He was sent by Johannes von Geissel, the Bishop of Speyer, to do his study of theology at the University of Munich, where he graduated summa cum laude.
[1] After his ordination in 1846, Nardini served in various positions in the vicinity of Speyer, until on 17 February 1851 he was entrusted by the bishop with the pastoral care of the poor parish of Pirmasens.
[1] The pastorate of Pirmasens was a difficult post as it was in a town divided between a Catholic population and the dominant Protestant populace.
The Catholics suffered economic discrimination, forced into menial jobs, with their children reduced to begging on the streets.
The modest, rented home occupied by the Sisters was soon filled with sick, neglected elderly people and poverty-stricken street children.
To make things worse, the following winter was extremely severe and accompanied by an outbreak of typhoid fever.
As a result, when the Superior General of the Sisters recalled one of the Sisters upon a fresh outbreak of typhus, to this end he invited two young local women, Barbara Schwarz and Juliana Michel, members of the Third Order of St. Francis, to move into the little convent.
While the townspeople were supportive, public response outside the city was scathing, with newspaper articles denouncing the action for months.
[1] On the 10 March 1857, Bishop Nicolaus von Weis finally broke his silence and gave the Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family the official approval of the Catholic Church.
After World War II, while that nation was under the rule of the Communist Party, they lost control of their institutions, but continued to work in them, in the spirit of their founder.
After the fall of Communism, they quickly re-established their common life, opening a convent in Oderhei in 1991, which is now the local motherhouse and a center of various services.