Franz Retz (sometimes ''Francis Retz'') (13 September 1673 - 19 November 1750) was a Bohemian

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, elected fifteenth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, which he governed from 7 March 1730 to 19 November 1750.

Formation

After joining the Jesuits at the young age of 16 (in 1689) and doing his noviciate, he studied at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

(1692–94) and Faculty of Theology (1700–03) of

University of Olomouc A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. He obtained the doctorate in philosophy (Olomouc, 1703) and theology (

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, 1709) and seemed destined to teach the same subjects.

In Rome

He had hardly begun to do so when he was called to Rome (1711) to fill certain administrative post. Provincial of

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

(today's Czech Republic) (1718–20) and Rector of the large High School of Prague (1720–23) he was called to Rome in 1725 by the then Superior General

Michelangelo Tamburini Michelangelo Tamburini (27 September 1648 – 28 February 1730) was an Italian Jesuit, who was elected fourteenth Superior General of the Society of Jesus from January 31, 1706 to February 28, 1730. After teaching Scholastic philosophy Sc ...

as his Assistant for the Central European affairs. At the death of Tamburini (1730) Retz, as Vicar General of the Society, called the General Congregation.

Superior General

The sixteenth General Congregation elected him Superior General. The vote was nearly unanimous (68 of 70). His able administration contributed much to the welfare of the Society; he obtained the canonization of

St. John Francis Regis Jean-François Régis, SJ, commonly known as Saint John Francis Regis and Saint Regis (31 January 1597 – 31 December 1640), was a French priest of the Society of Jesus, recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1737. A tireless prea ...

(1738) and used the example of the saint to promote missionary work in the rural areas. Father Retz's generalate was perhaps the quietest in the history of the order. There were difficulties in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...

in the Scottish

Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act o ...

following the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...

, but the Society's overseas missions developed as never before. The Society kept growing steadily. At the time of his death, it was made of thirty-nine provinces, twenty-four houses of professed fathers, 669 colleges, sixty-one novitiates, 335 residences, 273 mission stations, 176 seminaries, and 22,589 members of whom 11,293 were priests.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Retz, Franz 1673 births 1750 deaths 17th-century Roman Catholic priests from Bohemia 18th-century Roman Catholic priests from Bohemia Czech Jesuits Czech Roman Catholic priests Palacký University Olomouc alumni Roman Catholic missionaries in Europe Superiors General of the Society of Jesus