FR JOSEPH ZUENDT

Long after he died, the image of Father Joseph Zuendt was kept vivid and alive

in the memory of all who knew him -not by the anecdotes which are told of him

(which are remarkably few), but by the impact of his character.

Here was the prefect of discipline whose bite, administered with thumb and

forefinger, could be worse than his bark; whose long leather belt, the free end of

it dangling almost to the floor, was seen as a means of correction by some and of

friendly persuasion by others. When Fr Joseph preached, there was so much

mention of "the Almighty" that the congregation could hear in his sermons the

reverberations of a great spiritual striving between the holy man and God.

In the battlefield that was his classroom, victory was once, at least, on the side of

the students. In an emergency too quick for the right words to be thought of, the

teacher just as suddenly fired his textbook toward the head of the offender, but it

missed and went crashing through the window. Fr Joseph did not wait for the

bell to dismiss class that day, but retreated at once to his quarters.

None of the additional occupations he had - then or later - was able to swallow

up the unified character of this man. He seemed, somehow, to be in these

occupations but not of them. In succession or simultaneously he served as custos,

prefect and professor in the school, instructor of the lay brothers, missionary to

Parnell, vestiarius, guestmaster, infirmarian, and chaplain of the local Franciscan

convent. The longest of these assignments, and the only one that regularly took

him away from the monastery, was the St. Joseph mission at Parnell. Beginning

on 15 August 1891 -two months after Abbot Frowin had dedicated the church -

he went there fortnightly for fifteen years, then every weekend for ten years

more. Illness made him give up this position on New Year's Day, 1917, yet not

before a splendid residence had been built for his successor.

Like so many others who felt a vocation to the monastery at Conception, Fr

Joseph was born and raised in Switzerland. He was born in Altstatten, Kanton St.

Gallen, on 5 November 1857, a son of Joseph Zund and Anna Maria Eichmuller,

who named him Joseph Gottlieb. He had a sister who joined the convent at Maria

Rickenbach.

In late September of the year 1878, he and five other young candidates arrived at

New Engelberg. On 8 December 1879, he professed vows as the abbey's 19th

member, together with Leo Scherer, Joachim Huwyler, and Bede Marti. After

courses in theology from Abbot Frowin and a few other seniors, Bishop Martin

Marty ordained this same group to the diaconate on 11 March 1883; shortly

afterward, on 22 July, he ordained them priests.

Fr Joseph's innate sense of discipline, which fitted his role so well in the fledgling

school, did not slacken when, with advancing age, he turned his attention to the

monastery grounds. Discipline, for him, expressed a commitment not only to

obedience and performance, but to kindness and caring, even to an attitude of

resignation at the end.

Fr Joseph Zuendt passed to his reward on 6 June 1931. His funeral was held on

the 9th. Not two weeks before, he had gone to St. Margaret's Hospital in Kansas

City, expecting a speedy recovery from a minor ailment. But this was not to be.

Instead, his expressed desire to die on a Saturday, in honor of the Blessed Virgin

Mary, was granted him.

May he rest in peace!