Maximilien de Furstenberg

Maximilien Louis Hubert Egon Vincent Marie Joseph, Freiherr (Baron) von Fürstenberg-Stammheim also Maximilian Kardinal von Fürstenberg (23 October 1904 - 22 September 1988) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and was Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

He was born in the castle of Ter Worm, Heerlen, The Netherlands, of the old Catholic noble family Fürstenberg-Stammheim from Westphalia, Germany. His parents were Adolf Louis Egon Hubert Vincent Freiherr von Fürstenberg-Stammheim (1870–1950) and Elisabeth Marie Sylvie Ferdinande Joseph, Comtesse d'Oultremont de Wégimont de Warfusée (1879–1953).

Education

He was educated at the Abbey college of Maredsous, Namur, Belgium from October 1915 to July 1922. He then went on study travel to Latin America and from 1922 until 1928 to the Saint-Louis College in Brussels where he studied classics and philosophy.

He did military service at the regiment of Grenadiers, and obtained the rank of sub-lieutenant of reserve. His education continued when he entered the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the University of Louvain, leaving in 1928 with a licentiate in philosophy. That same year he entered the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he studied until 1932 for a doctorate in theology.

Priesthood

He was ordained on 9 August 1931 and incardinated in the archdiocese of Mechelen. He returned to Belgium and became a faculty member of the diocesan College of Saint-Jean Berchmans in Antwerp from...
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