Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/767

 KOLLER

687

KONARSKI

(vorkers in the United States, lie was sent to George- town, D. C, where he was made assistant to the master of novices, and went on missionary tours to the several German congregations in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Affairs in the Church in New York having gone badly. Bishop Carroll picked him out as the person best qualified to introduce the needed reforms and to restore order, and with his fellow Jesuits, Benedict Fenwick and four scholastics. James Wallace, Michael White, James Redmond, and Adam Marsludl, he took charge there in October, 1808. It was a time of great commercial depression in the city owing to the results of the Embargo Act of 22 December, 1807. The Catholic population, he states in a letter written on 8 November, 1808, consisted " of Irish, some hundreds of French and as many Germans; in all according to the common estimation of 14,000 souls". Such pro- gress was made under his direction that the corner- stone of a new church, old St. Patrick's Cathedral, the second church erected in New York City, was laid on 8 June, 1809. He started a classical school called the New York Literary Institution, which he carried on successfull.v for several years in what was then a suburban village but is now the site of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. In April, ISIJ, he also started a school for girls in the same ncigliliourliocjd, in charge of Ursuline nuns who came at his instance for that purpose from their convent at Cork, Ireland.

About the same time Father Kohlmann became the central figure in a lawsuit that excited national inter- est. He had been instrumental in having stolen goods restored to a man, who demanded in court that the priest should reveal from whom he had received them. Father Kohlmann refused to tlo this, on the ground that his information had been received under the seal of confession. The case was taken before the Court of General Sessions, where after a trial the de- cision rendered by De Witt Clinton was given in his favour. Its principle was later embodieil in the State law passed on 10 December, 1828, which enacted that " No minister of the Gospel or priest of any ilenomina- tion whatsoever shall be allowed to disclose any con- fession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the rules or prac- tices of such denomination." To a report of the case when published Father Kohlmann added an exposi- tion of the teachings of the Church on the Sacrament of Penance. (Sampson, "The Catholic Question in .\merica", appendix. New York, 1813.) The book excited a long and vigorous controversy with a num- ber of Protestant ministers, and was followed in 1821 by another learned work, " Unitarianism, Theologic- ally and Philosophically considered ", in which Father Kohlmann replied to the assertions of Dr. Jared Sparks and other Unitarian leaders.

New York had no bishop as yet, the first appointed having died in Italy Ijefore he reached his see, and Father Kohlmann governed as administrator for sev- eral years. In 1815, expecting the early arrival of the second bishop (Connolly), he returned to the college of his order at Georgetown, D. C, as master of novices, and in 1817 became superior. In 1824, when Leo XII restored the Gregorian University to the direction of the Society of Jesus, Father Kohlmann was summoned to Rome to take the chair of thcolngy. which he filled for five years. One of his pupils tlien was the sulise- quent Pope Leo XIII; another became later .-Vrch- bishop of Dublin, and the first Irish cardinal (Paul CuUen). Leo XII and Gregory XVI both held Father Kohlmann in the highest esteem, and had him at- tached as consultor to the staffs of the College of Cardinals and several of the important Congregations, including that of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical .\ffairs, of Bishops and Regulars, ami of th(> In(|uisition. The last part of his life he spent as a confessor in the church of the Gesu, where during the Lenten season of

1836 he overtaxed liimself and brought on an attack of pneumonia that ended his career.

Shea, The Catholic Church in the U. S. (New York, 1856); B.VYLEY, A Brief Sketch of the Early History of the Catholic Church in the Island of N. Y. (New York, 1870); Finotti, Biblioff. Cath. Am, (New Yorlc, 1872); Farley, History of St. Patrick's Cathedral (New York, 1908); U. S. Cath. Hist. Sac, Hi.ll. Records and Studies, I (.^ew York, 1899), pt. i; The Catho- lic Family Almanac (,New York, 1872).

Thomas F. Meehan.

KoIIer, Marian Wolfgang, scientist and educator, b. at Feistritz in Carniola, Austria, 31 October, 1792; d. of cholera at Vienna, 19 September, 1866. His education was very thorough; after studying the rudi- ments at Feistritz he went to Laibach, where he spent nine years (1802-11) in classical, philosophical, and scientific studies, and completed his school life by a course in higlier matliematics at Vienna. From 1814 to 1S16 he acted as private tutor in a family at Stein- bach, and whilst here he was so attracted by the life and work of the Benedictines of Kremsmtinster that he finally entered their novitiate on 5 October, 1816, taking the name Marian in place of his baptismal name of Wolfgang. He was ordained priest on 18 August, 1821, and after three years of very successful work in the parish of Sippachzell he was recalled to Kremsniiinster to teach natural history and physics. In ls:! he was relieved of the professorship of natural histor\- and appointeil director of the astronomical obser\-atory, antl during the next seventeen years by his iudefatigalile laliours not only preserved but in- creased the high repute of the observatory throughout Austria. He continued also to teach physics until 1839, when he was given general charge of the student body. His administrative abilities were so great as to attract the attention of the authorities at Vienna, whither he was called in 1847. From this time on he was employed in high offices either in the University of Vienna or in the Department of Education, which was at that time unilergoing a process of reconstruc- tion. All matters pertaining to the limhchvlen, and to the polytechnic, nautical, and astronomical institu- tions, were placed under his immediate care, and, as a mark of appreciation for liis share in the thorough organization of the Realschulcn, the emperor bestowed on him the Cross of the Order of Leopokl on 27 May, 1859. In 1848 he was elected member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and always took a very active part in its proceedings. He was also an active writer, and contributed to various scientific periodicals many articles on astronomy, physics and meteorolog}'. To his high intellectual aliilities was added the charm of a genial character, and he thus won not only the esteem but also the affection of those with whom he came into personal contact. His principal work is the " Berechnung der periodischen Naturerscheinungen ", pubHshed in the " Wiener Denkschrift" (1850).

Fellocker, Gesch. der Sternwarte der Benedictiner-.\btei Kremsmiinster (Linz, 1864-9), 247-98; Wurzbach, Bioo. Lex. des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, XII (Viean.i. 1S64). .■!46-7.

Edward C. Phillips.

Eolping, Adolph. See Gesellenvereine.

Eonarski, ST.\NiSLAtTs, b. in 1700; d. in 1773. This great reformer of Polish schools was aPiarist who, dur- ing a visit to Rome after his ordination, received there the first idea of his life's mission. Returning to Po- land through France and Germany (whose systems of education he studied on his way), and at first unsuc- cessful in his plans, he set to compiling the " Volumina Legum", the first volume appearing in 17.32. About the end of .\ugvistus II's reign, and fluring the interreg- num which followed, he wrote inueli in favour of Stan- i.slaus Leszczynski, and, subsei|ueiitly tra\clling in the Netherlands and in France, stayed for a time at the exiled king's court. Here he became convinced that reform in politics must be preceded by reform in edu- cation, and, returning home in 1738, he attempted to