Roman Catholic Cardinal. Maximilien Louis Hubert Egon Vincent Marie Joseph, Freiherr von Fürstenberg-Stammheim was born to an old noble Catholic family of the Barons of Furstenberg-Stammheim originating from Westphalia, Germany, at the Ter Worm castle in Heerlem, Holland. Receiving his education at the Abbey College of Maredsous, Namur, Belgium, between October 1915 and July 1922, he later traveled for further studies to Latin America. Back in Belgium, he underwent more studies at Saint-Louis's College in Brussels, prior to rendering military service through the Regiment of Grenadiers, obtaining the rank of sub-lieutenant of reserve. Frequenting the Superior Institute of Philosophy of the University of Louvain and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he was ordained priest on August 9, 1931. Named faculty member of the diocesan college of Saint-Jean Berchmans of Antwerp the following year, he went on to serve as professor of liturgy at the Grand Seminary of Mechelen from 1934 until 1946, being named master of ceremonies of Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, Archbishop of Mechelen, in 1934. Military chaplain of reserve between 1935 to 1949, he was appointed canon of the chapter of the metropolitan cathedral of Mechelen. Arrested by the Germans at his mother's house on Christmas day 1943 because of a Latin inscription placed on the Christmas candle in the metropolitan cathedral which appeared to express great hope in the allied disembarkation in North Africa, he was sentenced to two years confinement, being eventually freed from the prison of Saint-Gilles of Bruxelles a year later. Named chaplain of the court during the Regency of Belgium and decorated with the cross of knight of the Order of Léopold II for his patriotic conduct, he was named by the bishops of Belgium, rector of the Pontifical Belgian College of Rome on February 27, 1946. During his term in office, he counted among his students a young Karol Wojtyła, future Pope John Paul II. Elected archbishop of the titular see of Palto and named apostolic delegate in Japan by Pope Pius XII, he received his episcopal consecration on April 25, 1949 in the cathedral of Saint-Rombaud of Mechelen, from Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey. Appointed internuncio in Japan on April 28, 1952, he served as regent of the nunciature in Korea for the period of 1952 and 1953 and as apostolic delegate in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania from November 21, 1959 until April 28, 1962, when he was named apostolic nuncio in Portugal. Pope Paul VI created him cardinal priest in the consistory of June 26, 1967 with the title of Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio and named him prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Oriental Churches on January 15, 1968. Appointed Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in March 1972, a position he kept until his death, he resigned the prefecture in February 28, 1973, being named president of the Central Commission for the Holy Year of 1975 on May 9, 1973. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from May 24, 1982 until June 25, 1984, due to health reasons, he was interned in the Polyclinic Agostino Gemelli of Rome for several months. Pope John Paul II paid him a visit on May 30, 1988, shortly before he was transferred to the Louvain University Clinic of Mont-Godinne, near Namur, Belgium. The Cardinal died there on September 22, 1988 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Funeral mass was celebrated on Wednesday, September 28, at the Notre-Dame au Sablon church of Brussels, the capitular church of the Belgian lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. His coffin was covered with the Belgian flag and surmounted with the red biretta. The following day, in accordance with his last will, he was buried in the crypt that his great-grandfather, Count Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim, had had constructed in the Franciscan church of Mont-Apollinaris, near Remagen in Germany.