Peter Hasslacher (14 August 1810 – 5 July 1876) was a German

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preacher. He was one of the many

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missionaries who strove throughout Germany, from Freiburg to Berlin and Danzig, to reawaken and strengthen the country's Catholic forces after the stormy year of 1846.

Life

Hasslacher was born in

Coblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus . Its name originates from ...

. His youth was somewhat tempestuous. As a medical student in the university in

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, in 1831, he identified himself with the German student movement, which was looked upon as revolutionary; and he was compelled, in consequence, to undergo seven years confinement in Berlin,

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, and

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. During these years he underwent a spiritual change, and in particular, by studying the

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, stirred his mind with theological knowledge; after his liberation he entered, in the spring of 1840, the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, at

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, France. He was ordained to the priesthood on 1 September 1844, and then preached with much success in the

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, until the year 1849. It was at this time that the popular missions were inaugurated in Germany, but Hasslacher's delicate health could not long withstand the physical exertions entailed. Instead, as he explains in an 1860 letter, Hasslacher began giving conferences in all the larger cities in the Rhine and Westphalia. His strength failing, he was sent in 1863 to conduct, in Paris, the St. Joseph's Mission for German Catholics, but even this labour became after ten years too much of a tax on his physical powers so that he was compelled to abandon it and to take up similar but lighter duties at

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. After a year he was brought back, very ill, to Paris, where he died.

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: **Hertkens, Erinnerungen an P. Hasslacher (Münster, 1879). This work includes numerous letters and twenty-three sketches for lectures; the author makes use of Beda Weber, Cartons aus dem deutschen Kirchenleben (Mainz, 1858, 451 sqq.); Hasslacher's a letter on his lectures is not used in these works; many corrections and supplementary data, therefore, must be borne in mind in its connection; this criticism holds also for the articles in the Kirchenlex. and the Allgem. Deutsch. Biographie. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasslacher, Peter 1810 births 1876 deaths 19th-century German Jesuits Clergy from Koblenz