Benediktbeuern Abbey is a monastery of the Salesians of Don Bosco

Salesians of Don Bosco

The Salesians of Don Bosco is a Roman Catholic religious order founded in the late nineteenth century by Saint John Bosco in an attempt, through works of charity, to care for the young and poor children of the industrial revolution...

, originally a monastery of the Benedictine Order, in Benediktbeuern

Benediktbeuern

Benediktbeuern is a municipality in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria, Germany. The distance between Bichl and Benediktbeuern is only 2 kilometers, or 1.25 miles. The village has about 3,500 residents as of 2004....

 in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, near the Kochelsee

Kochelsee

Kochelsee or Lake Kochel is located south of Munich on the edge of the Bavarian Alps. The western third of the lake lies within the borders of the town of Schlehdorf, while the rest belongs to Kochel am See. The southern edge of the lake lies up against the mountains and the northern shore is...

, 64 km south-south-west of Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. It is the home of the Songs from Beuern, i.e., the famous Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...

.

First Benedictine foundation

The monastery, dedicated to Saints James and Benedict

Benedict of Nursia

Saint Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, about to the east of Rome, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no...

, was founded in around 739/740 as a Benedictine abbey by members of the Huosi, a Bavarian noble
clan, who also provided the three brothers who served one after the other as the first three abbots, traditionally named as Lanfrid, Waldram (or Wulfram), and Eliland, for nearly a century. It seems certain that Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...

 had an involvement in the foundation; he may have consecrated the church (to the holy Trinity), though this is not widely accepted. There was here a school of writing, whose work survives in the form of numerous codices of the 8th and 9th centuries.

In 955 the monastery was destroyed by the Hungarians

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. It was restored in 969 by Wolfold, a priest, as a house of canons

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

.

Second Benedictine foundation

Under the influence of Emperor Henry III

Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors...

 it was rebuilt by Saint Ulrich

Ulrich of Augsburg

Saint Ulrich , sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Bishop of Augsburg and a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. He was the first saint to be canonized.-Family:...

, Bishop of Augsburg

Bishop of Augsburg

The Bishop of Augsburg is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Augsburg in the Ecclesiastical province of München und Freising.The diocese covers an area of 13,250 km².The current bishop is Konrad Zdarsa who was appointed in 2010....

, and in 1031 returned to the Benedictine rule and re-settled by monks from Tegernsee Abbey

Tegernsee Abbey

Tegernsee Abbey or the Imperial Abbey of Tegernsee is a former Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee in Bavaria. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around are named after the Tegernsee, the lake on the shores of which they are located...

 under the first abbot of the new foundation, Ellinger. Under the second abbot, Gothelm (1032–1062), and the monks Gotschalk and Adalbert the school and scriptorium were re-established. Gotschalk, later third abbot, was responsible for the translation of the relics of Saint Anastasia

Anastasia the Patrician

Saint Anastasia the Patrician was the wife of a consul and a lady-in-waiting to the Byzantine empress Theodora. Justinian I, Theodora's husband, pursued her, arousing Theodora's jealousy. Anastasia tried to avoid any trouble and left for Egypt...

 here in 1053, which by making the abbey a place of pilgrimage added substantially to its fame and prosperity; he was also its first historian.

Benediktbeuern suffered four serious fires, in 1248, 1377, 1378, and 1490, but was prosperous enough to re-build each time.

The abbey enjoyed for centuries an extremely high reputation as a place of learning and research. Botanical research and the establishment of a medicinal herb garden in about 1200 are also evidenced. In about 1250 the library covered the whole range of higher education as it then existed. The abbey also excelled at theological, philosophical and scientific studies. In the 1530s Dom Antonius Funda made considerable advances in the systematic writing of monastic history.

In 1611 many of the community died of the plague. During the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 the grammar school was suspended and in 1632 Dom Simon Speer was tortured and put to death by the Swedes

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 for refusing to surrender the goods of the abbey. The school had reopened by 1689, when the study of languages, music, mathematics and botany was especially emphasised. Shortly before, between 1669 and 1679, the abbey was given its present Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 form. In 1698 the school in the north wing was opened. The library complex dates from 1722.

