Rev. Hubert Aeymans

1864 - 1928  (64 years)

• Name	Hubert Aeymans
  Prefix	Rev.
  Born	11 Jan 1864	Godesberg, , Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Immigration	1890	, Canada   [1]
  Naturalization	1894  [1]
  Occupation	1901	Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	Priest
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-81038
  Died	9 Apr 1928	Rome, , Lazio, Italy
  Person ID	I81038	Generations
  Last Modified	9 Jun 2025

  
  

• Notes

  Aeymans, Hubert. Born in Godesberg in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia on 11 January, 1864, he was the son of Bernard and Pauline Gantberg. He entered the Congregation of the Resurrection at Rome on October 28, 1882, and professed his first vows on 7 September, 1883. Aeymans was among the group which moved from St. Claude's in Rome, where the community had been quartered, to the former Hotel de Paris on Via San Sebastianello which Fr. Semenenko had purchased in the summer of 1885. After four years of theology at the Gregorian University in Rome he was ordained on 24 September, 1887. His first assignment was to Adrianople, Turkey, where he joined 20 Resurrectionists at the Adrianople College, teaching in the secondary school. In 1889 he was sent to Canada where he joined the staff of St. Jerome's College. In 1893 he was appointed pastor of St. Agatha parish. There he found the old frame church shabby and in need of repair. As far back as the 1860's the first C.R. pastor, Fr. Eugene Funcken, had already thought of erecting a new church but the "Saugeen Fever" the attraction of new and cheaper land in what is now Bruce County, Ontario had drawn away many parishioners so the idea of a new church was shelved. Now, however, the population had become more stable and Aeymans demonstrated his zeal and his financial acumen. The Gothic brick church was built in 1899 at a cost of $13,000.00 and a brick rectory in 1904 at a cost of $5,000.00, all, as Fr. Theobald Spetz, Aeyman's contemporary, observed: ". . . without going out of the parish for funds and without bazaars and other artificial means of making money." A new building for the orphans was also built and the cemetery chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, another of Fr. Eugene's contributions was decorated and painted. Whether it was from a financial or a social/theological motive, Aeymans abandoned the old systems of having the sexes seated separately in church in favour of family pews, and pew rent, and was able to improve the financial position of the parish. When Fr. Theobald Spetz, the founding pastor of St. Louis parish in Waterloo, became pastor of St. Mary's Church in Berlin (Kitchener) in 1911, Aeymans succeeded him at St. Louis. Fr. Spetz had been content to reside at St. Jerome's College in Berlin, traveling to St. Louis parish for daily mass and, when necessary, using the sacristy for overnight accommodations; Aeymans first task was to purchase a house to serve as a rectory for 3,850.00. By 1911 the Catholic population had increased from 330 in 1891 to more than 900 so Fr. Hubert began to plan for an enlargement of the church but in 1912 he was called back to Berlin to assist at St. Mary's Church. Four years later, in 1915, he returned to St. Louis as pastor. The addition to the church which he had planned had been completed in 1915 at a cost of $38,000.00. It would be his "task," as Fr. Spetz wrote, "of finding the means of liquidating the debt incurred by the addition to the church." This was no easy task. His health began to suffer and "a nervous condition" forced him to resign. He returned to Rome to recuperate in 1927 and in the late autumn of that year went to Mentorella, the Resurrectionist shrine in the mountains south of Rome. He said Mass on Holy Saturday, 9 April, 1928 but was ill in bed on Easter. The following day he suffered a stroke and died two days later. He was buried in the small cemetery at Mentorella and is the only member of what would become the Ontario-Kentucky Province to be buried there. Called to Resurrection A biographical dictionary of men who lived and died as Resurrectionists of the Ontario-Kentucky Province 1857-2010 James A. Wahl, C. R. with Judith Kroetsch

  
  

• Sources

  [S133] Census - ON, Waterloo, Wilmot - 1901, Wilmot H-5 Page 17.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 11 Jan 1864 - Godesberg, , Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany Immigration - 1890 - , Canada Occupation - Priest - 1901 - Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 9 Apr 1928 - Rome, , Lazio, Italy  = Link to Google Earth