Obituary for School Inspector and Parish Priest Franz Xaver Pöder (Continued)

Appendix.

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(Continuation.)

To encourage and bring joy to school children—girls also receiving instruction in sewing, knitting, and other needlework at his instigation—he introduced solemn examinations and prize distributions throughout his entire district, covering the costs from the donations of benevolent friends of youth and frequently from his own means.

He regarded singing as a truly excellent means of cultivating the moral, religious, and aesthetic person, yet it had been completely foreign to his elementary schools. Therefore, during his school visits, he made every effort to direct the attention of catechists and teachers to this fine branch of popular education and to urge its greatest possible advancement.

The finest success crowned his zealous efforts and wise arrangements. As early as a decree of 9 December 1812, he received flattering assurance from the Royal General Commissariat of the Innkreis “that there was complete satisfaction with the progress made by the school system in his district during the past years 1811 and 1812, and that the praised friends of education and patrons of youth instruction should be informed of this office’s satisfaction with their selfless efforts. In particular, it was noted with pleasure from the final report that District Inspector Pöder had established a pedagogical association, and introduced an itinerant school library and school conferences.”

In 1813 there appeared in Innsbruck, printed with Wagner types: Der Ring, oder die Macht der Vorsätze (The Ring, or the Power of Resolutions). A play in five acts with songs for school youth. Pöder is its author. The booklet does not distinguish itself by dramatic art or novelty of subject, but all the more by its moral-religious tendency and by the corresponding effect it could not fail to produce among the rural population.

A larger work of his was printed in 1816 in Augsburg on commission by Nikolaus Doll, under the title: Der frohe singende Christ zu Hause und auf dem Felde (The Joyful Singing Christian at Home and in the Field). A folk songbook for domestic edification and innocent, useful entertainment; at the same time a home book for Christian families, and a keepsake for graduating holiday school pupils. It consists of two parts, the first dealing with catechetical truths, the second with their application and pious cheerfulness.

The number of songs on the doctrines of faith and morals, and on various prayers, amounts to 214; that of the second part on biblical and moral tales, fables of moral content, songs of pious, innocent cheerfulness, and mixed topics to 244, totaling 458. As the preface states, with few exceptions composed by the entirely non-poetic author, they were borrowed from the best song collections and intended primarily for his own school and congregation.

The publication of the melodies for these songs was omitted; yet Pöder sought to remedy this lack in another manner. Namely, many song texts were adapted to melodies that were almost universally known and had already gained civic rights in the singing world. Pöder indicated these melodies by quoting the opening stanzas of their original texts. For other songs, he assigned melodies from Lindner's musical Jugendfreund, from the Jugendfreund published in Munich, or finally from Becker's Mildheim songbook.

Reading the preface to this songbook, one finds the author entirely enthusiastic about his theme. Besides several psychological reasons, he adduces various passages from the Old and New Testaments in its support, and in particular the testimony of Pliny that the early Christians distinguished themselves by singing both within and outside their worship services. He furthermore cites a letter from St. Jerome to Marcella with the words: “Wherever one turns, one hears the plowman singing his hallelujah, the reaper his spiritual song, and the vine-dresser the psalms,” and exclaims: “Oh, that the mountain ranges and valleys of our beloved homeland might soon resemble that region where St. Jerome lived!”

Under date of 15 December 1816, the Imperial-Royal Circular Office of Bozen rescriped to the District Court of Lana: That long before receiving the district court report, it had been aware of the strenuous and effective dedication of School District Inspector Provost Pöder to the school system, both through the practical work he had performed and through other inquiries obtained; and it therefore instructed the District Court to assure Provost Pöder of the Circular Office’s particular satisfaction regarding his merits as school district inspector, noting that it would not fail to inform the high provincial authorities in due time. — The vacancy of the parish of Marling offered a welcome opportunity for this. Pöder was unanimously placed first among the candidates by the spiritual and secular authorities, and was appointed parish priest in Marling by high court decree of 16 May 1817. He retained the school district inspectorship and tended to it with such unbroken devotion and care that the high satisfaction of the provincial authority was conveyed to him on every occasion.

Yet his philanthropic heart led him to an entirely new subject of tireless exertion and truly inspired treatment. An entirely destitute deaf-mute, whom Pöder's mother had taken into her home out of charity, awakened in him as early as 1805 and 1806—as he often remarked—the noble idea of coming to the aid of this unfortunate class of people. He thus undertook, of his own accord, the education of deaf-mutes, which had hitherto been completely neglected in our homeland and was exceedingly difficult. Without ever having seen an institute for the deaf and mute, or having obtained any knowledge of an appropriate method for the intellectual treatment of these unfortunates, he was confined solely to his own inventions and principles, and progressed so far that his pupils made not insignificant advances in sign language, religious instruction, and reading and writing.

By 1820 he already had seven deaf-mutes in his classes, and owing to the good success, he could count on a significant increase in their numbers. For aside from the fact that the noble-minded priest not only provided instruction to the deaf-mutes free of charge, but also supported the completely destitute pupils in other ways, the number of these unfortunates in our mountainous land is so great that, according to official reports from 1831, it exceeded the statistically assumed ratio of 150 or 200 deaf-mutes per million people by threefold, at least in the districts of Bozen and Roveredo.

Pöder realized that his person alone and his limited resources could not suffice to instruct a larger number of deaf-mutes.

(Conclusion to follow.)