In 1684 the Bavarian Congregation

Bavarian Congregation

The Bavarian Congregation is a congregation of the Benedictine Confederation consisting of monasteries in Bavaria, Germany.It was founded on 26 August 1684 by the Blessed Pope Innocent XI .-First Congregation:...

 of Benedictine monasteries was founded by Pope Innocent XI

Pope Innocent XI

Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...

, to which Benediktbeuern belonged until its dissolution in 1803.

In 1700 the source-critical method of historiography was used for the first time in South Germany in exemplary fashion by Dom Karl Meichelbeck, the "Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 of Bavaria" (1669–1734), librarian and archivist from 1696 until his death. He was the author of the Historia Frisingensis ("History of the Diocese of Freising"), the Chronicon Benedictoburanum ("History of Benediktbeuern Abbey") and the "Annals of the Bavarian Congregation".

Secularisation 1803

During the secularisation

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

 of Bavaria in 1803 the abbey, then comprising thirty-four monks, was dissolved. Some of the former monks took posts as university professors: for example, Ägidius Jais went to Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

 as a pastoral theologian; Sebastian Mall to Landshut

Landshut

Landshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...

 as an orientalist; and Florian Meilinger to Munich as a mathematician.

The library and archives had contained many priceless manuscripts and charters. Ziegelbauer

Magnoald Ziegelbauer

Magnoald Ziegelbauer was a Benedictine monk and an ecclesiastical historian.-Life:He took vows at the Benedictine monastery of Zwiefalten on 21 November 1707, where he was ordained priest on 21 March 1713 and where he became professor of theology...

 printed a catalogue of the library, dated 1250, in which more than one hundred and fifty books and manuscripts are enumerated . Mabillon, who visited the abbey in 1683, and Bernard Pez, librarian of Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world's most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley....

, who was there in 1717, both left on record their testimony as to the great value of the codices there preserved. At the suppression the library comprised 40,000 volumes. A number of these, and many of the codices, were added to what is now the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 and the remainder left to be dispersed over time by the neglect or indifference of subsequent owners. There were reports, however, that, some books where used to fill holes in the cart tracks of the moor between the monastery and the river Loisach.

In the course of the disposal of the library and archives, there came to light the manuscript of the Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...

, a 13th century collection of songs by wandering scholars. The manuscript, also known as the Codex Buranus, is also now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

From secularisation to 1930

The abbey premises were acquired by Josef von Utzschneider, who in 1805 set up an experimental glassworks here, known as the Optical Institute. He was joined by Joseph von Fraunhofer

Joseph von Fraunhofer

Joseph von Fraunhofer was a German optician. He is known for the discovery of the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in the Sun's spectrum, and for making excellent optical glass and achromatic telescope objectives.-Biography:Fraunhofer was born in Straubing, Bavaria...

, who was able here among other things to develop flawless or "waveless" flint glass

Flint glass

Flint glass is optical glass that has relatively high refractive index and low Abbe number. Flint glasses are arbitrarily defined as having an Abbe number of 50 to 55 or less. The currently known flint glasses have refractive indices ranging between 1.45 and 2.00...

 and discover the Fraunhofer lines

Fraunhofer lines

In physics and optics, the Fraunhofer lines are a set of spectral lines named for the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer . The lines were originally observed as dark features in the optical spectrum of the Sun....

 which have become of importance in the development of spectroscopic analysis.

In 1818 the Bavarian State took over the buildings, which from then on were used for military purposes, initially as a stud-farm for the rearing and training of cavalry horses, and thereafter as a barracks, invalid home, military convalescent home and prison.

In 1901 Freiherr von Kramer-Klett, the restorer of several Bavarian monasteries, offered five and one-half million marks for the property, but was met by a demand for twelve millions, which he refused.

In 1925 the former abbey brewery was closed.

From 1930

Since 1930 the buildings have been used by the Salesians, of whom about 45 now live and work here.
The abbey church was declared a "basilica minor" in 1972.

External links

Homepage of Kloster Benediktbeuern Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Benediktbeuern (PTH) Benediktbeuern - Alles über das Klosterdorf Klöster in Bayern Picture of the abbey Don Bosco website: abbey ceilngs

• History of the Monastery in English
• Information for visitors of the Monastery (in English)