Saint Conrad of Parzham

Saint Conrad of Parzham was a Bavarian Capuchin, a lay brother who for more than forty years served as doorkeeper of Saint Anne’s friary beside the Marian shrine of Altötting. He never sent a poor person away from the door without help and a kind word. The Church commemorates him on April 21.

He was born on December 22, 1818, on a farm at Parzham, in the parish of Weng in the diocese of Passau. His name was Johann Birndorfer. His parents were well-to-do, devout farmers, and he grew up among many brothers and sisters. After a short time at the village school he worked the land with his brothers. At the age of fourteen he lost his mother, and two years later his father. Even then he prayed a great deal: early in the morning he would walk to a distant church, and he kept the rosary in his hands even while working in the fields.

He longed to become a priest in a religious order, but the studies he tried to take up at nineteen with the Benedictines at Metten ended in failure. In 1841 he made his profession in the Third Order of Saint Francis. On the advice of his confessor he then asked the Capuchins to receive him as a brother. He renounced his inheritance and gave his share of the property to the poor and to pious causes. In September 1849, at the age of thirty, he was received into Saint Anne’s friary at Altötting.

He made his novitiate at Laufen on the river Salzach: on September 17, 1851, he received the habit and the name Conrad, and on October 4, 1852, he made his religious vows. Soon afterward his superiors called him back to Altötting and entrusted the door to him. It was no easy service. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to the shrine of the Mother of God every year, and many of them knocked at the friary for help.

Brother Conrad remained at the door until his death. He opened it to pilgrims, children, poor workers, and beggars, fed the hungry, and with the bread gave a word of encouragement. He spoke little and was cheerful and patient, even with those who were insistent. Before dawn he was already praying in the church and serving Mass, and at midnight he rose with the friars for prayer. In free moments he withdrew to a cramped cell under the stairs, from which he could see the tabernacle through an opening in the wall. He used to say that the cross was his book: one look at the cross taught him humility and patience.

In April 1894, worn out by age and work, he told the guardian that he could go on no longer, and took to his bed. He received the sacraments. On the very day of his death, hearing the bell at the door, he sprang up to open it and fell. He died at Altötting on April 21, 1894, at the age of 75.

Pope Pius XI declared Brother Conrad blessed on June 15, 1930, and on May 20, 1934, the Solemnity of Pentecost, canonized him in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The saint’s relics rest at Altötting, in the former church of Saint Anne, which now bears his name. John Paul II in 1980 and Benedict XVI in 2006 recalled the humble doorkeeper there during their pilgrimages.