New Creation 1844
by Fr. Keith Branson, c.pp.s., Avila University
The Missionaries of the Precious Blood became a
new creation in 1844 when Francis de Sales Brunner
and his companions came to serve the German Catholic
community of northern Ohio. Brunner was a relatively
old man at the time: he was 49 years old, and he led
a group of 15 men young enough to be his children.
Brunner himself already had an interesting history, and
his preparation for mission began with his childhood.
He was born on January 10, 1795 in Mümliswil-
Ramiswil, Canton Solothurn, Switzerland. He came
from a family of prosperous farmers, and his mother,
born Maria Anna Probst, was especially devout. Her
son wrote of her:
“Although she had lived in the fear of God from
childhood, she had to thank the parish missions for
her exceptional piety and zealous devotion. While
still very young she attended the missions which
the Fathers of the Society of Jesus conducted in the
eighties [1780 s ]. The seed fell upon good ground, for
since that time she gave herself constantly and un-
reservedly up to the service of God. Even in her 70 th
year she knew how to recount most of these mission
sermons. She directed the education of her children
and the management of her household according to
the lessons she had absorbed in that time. Frequently
she said to those of her household: ‘we must not for-
get what the missionary said’; or, ‘The Missionaries
said this and you must obey them.’ She placed a high
value on missions and frequently was heard to say:
‘until missions are again conducted everywhere, we
will not experience better times.’”
the “Missionary
Father from
Mariastein.” He
also took care of
vacant parishes
for extended
periods. This
brought him
into conflict
with his mon-
astery due to
frequent ab-
sences, which
the novices in
his care com-
plained about.
There was a
great internal
divide within
him: the desire
to live as an exemplary Benedictine in cloister, and
the call to undertake mission preaching. He thought
the call to go preach exposed him to worldly things
too much, yet it always pulled him outside the walls.
A common Benedictine saying is “A monk outside of
the monastery is not a monk,” so Brunner frequently
stretched this maxim. However, he was held in great
regard by his community and was assigned impor-
tant tasks. The dichotomy in his life was not resolved
for many years.
There were several qualities he inherited from
his mother: her devotion to the Blessed Mother
(toward the end of her life she would pray between
9-12 Rosaries daily), her mission of praying for the
Holy Souls in Purgatory, her devotion to the Passion,
and her esteem for parish missions. Two of these
are reflected in his motto: “Obey the Rule/Love the
Mother of God/Pray for the Poor Souls.” This may
have also been motivation for taking up the un-mo-
nastic ministry of preaching missions. He grew dissatisfied with his monastic life, and
moved to a Trappist monastery in Oelenberg, Alsace
in search of a more pure and holy lifestyle. Trappist
life was a struggle for him, and after a little over a
year there, the French government expelled foreign
religious, which was a blessing in disguise. Over the
next few years he tried many things: establishing a
Benedictine community dedicated to mission preach-
ing, running a boy’s school, gathering missionaries
for service in the Congo, and seeking appointment
as a Papal missionary. He was supporting his mother
in her last years, who gathered a small community of
young women around her for prayer and service.
In 1825, Brunner started preaching missions in
northwest Switzerland and Alsace, and was known as After his mother’s death, an 1838 visit to a
Precious Blood Mission house in Cesena gave him
8 • The New Wine Press • January 2018