Obituary of Pastor Franz Pöder of Algund (Part 1)

Appendix.

Obituary. 1/3

O beate Sexti!

Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam.

Hor. Ode 4. L. I.

On the last day of May of this year, the Reverend Franz Pöder, pastor in Algund, in the district court of Meran, passed away. His 77-year-old mother closed his eyes. He had already lost his father, Franz Pöder, owner of the so-called Gratschenhof (more correctly Koratschhof) in Tscherms, Lana district court, through an all too early death in 1786, when he (born on December 4, 1779) was only 7 years old. Along with his eight siblings, of whom three sisters still survive — the eldest as a widow, the two younger in happy marriages —, he owed his good upbringing solely to the tireless efforts of his mother Rosina Werner, the Steger daughter from Vöran, who was distinguished by a rare strength of mind and physical fortitude. His frail physique may have prompted the sensible mother to dedicate her only son to scholarly pursuits rather than preparing him for the hard labor of a farmer and the ownership of the Koratschhof. Pöder received his first instruction in the Latin language from Lorenz Lösch, then curate at the parish of Tisens, and completed the lower classes at the Gymnasium in Meran with good success in 1798, under the worthy prefect Father Benedikt Langes, whose obituary has been sorely missed in these pages to date.

His progress was distinguished in nearly all branches of philosophical and theological studies, to which he devoted himself at the University of Innsbruck, completing philosophy in 1800 and theology in 1803.

Still in that same year (on October 28), he was ordained a priest by the Most Reverend Prince-Bishop in Brixen, and was subsequently appointed supernumerary by his godfather, the Reverend Peter Kofler, dean in Tisens.

In the following year, the local chaplain in Tscherms died, and Pöder was appointed to his post. Here he found time and opportunity to devote himself entirely to his favorite pursuit: the education of youth, which was very much neglected in the countryside at that time. Even as a student, he had constantly engaged in reading various writings on youth and pedagogy, giving attentive observers cause to expect that he would one day distinguish himself exceptionally as a catechist and popular educator.

Within a short time, the weekday and holiday school in Tscherms was organized so effectively that it served as a model school for all the others and induced many parents to send their children there, even though they had their own schools at home or nearby. Pöder's primary endeavor was directed at instilling a prevailing love for goodness, and especially for God — the fountainhead of all good —, into young minds through the early awakening of moral feeling and the deep engraving of the principles and teachings of our holy religion. He sought above all to prepare a good, fertile soil for the seed of the divine word, and to entrust the teaching of Jesus more to the heart than to memory. Yet he was also so eagerly concerned with the intellectual education of the children that he often taught school himself to give the teacher practical guidance on how to approach his work. He possessed a very special talent for awakening the desire to learn in children and captivating their attention. For this purpose he used school prizes, which he purchased from his own means when funds were lacking. At the close of the school term, he used to stage a small theatrical performance with his schoolchildren, with roles distributed solely according to merit acquired in school through progress, diligence, and proper conduct. Through these performances, in which he had once taken the most joyful part as a student during holidays and which he now composed himself for his salutary purposes and enlivened with songs, he sought above all to ennoble the hearts of children and adults, to strengthen within them the love and fear of God, to instill loyal devotion to sovereign and fatherland, and in particular to make the rural populace content with their station.

These noble and rarely combined qualities of a true friend of youth, who was at the same time the most zealous pastor of his congregation, could not remain hidden; they soon attracted the attention of spiritual and secular authorities. In the autumn of 1807, the then Royal Bavarian Government undertook a complete reform of higher education in Trent, and Pöder was appointed professor of church history and canon law. Because he considered his chest too weak for the exertions of the lectern, however, he declined this honorable appointment and recommended his youth teacher, the priest Lösch, who was duly appointed to the chair.

At the beginning of 1808, the elementary schools received a new organization, and the district offices were instructed by the General Provincial Commissariat to propose the most qualified individuals from the secular clergy to staff the newly established school inspectorates.

Consequently, by decree of the provincial authority of April 8, Pöder was appointed provisional district school inspector for the jurisdictions of Meran, Kastelbell, and Aller-Engelsberg, an arrangement that received supreme confirmation by rescript of January 13, 1809.

Now Pöder was in his element. Twenty elementary schools fell under his district inspectorate, which he visited twice a year in accordance with the supreme instruction (of September 15, 1808), applying the greatest care to their external order and the improvement of their internal condition. His first and most important undertaking aimed at the training of capable and moral schoolteachers, as well as providing an effective vehicle for their continual encouragement.

To achieve his goal, he established in the former respect a pedagogical teaching association, connected to it a well-arranged school library whose books circulated among readers to reduce costs, and held on appointed days the highly beneficial school conferences in which readings were discussed and the uniform application of useful methods was decided.

In the latter respect, he had observed during his school visitations that those teachers who, by virtue of their higher income and advanced education, gave reason to expect that the schools entrusted to them would flourish ever more, actually accomplished the least, whereas less educated and very sparsely paid teachers produced very good fruits of instruction through their strenuous diligence. He correctly explained this phenomenon by the fact that the latter class of schoolteachers sought to recommend themselves for better school benefices through official zeal, whereas the former no longer found any spurring incentive therein.

He therefore submitted a proposal for annual remunerations for particularly diligent schoolteachers, and even took it upon himself to secure a fund for such rewards at each local school, so as not to burden the general school fund. (To be continued.)