Petmecky, Franz Ferdinand

Catholic clergyman

Born: 16.05.1814 in Limburg an der Lahn

Died: 06.07.1873 in Bordeaux (France)

Petmecky was ordained a priest in 1839 and then worked as a chaplain in Hochheim and Eltville. In 1842 he became parish administrator in Weilburg, in 1843 professor at the seminary in Limburg and in October of the same year parish priest and dean of Wiesbaden. After the collapse of Wiesbaden's first Catholic church in 1831, money had to be raised again for a new building. Petmecky's predecessor, Pastor Johann Wilhelm Jost, had already increased the building fund to 53,000 fl.

Petmecky traveled half of Europe and received donations from princes, the missionary association in Lyon, Belgium and France. The foundation stone for the new church was finally laid in 1845. Petmecky himself was primarily concerned with its interior decoration. In 1850, he arranged for Biebrich to have its own clergyman and in 1856 promoted the settlement of sisters from the Congregation of the "Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ", the so-called Dernbach Sisters, and the foundation of a "branch institute" of this order.

He headed the department for Catholic education at the government. From 1857-71 he was a teacher at the Wiesbaden upper secondary school. Benefiting from his proximity to the state government, he mediated between the positions of Bishop Peter Josef Blum (1808-1884) and the ducal government in the final years of the Nassau church dispute (1832-61). In 1861 Petmecky was appointed Spiritual Councillor and member of the Ordinariate in Limburg. In 1862, he gave up his office due to illness.