Fr Andreas Amrhein - 
Founder of the Missionary Benedictines

Josef Georg Amrhein was born on February 4, 1844, in Gunzwil in what was then the canton of Lucerne. He attended elementary school and high school but dropped out shortly before graduating.

He first went to Florence, where he trained as an artist. This was followed by further training in Paris in the field of historical painting, with his private studies increasingly turning to religious themes. Inspired by sermons at a popular mission, Amrhein experienced a conversion and felt a calling to become a priest. He studied theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

In 1870, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of Beuron in southern Germany. Upon entering the novitiate, he received the religious name Andreas. He was ordained a priest in 1872. He worked at the Beuron Art School and was involved in the founding of the Maredsous Abbey in Belgium.

From 1878 onward, he developed the idea of ​​founding his own congregation, combining Benedictine monastic life with mission. However, he was unable to implement this idea at Beuron.

After years of searching and struggling, Father Andreas Amrhein founded his own missionary society in Reichenbach, Upper Palatinate, in 1884 with the permission of the Holy See. Due to the anti-church laws of the time, his foundation could not appear publicly as a monastery, but only as an association. However, due to colonial expansion in Africa, the government of the German Empire permitted the missionaries of Reichenbach to evangelize in German East Africa.

At the German Catholic Congress in Münster, Germany in 1885, several young women approached Amrhein, and a female branch of the Missionary Benedictines was founded. The community finally settled in 1887 at the Emming estate, later renamed St. Ottilien. That same year, the first monks and sisters were sent to East Africa.

A significant part of the monastery buildings was constructed according to plans by Fr. Andreas Amrhein. His diverse artistic and technical talents were of great benefit to him. He led the rapidly growing community as its first Superior General.

In 1895, he suffered a personal crisis. He resigned from his position and left the monastery. In the following decades, he lived in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, working as a book illustrator.

He did not return to St. Ottilien until 1923, where he lived in seclusion until his death on December 29, 1927.