Recently I was asked by our regional Catholic Board of Education to present a talk to Religious Education teachers on the life of Abbot Franz Pfanner, the founder of the Monastery of Mariannhill near Durban on the eastern coast of South Africa. Although I knew a fair bit about Pfanner, to prepare for the talk I spent some time delving a little more deeply into his life and work.
While conducting this research on Pfanner’s life, the Church’s 2025 Jubilee year had just ended, and one of its events had been an engagement with Catholic social media influencers during the Jubilee of Youth at the Vatican. Pope Leo XIV addressed hundreds of Catholic influencers – including priests, nuns and active social media users – at St Peter’s Basilica.
This was an important engagement for the Church as influencers are more often thought of in secular terms, as being individuals, often celebrities, who are engaged by business enterprises to endorse and promote specific products and brands. Some examples of celebrity influencers are soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who influences sportswear, fitness, and lifestyle trends, and singer Taylor Swift, who has significant influence on music trends and even political engagement among younger audiences. In today’s world, influence is often measured in followers, likes, and shares.
As shown by this event for the Jubilee year, the Church is also no stranger to influencers, with such well-known personalities as Father Mike Schmitz, known for his work on YouTube and podcasts, including ‘The Bible in a Year’, and Father Rob Galea, who is active on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
In this context, delving into Pfanner’s life led me to the realization that so-called influencers are not something new, especially for the Church. Instead, the history of the Church is replete with examples of influencers whose legacies and influence have lasted far longer than the transitory celebrity that social media will likely give those such as Ronaldo and Swift.
What I found in Pfanner was a truly inspiring example of faith and devotion, often amid the most challenging circumstances; someone who was undoubtedly an influencer of his day and beyond. He did not have a platform or a profile. Instead, his legacy is Mariannhill Monastery and what has been achieved with it being at the heart of evangelization.
Located close to the city of Durban, Mariannhill Monastery is a major landmark. It occupies 35 acres of land with an extensive range of buildings and structures. A visitor coming upon the monastery might be forgiven for thinking that they were encountering a medieval monastery in the heart of Europe. Yet, here on the eastern coast of South Africa sits a monastery built thanks to the dedication of this influencer of the nineteenth century, Franz Pfanner. What was this influence? It is quite literally Matthew 17:20-21 in action: ‘For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’
The questions I sought to answer in my presentation was: How did Pfanner become an influencer of his day? What were the origins of his incredible drive for evangelization and missionary zeal? To answer this, we must look at Pfanner’s formative years to understand his often single-minded determination to evangelize and, very often, his willingness to ‘bend the rules’ and ignore social norms to achieve what he believed the Lord was calling him to do.
The Beginnings Of Franz Pfanner
The story of this faith-filled influencer begins in Austria on September 20, 1825, when Pfanner was born to a Catholic farming family. Work on the farm taught him the value of hard work; the first experience in his early years that would shape his future. The second was his strong academic ability, which led him to attend the university in Italy. This in turn brought the third shaping experience, which was to form Pfanner; namely, ill-health, which weakened his lungs but also resulted in a lengthy period of recuperation during which he began to feel a strong calling to mission work.
The consequences of his ill-health meant that mission work was not possible, or at least did not seem to be possible. This did not stop the young Pfanner, though, and he was ordained a diocesan priest in 1850.
Pfanner was initially assigned to a semi-rural parish in Haselstauden, in western Austria. It was a challenging parish to work in, but he worked hard in his ministry, which in turn led to a rejuvenation of parish life there. Still, Pfanner continued to feel the desire for missionary work. He repeatedly requested permission from his bishop to do so. The bishop did not think this was a good idea due to his health, so he sent him as a spiritual director for the Sisters of Mercy at a convent in Croatia. It was here that two important events were to guide his future path. One was that ongoing bouts of ill-health meant that during recovery he had time to pray and reflect, and the second was his encounter with Trappist monks in Croatia. Pfanner began to feel a call to join the Trappists.
After repeated requests, Pfanner’s bishop eventually agreed to send him to the Trappist monastery of Mariawald in western Germany, where he took the name Franz, after St Francis of Assisi. It was at Mariawald that Pfanner came into his own. He embraced the Trappist lifestyle with enthusiasm, throwing himself wholeheartedly into hard physical labor. It seems that the vegetarian diet and hours of exercise strengthened his previously weak constitution, and he became a strong, healthy man, full of energy and devoted to hard work.
