Société des Missions Africaines – Province de Strasbourg

né le 27 janvier 1884 à Willer sur Thur dans le diocèse de Strasbourg, France membre de la SMA le 26 septembre 1905 prêtre le 21 juillet 1907 décédé le 2 mars 1945

1907-1929 missionnaire à la Côte du Bénin 1929-1932 missionnaire au Togo 1933 Vigneulles 1933-1936 Saint-Pierre, professeur et surveillant 1936-1945 missionnaire en Géorgie, USA décédé à Tenafly, USA, le 2 mars 1945, à l’âge de 60 ans

Le père Joseph MARGREITHER (1884 - 1945)

Le 2 mars 1945, à Tenafly (USA), retour à Dieu du père Joseph Margreither, à l'âge de 60 ans.

Joseph Margreither naquit à Weiler (Thann) dans le diocèse de Strasbourg en 1884. Il fit ses études à Keer, Richelieu et Lyon où il entra en 1903. Il fit le serment en 1905 et fut ordonné prêtre en 1907. En octobre de la même année, il partait pour le vicariat de la Côte du Bénin. Il y travailla en plusieurs missions. Lui aussi, il aida le père Landais en sa cocoteraie de Tocpo. En 1928, il quittait le Nigeria, c'était l'époque où on répartissait les territoires entre les diverses provinces. L'année suivante, le père partait pour le Togo, d'où il dut rentrer bien malade (paludisme), en 1932. Il partit alors pour l'Amérique, en cette autre mission confiée à la province d'Alsace-Lorraine.

Le père Margreither fut un bon confrère et un excellent missionnaire. Peu doué pour l'administration, il était d'un dévouement exemplaire.

Father Joseph Margreither (1884 - 1945)

Joseph Margreither was born in Miller-sur-Thur, Alsace-Lorraine, in the diocese of Strasbourg, on January 27, 1884.
He died in Tenafly, NJ, USA, on March 2, 1945.

Joseph Margreither was thirteen years old when he entered the Colleges of the Society. He received his second-level education in Our Lady of Lourdes Apostolic School, at Keer en Cadier, Holland, and in the Petit Seminaire des Roches at Chamalieres (Puy-de-Dome) (1897-1902). He was then promoted to the Society’s major seminary, at Cours Gambetta, Lyon, France, where he made his novitiate and studied philosophy and theology (1902-1907) He was received as a member of the Society on September 26, 1905 and was ordained a priest in the seminary chapel at Lyon on July 21, 1907.

After ordination Joseph was appointed to the Vicariate Apostolic of the Bight of Benin, in West Africa. Originally part of the vast vicariate of Dahomey, erected in 1860, this jurisdiction had been established ten years later and extended over much of south western Nigeria. Its ecclesiastical capital at Lagos. He worked in the cathedral parish in Lagos and in Abeokuta, But he is best remembered for his work in Topo mission, first as assistant to Fr. Landais and then as superior. The island of Topo had been leased to the Vicariate by government in 1874. Subsequently a coconut farm had been planted which became an important source of revenue through the sale of copra (dried fruit of the coconut used for making soap and cosmetics). Topo had a boarding school (the boys helped in the farm), also a convent with orphanage attached and, of course, a church and mission. There were also ten outstations to be cared for, the most important of which was Badagry which had been founded in 1899.

With the formation of the Alsace Province in 1927 (the Lyon Province was formed in the same year), Joseph was withdrawn from Nigeria and sent to Togo, which had been entrusted to the care of the Alsatians. Going there early in 1929 he was posted as assistant to Theophile Boursin in the District of Anecho, where there was a central mission, thirteen outstations, and a convent of OLA Sisters who ran a girls school. A year later Joseph became superior of the District of Woga which had been established the year earlier. Joseph suffered from continuous bouts of malaria during 1932 and early in 1933 he was invalided home. He spent the next two years convalescing

In the early years of the 20th century Ignace Lissner, from Alsace, had pioneered Society works in the Southern States of the USA, founding during the next decade several missions in African-American communities. Staffing these missions were Society members drawn mainly from the Alsace-Lorraine region. As the American works grew in scope staffing requirements increased and the new Alsace Provincial, Fr. Brediger was frequently requested to provide men. It was against this background that Joseph – clearly no longer fit for the tropics – was re-assigned to the American branch. He came to America in 1935 and was assigned to the Society’s missions in Georgia. However within a matter of months his health broke down and he was re-assigned to St. Anthony’s Mission House, Tenafly NJ, then the headquarters of the American branch. He was to reside here for the remaining years of his life, helping in administration of the house, assisting in promotion work, and taking on temporary pastoral assignments in the Archdiocese of Newark. He also spent many hours at his favorite hobby which was gardening, doing much to beautify the environment.

Fr. Noel Douau, Archivist at the SMA Generalate in Rome for many years, compiled three volumes of ‘short lives of deceased confreres’ in the late 1950’s. In this he tells us that Joseph had a gift for administration. A card in the archives of the American Province, in Tenafly, commemorating Joseph’s death, has written on it in fountain pen the following inscription:
‘the good gardener was needed in Heaven. Fr. Margreither was one.’

He is buried in the SMA Community Plot, in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Tenafly, NJ, USA.