This religious community offered young people, often from families with many children, a high-quality education, which Josef Grünstäudl, born in 1941 in Rainbach near Freistadt, also received. He died on July 16 at the age of 82 and in the 64th year of his religious life.
The son of a housewife and a sawmiller grew up in a barracks in Freistadt together with four sisters, attended elementary and secondary school in the Marianum and entered the postulancy there in 1954. After two years at the teacher training college in Vienna, he graduated from the order’s own Albertus Magnus School. In 1962 he finally committed himself to the Society of Mary.
He was active in many areas of the Order. He was in charge of the religious magazine “Marianist” and was secretary to the provincial. Later, the fluent Mühlviertler (perfect in Italian, French, English and Spanish) was appointed to the general leadership of the order in Rome. There he began studying church history and archiving in 1969, which he completed with a license. He worked in the Vatican archives and would have liked to have stayed on to study for a doctorate, but new tasks awaited him in Austria as prefect and administrator in the Marianum in Vienna and as provincial accountant. When this school was handed over to the order of the school brothers in 1984, his work had to be relocated to the Semperstraße community, where he was also head of the student hostel, where many Upper Austrians lived.
In 1996 he moved to the Greisinghof near Tragwein, where he headed the community as Superior until 2019. In this final religious home he found the best working conditions as an archivist, worked in the educational center and translated many religious documents. He was also very interested in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. His historical knowledge was unbelievable.
The person who was awarded the title “Spiritual Counselor” was also in demand because of his extensive knowledge about his fellow brother Father Jakob Gapp, who was executed by the National Socialists on August 13, 1943 in Berlin, when he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
The funeral service will take place on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at 10 a.m. in the parish church of Tragwein. Burial will follow in the tomb of the Marianists.
Source: Nachrichten