Pfanner’s great appetite for work, though, did have the effect of frustrating his fellow monks whose capacity for labor was more limited. As a result, another opportunity opened and he was told that he should go and establish his own Trappist monastery elsewhere in Europe. He did so in Bosnia in 1869, naming it Mariastern (Star of Mary).
At Mariastern, Pfanner created the blueprint for what would later be Mariannhill. He built the monastery from scratch with a mill, a fruit-drying plant, bridges, roads, a school and an orphanage. As monks were not permitted contact with females, Pfanner introduced religious sisters to teach at the school and orphanage. Less than ten years after its founding, Mariastern numbered around a hundred monks. Pfanner explained during this time that, ‘My resolution…never to spare myself but give even my blood… became like iron and steel.’
At Mariastern, he made it quite clear that he was willing to ‘bend the rules’. At the time in Bosnia, the local authorities did not allow church bells to be rung as the country was under Ottoman rule and the population was religiously mixed. Church bells were seen as a public religious signal and were therefore prohibited. However, bells were an important form of communication for the Trappists as they did not speak. Pfanner responded by having bells smuggled into Bosnia concealed in wine casks. He refused to let what he considered ‘man-made rules’ obstruct his love of God and his calling.
Mariastern’s neighbors did complain about the tolling of the bells, and these complaints led to a reprimand from his bishop, who instructed him to ‘curb his unruly spirit’. It was, however, this ‘unruly spirit’ that gave Pfanner much of his effectiveness as an influencer of time, and despite the criticism he had received, Mariastern became an Abbey and Pfanner was selected as its first Abbot.
It was against this backdrop that Pfanner traveled to the General Chapter of the Trappist Order in France in September 1879, where a new opportunity presented itself.
The Founding of Mariannhill
The General Chapter had a special visitor from South Africa; namely Bishop James Ricards, the Vicar Apostolic of what was then the Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope (Eastern District), which is today located in the Eastern Cape. Ricards was familiar with the work of the Trappists and was present at the Chapter to ask for Trappists to come to his region and establish a mission among the indigenous people.
He made an impassioned plea to the assembled monks but was met with silence. The prospect of moving to an unknown place over 8 000 miles away was not appealing. Then one voice, Pfanner’s, broke the silence with a simple statement, ‘If no one is willing to go, I will go.’
In short order, Pfanner gathered together 30 monks and sailed to South Africa, arriving in July 1880. The area that had been allocated to them was arid and drought-stricken, but with his usual resolve, Pfanner and his colleagues got to work, clearing the thorn bush and planting crops to achieve self-sufficiency. While this work was underway, Pfanner actively sought funds to support this work and traveled back to Europe on fundraising trips. An innovation in this fundraising campaign was a printing press, which Pfanner had brought with him and used to create fundraising leaflets.
Unfortunately, the drought conditions persisted and by 1882, Pfanner – still filled with missionary zeal – had decided to look elsewhere. He approached Bishop Charles Jolivet OMI, the Vicar Apostolic of Natal, on the eastern coast, where Durban is now situated. Jolivet gladly accepted the Trappists and recommended that they take over an unsuccessful mission called St Michael’s, south of Durban.
Pfanner once again demonstrated his particular sense of calling. He had no intention of taking over St Michael’s mission as it was too far from the port at Durban and there was civil conflict in the area. He simply informed Jolivet that he had instead decided to purchase a farm west of Durban. Jolivet eventually agreed, and the Trappists arrived on the site on 26 December 1882, with the first Mass being celebrated by Pfanner the next day. Pfanner named the new property, situated on a hill, in honor of Our Lady and her mother and so ‘Maria-Ann-Hill’ was born.
For a time the monks lived under canvas, but slowly buildings were erected. Taking the motto ‘Ora et Labora’ (‘Work and Prayer’) to heart, they set to work cultivating crops, building roads, and making bricks for the buildings. Of their way of life, Pfanner famously explained:
‘What do I offer the monks in return? Well, an excellent diet. Only no meat, no fish, no eggs, no butter, no coffee, no condiments, no sweets. Nothing to drink except water and plenty of that. I offer them a hard paillasse to sleep on and coarse woven clothes to wear. I demand hard manual work, like digging, threshing, mowing, washing, chopping wood, scrubbing floors and all this in the heat, wind, ice … For all this I offer and give no pay, no remuneration’.
