainly will.” This was at the height of the “Cold War”-- a full thirty years before the so-called “War on Terror”.
Father Snyder was a frequent columnist for The Remnant and one of my father’s closest friends. The following article was written for The Remnant in November of 1978, a decade or so after the death of the holy Bavarian peasant girl—Teresa Neumann.
Fast forward thirty years…
In the summer of 2009, my friend Scott Jones of the inestimable Lepanto Press announced the release of a new book called “Holding The Stirrup” by Baroness Elizabeth von Guttenberg—a reprint of the 1953 autobiographical account of great Catholic men, fading traditions, family life, and the decline of the aristocracy during the rise of Adolf Hitler. Readers may recall Sherry Foster’s Remnant review of “Holding The Stirrup” which appeared in our Sept 30, 2009, issue. (Available from The Remnant for $25. PO Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 558025)
The book is difficult to put down so gripping is its narrative and eerily familiar its portrayal of the day-to-day concerns of Catholics living in Germany during the late 1930’s. A short read of less than 300 pages, “Holding The Stirrup” presents a vivid picture of German Catholic resistance to the Nazi menace while chronicling the eradication of Old Europe and authentically European culture during the Second World War.
Numbered among Baron and Baroness von Guttenberg’s closest friends during those years was the von Stauffenberg Family. Remnant readers will recognize Claus von Stauffenberg as the name of the Catholic German officer who’d attempted to assassinate Hitler with the famous briefcase bomb. Claus, portrayed by actor Tom Cruise in the recent film, Valkyrie, was Baroness von Guttenberg’s cousin. Another major influence in the life of the Baroness (again beautifully described in “Holding The Stirrup”) was the Bavarian peasant girl turned mystic— stigmatic Teresa Neumann. Even Emperor Charles himself appears in dramatic fashion in “Holding The Stirrup” when he shows up one night at Guttenberg Castle in disguise and on the run from his Masonic enemies.
I cannot recommend “Holding The Stirrup” highly enough, especially to anyone curious about the historical backlash against Adolf Hitler that was fueled by powerful German Catholic families of the day. Those interested in the disturbing parallels between life today in America and life in Germany then—with a similar economic collapse, an identical rise of paganism and anti-Religion, and an increasingly totalitarian political regime—will find “Holding The Stirrup” a riveting page-turner. The book is available for $25 from The Remnant newspaper. Do yourself a favor and order the best read of 2009! (Telephone: 651-433-5425)
But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is not intended to be a book review. Let me explain.
Some months ago I’d determined to lead a pilgrimage to Austria/Germany after the Chartres Pilgrimage in May 2010. My first choice of destination was the famed Passion Play in Oberammergau (Bavaria). Arranging accommodations for a large group in Oberammergau during the Play at this late date, however, is proving problematic at best and may be impossible.
As a backup plan, I contacted my friend Jamie Bogle to see if he’d agree to lead a pilgrimage in the steps of the great Emperor Charles of Austria, the last Catholic king of the Holy Roman Empire, who died in 1922.
Mr. Bogle, author of “A Heart for Europe” (the definitive English biography of Blessed Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary and his wife Empress Zita) enthusiastically agreed. I also began looking into the possibility of making a short pilgrimage to Konnersreuth, the hometown of stigmatic Teresa Neumann of whom our old friend Father Snyder had often highly spoken when I was young.
In search of more information about the mystic I consulted The Remnant’s archives and eventually discovered an article by Fr. Snyder himself detailing his visit to the actual home of Teresa Neumann back in the 1970s.
My delight at this discovery took on a sense of Providence at work when I discovered that Fr. Snyder had visited the home of Teresa Neumann in the company of none other than Baroness Elizabeth von Guttenberg herself—who we all now know as the author of “Holding The Stirrup” and the extraordinary Catholic noblewoman whose husband, cousins, sons and friends had been numbered among the most powerful Nazi resisters in Germany during the War.
Continue reading here: remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2009-1130-a_visit_to_konnersreuth.htm
Revisiting the Extraordinary Life of Teresa Neumann**
**By Rev. Urban Snyder, RIP
Introduction by Michael J. Matt**
(Posted 1/19/10 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) When I was a child, a frequent guest in my father’s home was the late Trappist priest, Father Urban Snyder. One of the original “men in black”, Fr. Snyder had refused to offer the New Mass after Vatican II, determining instead to travel the world offering the old Mass and spreading the traditionalist doctrine. He was a close friend of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and, for a time, served as the Archbishop’s confessor.
