Peter Jan Beckx

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The Very Reverend Pieter Beckx, S.J.

Peter Jan Beckx, S.J., Dutch also Pieter Jan Beckx, French Pierre Jean Beckx (February 8, 1795 – March 4, 1887) was the twenty-second Superior-General of the Society of Jesus. He was born at Sichem, Belgium. Beckx was ordained as a priest in 1819, and appointed to a little parish near Brussels. Eight months later, he resigned and entered the Society of Jesus at Hildesheim, Hanover. After learning German, he was soon able to preach, hear confessions, and give retreats in that language.

The Duke and Duchess of Anhalt-Köthen converted to Catholicism in 1825 and asked for a Jesuit chaplain. Father Beckx was appointed to this duty, and went to live in Köthen. He found only twenty Catholics there; in four years he had two hundred converts. In 1830 he went to live in Vienna, where he was the only Jesuit for many years. From time to time he was called to Rome and sent on missions to Lombardy, Hungary, and Bavaria. His first important post was as procurator for the province of Austria, 1847; next year he became rector of the Jesuit college at Leuven. In 1852 he was made Provincial of Austria and reintroduced the Jesuits to Innsbruck, Linz, and Lviv. The next year, on the death of Father Jan Roothaan, he was made General of the Society by the unanimous vote of the delegates.

During the thirty-four years that Father Beckx governed the Jesuits, their membership doubled and new provinces were established in Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Americas. New missions were begun in different parts of the world and new colleges were opened in every province. His tenure of office was marked by an increased zeal for missions in Protestant lands. The Society was expelled from Italy in 1860, from Spain in 1868, from Germany in 1873, from France and the French colonies in 1880. In 1873 Father Beckx went to live at Fiesole, near Florence, thereby moving the society’s headquarters there. He remained there until the election of Anton Anderledy, a Swiss, who had seen service in the United States, as Vicar-General in 1883. Beckx then went back to Rome, abdicating his charge entirely. He died there four years later at the age of ninety-two. Father Beckx was the author of the often-translated Der Monat Maria (Month of Mary (Vienna, 1843).