Departure Day

Wimmer Wednesday. Boniface Wimmer’s group finally leaves for its Mission to America.

“Finally, the immediate preparations for the journey began with a spiritual retreat. The day of departure from Munich was July 25, 1846. They traveled by way of Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Mannheim and Mainz to Rotterdam, where they shipped out on the three-master “Iowa.” While still on the ship, Father Boniface started to write a letter to the Very Rev. Bishop M. O’Connor of Pittsburgh, announcing his arrival and, in reference to his earlier letter, again asking for acceptance into the diocese. This letter was mailed only the day after his departure from New York,6 and the Bishop replied by return mail.”

—From Boniface Wimmer, Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania, translated by Dr. Maria Von Mickwitz and Father Warren Murrman, O.S.B., editor.