St. Clement Hofbauer

Clement Hofbauer is one of the clearest portraits of apostolic toughness in the later volumes. Born poor, delayed in his studies, and forced through many obstacles before the priesthood finally opened to him, he acquired early the habit of perseverance. He entered the Redemptorists and then went to Warsaw, where he and his brethren created an astonishing center of Catholic life through preaching, confessions, poverty, catechesis, and practical pastoral care. When political pressure finally crushed that work, Clement did not turn bitter or retire into memory. He began again in Vienna.

There, without noise, he influenced students, intellectuals, converts, and ordinary penitents, helping loosen the grip of a cold bureaucratic religion that had left little room for full Catholic life. He is attractive because zeal in him never became mere agitation. It became durability. Every time a door shut, he looked for the next field and started over.