From the end of 1891 until the second half of 1892, Joseph lived with his mother in Strasbourg, where she worked as housekeeper for her elder brother, Peter Joseph, after his wife's death on 25 December 1891. The boy attended a school there for a few months. After her brother remarried on 25 June 1892, Katharina and her son returned to Gymnich. Katharina had to look for a permanent job in order to support her child. Joseph Kentenich was sent to St. Vincent orphanage in Oberhausen on 12 April 1894.