Schoenstatt

The Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt (German: Schönstatt-Bewegung) is a Catholic Marian movement founded in Germany in 1914 by Fr Joseph Kentenich, who saw the movement as a means of spiritual renewal for the Catholic Church. The movement is named after the small locality of Schönstatt (which means “beautiful place”) which is part of the town of Vallendar near Koblenz, in Germany.

As a movement of renewal within the Catholic Church, Schoenstatt works to revitalize the Church and society in the spirit of the Gospel. Its members seek to connect faith with daily life, especially through a deep love for Mary, the Mother of God, who helps, educates and guides them in becoming better followers of Christ. As an international movement, it has expanded to every continent and has members from all vocations and walks in life. It is a spiritual family whose many branches and communities join to form a single Schoenstatt Family.

The Schoenstatt Movement was founded in 1914, when Father Joseph Kentenich, the spiritual director in a Pallottine school in Vallendar, Germany, and a young group of seminarians sealed the “Covenant of Love” with the Virgin Mary in a small chapel, now known as the Original Schoenstatt Shrine. Father Kentenich was inspired in part by the success of Bartolo Longo in establishing the Marian shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, and felt called to establish a new shrine in Schoenstatt, to “create a spirituality which would be adaptable to conditions of rapid changes in the modern world”.

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