St. Severin

St. Severin is a line of herbal natural products made by Pater Severin Naturprodukte GmbH, a small Austrian company in the state of Styria. The line takes its name and its stated inspiration from Pater Severin, the religious name of Franz Reinharter (1899–1966), a Capuchin monk who became known for his herbal remedies. In the maker's own words, the St. Severin product line is based on the work of Father Severin Reinharter [8].

The range leans more toward traditional herbal preparations than toward cosmetics. Teas, syrups, tinctures, drops, aromatic waters and suppositories sit alongside a sizeable group of ointments and creams for skin care. The company describes its products as handmade from herbs it says are organically grown, and it runs a show production that visitors can watch at a museum site in Neumarkt in der Steiermark. The brand is active and is sold through its own shops and through online pharmacies.

The company does not say when it was founded or by whom. What it tells instead is the story of its namesake. According to the brand's history page, Franz Reinharter was born in 1899 in Neunkirchen and spent his childhood in an orphanage after the early death of his mother [2]. He trained for the priesthood in a Capuchin monastery. The company says his fellow friars regarded him as a polymath, and that as he grew older his interests turned more and more to natural medicine.

Pater Severin is presented as a man who brought together the medical tradition of his day and the herbal knowledge of folk medicine. The company says he practised, among other places, at the abbey pharmacy of St. Lambrecht in Styria, where he held up to 100 consultations a day. In its account, his methods drew people from well beyond Austria's borders, and whole coachloads of visitors would travel to him for herbal and pastoral advice. He died in 1966, leaving five books in which he had written down his healing knowledge.

A line attributed to him now serves as the brand's motto: "In der Natur ist uns alles gegeben, was wir zum Schutz und zur Erhaltung der Gesundheit brauchen." Roughly translated, it says that nature gives people everything they need to protect and keep their health.

The link between the monk and the present company is one of inspiration rather than direct succession. The years 1899 and 1966 belong to Pater Severin's life; neither marks the founding of the business that now carries his name.

Few dated milestones exist for the company itself. Its legal entity, Pater Severin Naturprodukte GmbH, is entered in the companies register at the regional court of Leoben under the number FN 530817p, but no registration date is given.

The most visible chapter in its recent history is its home at the Natechnikum, a museum in Neumarkt in der Steiermark. According to the Styrian tourism board, the building was formerly a vivarium before it became the Natechnikum [11]. Under the motto "Haus der Vielfalt" (house of diversity), the museum shows Iron Age finds from the region, recreated scenes of Austrian life in the early 20th century, and a collection of classic cars, motorcycles and bicycles. It also houses the Pater Severin show production, a shop and a café. The year of the conversion is not stated.

Pater Severin Naturprodukte GmbH is an Austrian limited company. Its legal notice gives its registered seat as St. Lambrecht, Styria, and names the pharmacist Dieter Gall as managing director [4]. A second address, Stadlob 500 in Neumarkt in der Steiermark, is home to production, the shop and the museum.

The brand's online shop is run by a separate company, Gall-Pharma GmbH of Judenburg, which sells its own products there as well [5]. Gall-Pharma is not publicly described as the owner of the brand, and no parent company is named.

Pater Severin Naturprodukte describes itself as an Austrian company that specialises in making and selling natural products [1]. Its positioning rests on three ideas repeated across its pages: recipes made "nach alter Rezeptur" (to old recipes), handwork, and what it calls a love of nature. Every product, the company says, is made, filled and labelled by hand. Its tagline, "NATUR pur für deinen Körper", translates as "pure nature for your body".

The company states that its products are made from organically grown herbs [3]. No third-party organic certification is documented. It also says it uses only the best ingredients and tests each product carefully; these are the company's own descriptions.

The show production is central to how the company presents itself. Visitors in Neumarkt can, in its words, watch live as the herbs are processed into syrups, ointments, tinctures and other products, and then buy them in the shop on site. The regional tourism board describes the same operation in plain terms: the company makes herbal teas, tinctures, suppositories, syrups and other products, all of them made, filled and labelled by hand.

Online pharmacies present the line in similar terms. The St. Severin brand page at shop-apotheke.com describes it as standing for plant-based remedies of high quality from proven sources [10].

The full range is grouped into aromatic waters, herbal syrups, herbal teas, beauty and care, specialities, drops and sprays, and suppositories. Products the company highlights include Aqua Chamomillae, a chamomile water; Gebirgskräutersirup, a mountain-herb syrup; and Elfenblumen Tropfen, a drop preparation. The specialities group holds handmade preparations such as valerian wine (Baldrianwein) and DHEA capsules.

Pharmacy listings of the St. Severin line add further items outside the core herbal list. They include a series of DMSO gels, creams and sprays in several strengths, a cod-liver-oil ointment, a mistletoe ointment, a zinc-oxide shake lotion and Swedish bitters (Schwedenbitter).

The part of the range closest to beauty is the "Schönheit & Pflege" (beauty and care) segment, which the online shop introduces as "Natürlich schön", or naturally beautiful. It lists 69 products, most of them single-herb ointments [6]. Examples include ointments based on field mint, elecampane flower, sorrel, horehound, angelica root and anise, along with an apricot-kernel-oil cream. Two ointments appear among the company's highlighted products: Alantwurzel Salbe, made with elecampane root, and Citronell Salbe. The online shop also carries acne lotions containing 5 or 10 per cent salicylic acid.

One pharmacy listing gives the full ingredient list of a Pater Severin ointment: lanolin, an elecampane flower extract, sweet almond oil and jojoba oil [9]. It is a short formula built on lanolin, the wax that comes from sheep's wool. The listing describes the ointment as caring for the skin gently.

No patents, proprietary technologies or clinical studies are documented for the brand.

St. Severin is active. The company's website carries a 2026 copyright notice, its online shop is operating, and the Natechnikum show production and shop list current opening hours from Monday to Friday. Products under the St. Severin name are also carried by online pharmacies. The brand is sold mainly through the shop at its production site, its online shop and pharmacy retailers.