page_title: Joseph Kentenich
section_title: Beginning the "Covenant of Love" with Mary
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Kentenich / Founding the Schoenstatt Movement / Beginning the "Covenant of Love" with Mary
caption_attribution_description: English: Our Lady of Schoenstatt
context_page_description: Peter Joseph Kentenich was a Pallottine priest and founder of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement. He is also remembered as a theologian, educator and pioneer of a Catholic response to an array of modern issues, whose teachings underwent a series of challenges from political and ecclesiastical powers. He attempted to teach Christians how to live out their faith.
  Considered by many of those who came into contact with him to have been a saint, his case for sainthood is currently at the diocesan level in the diocese of Trier, pending the compilation of his writings and correspondences.
context_section_description: Kentenich interpreted the ideas of his order's founder, Vincent Pallotti, to be calling for a worldwide effort to involve lay people in apostolic work, and to unite the various factions in the church. With some of his pupils, on 18 October 1914, Kentenich laid the first milestone of the foundation of the work of Schoenstatt. In an old chapel of St. Michael, formerly abandoned and used for the storage of the gardening tools, he gathers about twenty seminarians, where they seal with the Mother of God a covenant that he will call "Covenant of Love". What makes unique this approach is that this "Covenant" is conceived not as a pious symbol, but a bilateral contract between the two contracting parties. Moreover, through the voice of the young priest, the Holy Virgin is requested to kindly establish Her throne in the chapel to spread Her treasures. Each group member agrees to give up now entirely to the Mother of God, and to let themselves be guided by Her through their existence. The group founds a Marian Congregation. This was the beginning and the lasting foundation of today’s worldwide development of the Schoenstatt Movement. This movement was named after its place of origin, a word meaning "Beautiful Place".
  Indeed, deeply convinced about Mary's love for all men, he implored by prayer and sacrifice for that small chapel becomes a privileged place of grace and that it may attract multitudes of men and educate them for the work of God's Kingdom. The speech he delivered on this occasion is considered the Schoenstatt Movement's Foundation Act.
  The young seminarians grasped his intentions and testified by their spirit of sacrifice during the difficult years of World War I. Some of them, amid the dangers of the front, sacrificed their lives for the cause of Schoenstatt. Among these, the Servant of God Joseph Engling was particularly distinguished: fervent seminarian, supporter of the peace between nations and an apostle among his fellow soldiers, he offers his life to the Our Lady for the development of Schoenstatt. On 4 October 1918, he is killed by a shell in Northern France, next to Thun-Saint-Martin; Father Kentenich would present him as a model. His process of beatification is underway.
  In 1915, a teacher gave to Kentenich a picture of the Virgin Mary with her child. Despite the low artistic value of the work, Kentenich was charmed by the tenderness of the gesture of Mary clutching Jesus on her heart; he placed the picture above the altar. Revered as Mater Ter Admirabilis (Mother Thrice Admirable), she was put in all the foundations of Schoenstatt. During the war, a magazine under the same patronage was sent to the youth who fight at the front.
caption: The picture of the Mater Ter Admirabilis
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