A deeply spiritual man of exceedingly high intellect, Fr. Snyder prepared priests, seminarians and Catholic families around the world for the years of trial and tribulation that would follow the Second Vatican Council. He was a man of vision and tremendous foresight. I’ll always remember something he said while “holding court” one evening in our home in the early 1970’s: “It’s not Communism that should be our chief concern in the West…not really. It is Islam. Most of us will not live to see the rise of global, militant Islam but that young man over there [pointing directly at me] certainly will.” This was at the height of the “Cold War”-- a full thirty years before the so-called “War on Terror”.
Father Snyder was a frequent columnist for The Remnant and one of my father’s closest friends. The following article was written for The Remnant in November of 1978, a decade or so after the death of the holy Bavarian peasant girl—Teresa Neumann.
Fast forward thirty years…
In the summer of 2009, my friend Scott Jones of the inestimable Lepanto Press announced the release of a new book called “Holding The Stirrup” by Baroness Elizabeth von Guttenberg—a reprint of the 1953 autobiographical account of great Catholic men, fading traditions, family life, and the decline of the aristocracy during the rise of Adolf Hitler. Readers may recall Sherry Foster’s Remnant review of “Holding The Stirrup” which appeared in our Sept 30, 2009, issue. (Available from The Remnant for $25. PO Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 558025)
The book is difficult to put down so gripping is its narrative and eerily familiar its portrayal of the day-to-day concerns of Catholics living in Germany during the late 1930’s. A short read of less than 300 pages, “Holding The Stirrup” presents a vivid picture of German Catholic resistance to the Nazi menace while chronicling the eradication of Old Europe and authentically European culture during the Second World War.
Numbered among Baron and Baroness von Guttenberg’s closest friends during those years was the von Stauffenberg Family. Remnant readers will recognize Claus von Stauffenberg as the name of the Catholic German officer who’d attempted to assassinate Hitler with the famous briefcase bomb. Claus, portrayed by actor Tom Cruise in the recent film, Valkyrie, was Baroness von Guttenberg’s cousin. Another major influence in the life of the Baroness (again beautifully described in “Holding The Stirrup”) was the Bavarian peasant girl turned mystic— stigmatic Teresa Neumann. Even Emperor Charles himself appears in dramatic fashion in “Holding The Stirrup” when he shows up one night at Guttenberg Castle in disguise and on the run from his Masonic enemies.
I cannot recommend “Holding The Stirrup” highly enough, especially to anyone curious about the historical backlash against Adolf Hitler that was fueled by powerful German Catholic families of the day. Those interested in the disturbing parallels between life today in America and life in Germany then—with a similar economic collapse, an identical rise of paganism and anti-Religion, and an increasingly totalitarian political regime—will find “Holding The Stirrup” a riveting page-turner. The book is available for $25 from The Remnant newspaper. Do yourself a favor and order the best read of 2009! (Telephone: 651-433-5425)
But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is not intended to be a book review. Let me explain.
Some months ago I’d determined to lead a pilgrimage to Austria/Germany after the Chartres Pilgrimage in May 2010. My first choice of destination was the famed Passion Play in Oberammergau (Bavaria). Arranging accommodations for a large group in Oberammergau during the Play at this late date, however, is proving problematic at best and may be impossible.
As a backup plan, I contacted my friend Jamie Bogle to see if he’d agree to lead a pilgrimage in the steps of the great Emperor Charles of Austria, the last Catholic king of the Holy Roman Empire, who died in 1922.
Mr. Bogle, author of “A Heart for Europe” (the definitive English biography of Blessed Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary and his wife Empress Zita) enthusiastically agreed. I also began looking into the possibility of making a short pilgrimage to Konnersreuth, the hometown of stigmatic Teresa Neumann of whom our old friend Father Snyder had often highly spoken when I was young.
In search of more information about the mystic I consulted The Remnant’s archives and eventually discovered an article by Fr. Snyder himself detailing his visit to the actual home of Teresa Neumann back in the 1970s.
My delight at this discovery took on a sense of Providence at work when I discovered that Fr. Snyder had visited the home of Teresa Neumann in the company of none other than Baroness Elizabeth von Guttenberg herself—who we all now know as the author of “Holding The Stirrup” and the extraordinary Catholic noblewoman whose husband, cousins, sons and friends had been numbered among the most powerful Nazi resisters in Germany during the War.
Continue reading here: remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2009-1130-a_visit_to_konnersreuth.htm