Father Walbert (Josef) Kaufmann OSB
from Winikon LU
returned to his Creator on the morning of 6 October 2020. Father Walbert was born on 13 March 1935, the oldest of six children of the Kaufmann-Fellmann family in Winikon in the canton of Lucerne. After elementary school, he entered the boarding school of the St. Fidelis College in Stans and left the College in 1955 after having passed the final exams (Matura). He then entered the novitiate at the Abbey of Einsiedeln. In 1956 Father Walbert made his temporal and three years later his perpetual vows. On 4 June 1960, he was ordained priest.
After his ordination, he did a probationary year as a teacher at the Abbey school, followed by the study of classical philology in Fribourg, which he completed with the licentiate after four years. As a teacher at the Abbey school he taught Latin, Greek and Religious education until 1997. In addition to his teaching, he also took on public duties: he was a member of the cantonal Matura Examination Commission and served as President of the Volksbildungskurse Einsiedeln (an institution offering adult education classes). When he had stopped teaching, he became Vicar of the parish of Einsiedeln.
As long as he his strength permitted, Father Walbert liked to visit the cemetery in Einsiedeln and spent many hours there. For him, the names on the gravestones evoked many memories and stories. May Father Walbert now look at his own life story in the face of God and experience that the face of God is a face full of love, and that God knows more about him than he ever thought possible.
Father Walbert died in the 86th year of his life and in the 65th year of his religious profession.
Einsiedeln, 6 October 2020
Abbot Urban, convent and relatives