Biography of Jakob Mitterhöfer

Jakob Mitterhöfer SVD (born 6 September 1936 in Forchtenstein; died 9 May 2026 in St. Gabriel) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, Divine Word missionary, scholar of mission studies and pastor. He served for 28 years as secretary general of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Austria, taught dogmatics and missiology, and later worked as parish priest in Hinterbrühl and Maria Enzersdorf-Südstadt.

Forchtenstein, St. Gabriel and Rome

Mitterhöfer came from Forchtenstein in the Diocese of Eisenstadt. In 1956 he entered the Society of the Divine Word. He studied in St. Gabriel and Rome and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1963. In 1968 he received a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. This combination of religious life, Roman training and missionary horizon remained the foundation of his later path.

Mission societies and Latin America

From 1966 to 1994 Mitterhöfer was secretary general of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Austria, later Missio. During these years he travelled widely, especially to Latin America. There he encountered base communities and liberation theology, whose concerns he helped make known in Austria. For him mission meant not only sending, but exchange: the Church should learn, listen and take social reality seriously.

Teaching and theology

From 1996 to 2002 Mitterhöfer worked at the Philosophical-Theological College of St. Gabriel as lecturer, professor and dean. He taught dogmatics, missiology and intercultural theology; he also lectured at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna and at Heiligenkreuz. His subjects connected doctrine, world church, ecumenism and the question of how theology finds language in different cultures.

Parish priest in Hinterbrühl and Südstadt

From 2003 to 2013 Mitterhöfer was parish priest in Hinterbrühl and Maria Enzersdorf-Südstadt. The parish of Hinterbrühl later described him as a considerate and empathetic pastor who knew many people by name. His manner was shaped by trust in lay people, humour and a broad view. In parish work especially, his experience of the world church did not remain abstract, but was translated into everyday pastoral care.

Marcello Martini and remembrance

In Hinterbrühl, Mitterhöfer's pastoral work was also connected with remembrance. He supported the commemoration of the Italian concentration camp survivor Marcello Martini, part of whose ashes were buried at the Hinterbrühl memorial site. Mitterhöfer wrote Martini's life story under the title Mit 14 Jahren im KZ. Das Leben des Marcello Martini: Vom Todesmarsch zur Versöhnung. The work fitted his understanding of Church: remembrance, reconciliation and responsibility belonged together.

Farewell

Jakob Mitterhöfer died on the morning of 9 May 2026 in St. Gabriel, in his 90th year. The requiem took place on 18 May in the Church of the Holy Spirit at St. Gabriel; he was then buried in the cemetery of St. Gabriel. His life led from Forchtenstein through Rome and the world church back into concrete communities where people knew him as teacher, missionary and parish priest.