Schoenstatt Movement

The Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt was founded by a young Pallotine priest, Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968) who was given the pastoral care of a Student College at Schoenstatt, near Koblenz, Germany, in 1912.The Movement took its name from this place.

In performing his task, Father Kentenich soon felt the need to combine the truths of the faith with the needs of the times, and for a new type of spiritual education for the young people entrusted to his care.

The "Covenant of Love" which Father Kentenich and his students, on Oct. 18, 1914, sealed with Mary and with the Blessed Trinity in the shrine chapel, of which there are over 200 in the world today, forms the heart of Schoenstatt’s charisma.

It is at the shrine that the students entrusted their lives to Our Lady, asking her to make the chapel a centre of prayer and encounter with God, where anyone who comes, can receive three graces of healing and renewal: The grace of feeling “at home” in the Lord, the grace of an inner transformation, and the grace of being sent forth to realise the mission of the Gospel. This experience was to become the core of the spirituality of the Movement, and the Schoenstatt Shrine grew into a place of pilgrimage for millions of people from all over the world.

The Movement was approved by the Church authorities in 1964, and today comprises 26 branches which gather together men, women, families, young people, priests and consecrated lay persons, in various forms of commitment.