Born
22 December 1818 at Parzham, Bavaria as Johann Birndorfer
Died
21 April 1894 of natural causes
I'd like to meet:
Patronage:
Capuchin-Franciscan Province of Mid-AmericaCAPUCHINS OF MID-AMERICA (link)
Music:
Beatified
1930 by Pope Pius XI
Canonized
1934 by Pope Pius XI
Heroes:
The Porter of AltöttingNow began the third period of his life, the longest and most significant, which at once revealed and concealed a journey toward perfection taken along the road of the ordinary world of "little things."
We can well imagine how happy Bro. Conrad was to return to his beloved Madonna of Altötting. The modern pilgrim cannot visit the Gnadenkapelle without envisioning the peaceful image of the saintly porter as an integral part of the scene. The last of his resolutions was to find in this spot the most favorable environment for its implementation.The ancient shrine of Our Lady of Altötting was, and still is, the focus of the religious feelings and piety of the Bavarian people. Its walls are hung with simple votive offerings given in gratitude for favors received. The image of the Madonna is blackened by the smoke of countless candles and the oxidation of the silver ornaments that cover it. Around it the faithful kneel, sometimes with crosses on their shoulders. We breathe an atmosphere of intense popular devotion.Bro. Conrad immersed himself quietly in this Marian piety with all the ardor of his Franciscan soul. Day after day he carried out a task that to all outward appearances was not very important, one that would never find a place in the pages of history. It was a job like that of any other porter. After all, a porter is just a porter and that is that, even if he opens and closes the door at St. Ann's for 41 years. How many other porters before him received visitors at the same door? But only Bro. Conrad was given the title of "the holy porter."The difference was this: He served for so many years with undeviating fidelity, always calm and patient, always on the job, committed to his humble duties, never bored or fed up with the monotony of his daily schedule. As Pope Pius XI said, "In all this he manifested extraordinary diligence and prudence, wisdom, attention and tact. See what an important function a porter exercises in great palaces and hotels. The porter is everything, knows everything. Everybody turns to the porter with the assurance, even the right, to get a satisfactory answer to questions."But Bro. Conrad's first days on the job were not very pleasant. No one would have supposed that a brother just out of the novitiate would be given such a responsible post. Inevitably expressions of jealousy and complaints were heard. Some of the senior brothers gave him a hard time. They resented his presence among them and were even unwilling to let him have a little bedroom. His first guardian, perhaps to try his mettle, treated him rather harshly. "Don't you understand that you remain here on sufferance and you are to eat the food of the friary out of charity?"In time he won them over. Bro. Conrad was just the man to be porter at Altötting. Soon envy yielded to esteem. Many years later he admitted to a fellow religious, "The beginning was very hard for me."His shyness was another cause for suffering. At the door he daily came into contact with both the splendor and misery of the outside world. He was afraid of losing the spirit of prayer and devotion, but never for a moment doubted the genuineness of his vocation. As he wrote to his family, "It was God's will that I gave up everything that I owned and loved. I had to follow my vocation. I could not have done anything else. I am happy not to be in the world."All classes of people came to the friary door: the children, the poor, workers, farmers, day laborers, young people, the unemployed, mothers of families, the sick, the hungry, the desperate—the whole gamut of humanity. When the bell rang Bro. Conrad opened the door, smiled and opened his heart in compassion. He gave without stint and without judging anyone. He knew nothing about the laws of economics. He gave because people were poor and stretched out their hands for help. He listened to their laments as he passed out bread or drew a stein of beer or distributed religious articles or gave the farmers medicinal herbs for their livestock. Once a veterinarian accused him of malpractice! He found it easy to identify with the problems of the farmers and other simple folk.The more than 100,000 pilgrims that came each year to Altötting provided Bro. Conrad with a golden opportunity to live out his own special charism. The words used in the process to characterize his sanctity are quite restrained. He was "an ordinary Capuchin, nothing special about him." He was "good, gentle, kind, devout, and made a good impression." The brothers who helped him never saw him moody or upset.But was he always so perfect? Hindsight leads us to put a halo over the memories of the past. We are influenced in our judgments by an individual's reputation for sanctity.The fact is we come across a few but precious stories of his "holy levity." In serving beer to the pilgrims, at least on one occasion, he lost his patience. After all, is it unthinkable that the "holy porter" should sometimes use strong language or come out with a gruff Bavarian remark? It might even add a special shade to the image of his sanctity and save it from looking like a sentimental painting. How many times did he not have to renew those resolutions he made in the novitiate?One member of the tribunal asked whether it was very "saintly" for the Brother to serve a Bavarian girl two steins of beer and thereby risk the danger of getting her tipsy. Cardinal Michael Faulhaber of Munich came to the defense of the porter saying that if the lady in question could get drunk on only two steins she was certainly not a Bavarian farm girl.The ex-farmer knew his country men—and women—though he was careful not to look a girl in the face. Yet his generosity in dispensing beer almost endangered his cause before the Roman tribunal. Others questioned the propriety of his hearty invitation to, "Come, have another stein." But like the gospel cup of cold water, the stein of beer given by a saint was a gesture of holiness that would not go without its reward.Timmermans wrote, "There are two facets to the people. Just as a city began with a chapel and was soon followed by an inn, so it is with the soul of the people. At once devout and jovial, in close touch with both the realities and healthy pleasures of life, it has an irresistible attraction to mysticism."Bro. Conrad knew how to receive the jetsam and flotsam of humanity that washed up at the door of the friary. He awaited their pleas like a beggar looking for an alms. He knew how to handle all the unreasonable demands of his poor people and his greatest wish was to comply with even their smallest requests. Carrying two pitchers of beer or cauldrons of soup or baskets of bread on his shoulders, or a joint of mutton, or keeping an account of Masses to be said or alms to dispense, straightening out a room, or sweeping the floor or calling a priest to hear a confession—all this seem trifling. But the porter saw beyond the material exterior to the world of the spirit. His external tasks were sublimated by a lively faith that opened his eyes to vaster horizons.Amid all the hustle and bustle of his work he spoke very little. The people got his message. They understood his gestures, his smile and his patient kindness. That was all the reward he wanted. As he wiped the sweat from his face he said: "One Our Father or a 'Vergelt's Gott' is more precious to me than any food or drink."
