Havestadt, Bernhard
Havestadt, Bernhard
German Jesuit; b. at Cologne, 27 February, 1714; died at Münster after 1778. He entered the Lower-Rhenish province of the order on 20 October, 1732, and in 1746 went to Chile. He was one of the 102 German Jesuits who laboured on the Chilian mission between 1720-67, and in the twenty years of his sojourn in the country, spent mostly among the Araucanian Indians, his displayed remarkable energy and ability. With his splendid linguistic gifts, knowing more or less perfectly nine languages, he took up with enthusiasm the study of Chilidugu, which, in his opinion, “towered over all other languages as the Andes over all other mountains”. The result of these studies appeared in a work of great linguistic importance: “Chilidugu, sive Res Chilenses, vel descriptio, status tum naturalis, tum civilis, cum moralis regni populique Chilensis, inserta suis, locis perfectæ ad Chilensem linguam manuductioni etc.” (3 vols., Münster, 1777). This work was written in Germany after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish colonies; it had been originally composed in Spanish, and was now issued in Latin. Besides a grammar and dictionary, it includes copious specimens of the native Chilian tongue, hymns, and valuable ethnographic notes, etc. The work was re-issued in two volumes by the well-known Americanist Dr. Julius Platzmann (Leipzig, 1883), under its original title, “Chilidugu sive tractatus linguæ Chilensis” (see Zarncke, “Literar. Centralblatt”, 1883, col. 693).
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Huonder, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäre (Freiburg im Br., 1899), 133; von Murr, journal (Nuremburg, 1776-90), I, 122 sqq.: Idem, Nachrichten aus verschiedenen Ländern der spanischen Amerika, II (Halle, 1810), 431 sqq.; Adelung und Vater, Mithridates (Berlin, 1806-17), III, 2, 404; Enrich, Hist. de la Comp. de Jésus en Chile, II (Barcelona, 1891), 213, 294, 352, and elsewhere; Zwölf Missionsspredigten . . . durch den Wolchrw. Herrn. Bernhardt Havestadt, chemaligen Missionarium aus der Gesell. Jesu (Cologne, 1778), which contains some bibliographical information.
A. HUONDER
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Havestadt, Bernhard
a German missionary, was born at Cologne in 1715. He entered the society of the Jesuits, and devoted himself to preaching. In 1746 he was attached to the missions of Chili. He started from Hortsmar, in Westphalia, sailed from Antwerp to Lisbon, and arrived two months afterwards at Rio Janeiro, thence crossed the pampas and Andes to Chili, and reached Santiago, the capital of Chili, after a wearisome and dangerous journey of fifty-five days. He spent five years at Concepcion, thoroughly exploring the country. Having a very good knowledge of the Chilidugu dialect, he was enabled to make some few converts among the Indians. On the abolition of the Jesuit order in the Spanish states, Havestadt was arrested, June 29, 1768, and conducted to Lima, whence, by way of Panama, he returned to Europe. He died at Munster after 1778, where his Observations appeared (1751-77). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.