As they worked, Mariannhill grew. In 1885, it was granted the status of an abbey, and Pfanner was appointed its first mitered abbot. He was the first missionary Abbot in South Africa. Importantly, Pfanner’s vision for Mariannhill was deeply progressive. He famously stated that:
‘All boys in our institute receive free bed, board, and instruction, regardless of whether they are pagan, Muslim, Protestant, or Catholic, white, black, or coloured, English, Dutch, German, Italian, Indian or local African.’
He also promoted girls’ education by again introducing religious sisters to teach them, laying the foundation for what is now the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPS). Pfanner also spearheaded the training of indigenous black clergy, a radical idea at the time for the Church in South Africa. Fr Edward Kece Mnganga, sent to Rome to study by Pfanner, was ordained in 1898, becoming the first indigenous South African priest.
Mariannhill was incredibly successful, with people in Europe supporting his work with generous donations. The mission promoted self-sufficiency by offering schooling in the mornings and practical trade training – agriculture, printing, carpentry, blacksmithing and tailoring – in the afternoons. In all of this, Pfanner and his monks led by example, laboring alongside their students.
His determination to disregard what he considered to be ‘man-made’ rules when they obstructed ‘God’s work’ led him to request official changes to the Trappist Rule to allow for young men in training for religious life and who spoke the local, indigenous language to teach and for the sisters to educate girls.
Despite its successes, Pfanner’s unconventional methods and progressive stance led to significant criticism and scrutiny. He was accused of failing to observe the strict Trappist Rule because of his emphasis on active mission work, contact with local populations (including women and indigenous people), and fundraising tours that deviated from traditional monastic life. He was suspended in 1892 and resigned as abbot the next year.
Nevertheless, Pfanner continued to draft statutes for a new missionary society compatible with mission work and lived long enough for the approval to come from Pope Pius X. Mariannhill was formally separated from the Trappist Order three months before Pfanner’s death, which took place on 24 May 1909, and the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (CMM) was established and the future of Mariannhill secured.
Abbott Pfanner’s Legacy
Undoubtedly, Abbott Pfanner was an influencer of his time and beyond, with a long-lasting impact that extended beyond temporary trends and social norms. Mariannhill still stands as a beacon of evangelization and faith, now not only a monastery but the center of its own diocese, the Diocese of Mariannhill.
This is all thanks to Franz Pfanner, who was completely and utterly devoted to evangelization, mission, hard work, prayer, and his vocation. We might think of Proverbs 16:3 in relation to Pfanner’s work and vocation: ‘Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.’ Pfanner did just that.
Bibliography
Brain, Joy B. “Mariannhill Centenary: A look at the Early Years.” Natalia, vol. 12, pp. 58-70, 1982.
Brusse, Robert. “Brother Nivard Streicher Architect of Mariannhill 1884-1922.” Natalia, vol. 15, pp. 79-88, 1985.
Denis, Philippe. “Mission, Civilisation And Coercion In Colonial Natal. Abbot Frantz Pfanner And The African “Other” In Mariannhill (1882–1909).” Bažnyčios Istorijos Studijos, Vi. Lietuvių Katalikų Mokslo Akademijos Metraštis. T. 37 B., 2013.
Mariannhill Monastery. (n.d.) Mariannhill Monastery. Available at: http://mariannhillmonastery.org.za/ (Accessed: 10 April 2026).
Pallister, Marian. “A Missionary Ahead Of His Time.” Worldwide Magazine, posted by Grazeel Gindap, 18 October 2021.
Simmermacher, Gunther. “A Timeline of Catholicism in South Africa.” The Southern Cross, 19 June 2018, updated 20 June 2018.
South Africa Needs Our Lady. “Abbot Franz Pfanner & Devotion to Our Lady.” South Africa Needs Our Lady (website), 2 May 2025.
Von der Heyde, Nicki. “How Franz Pfanner Set up the World’s Biggest Monastery.” The Southern Cross, 17 April 2018, updated 26 April 2018.
Image: Naturpuur, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
