Ottobeuren Abbey
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Image:Ottobeuren Basilika Fassade.jpg Ottobeuren is a former Benedictine abbey, now a priory, located in Ottobeuren, near Memmingen in the Bavarian Allgäu, Germany.
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[edit] First foundation
It was founded in 764 by Blessed Toto, and dedicated to St. Alexander, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about 815 and that St. Ulrich was its abbot in 972. In the 11th century its discipline was on the decline, till Abbot Adalhalm (1082-1094) introduced the reform of Hirsau. The same abbot began to restore the decaying buildings, which were completed, with the addition of a convent for noble ladies, by his successor, Abbot Rupert I (1102-1145). Under the rule of the latter the newly founded Marienberg Abbey was recruited with monks from Ottobeuren. His successor, Abbot Isengrim, (1145-1180), wrote Annales minores (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XVII, 315 sq.) and Annales majores (ibid., 312 sq.).
In 1153, and again in 1217, it was consumed by fire. In the 14th and 15th centuries it declined so completely that at the accession of Abbot Johann Schedler (1416-1443) only six or eight monks were left, and its annual revenues did not exceed 46 silver marks. Under Abbot Leonard Wiedemann (1508-1546) it again began to flourish: he erected a printing establishment and a common house of studies for the Swabian Benedictines. The latter, however, was soon closed, owing to the ravages of the Thirty Years' War.
Ottobeuren became an imperial abbey in 1299, but lost this status after the prince-bishop of Augsburg had become "Vogt" of the abbey. These rights were renounced after a court case at the Reichskammergericht in 1624. And in 1710 the abbey had regained its old status again. It was not a member of the Swabian Circle though.
The most flourishing period in the history of Ottobeuren began with the accession of Abbot Rupert Ness (1710-1740) and lasted until its secularization in 1802. From 1711-1725 Abbot Rupert erected the present monastery, the architectural grandeur of which has merited for it the name of "the Swabian Escorial". In 1737 he also began the building of the present church, completed by his successor, Anselm Erb, in 1766. In 1803 Ottobeuren became part of Bavaria. At that time the territory had about 12.000 inhabitants and an area of appr. 165 km².
[edit] Second foundation
In 1834 King Louis I of Bavaria restored it as a Benedictine priory, dependent on St. Stephen's Abbey, Augsburg. It was granted the status of an independent abbey in 1918.
As of 1910, the community consisted of five fathers, sixteen lay brothers, and one lay novice, who had under their charge the parish of Ottobeuren, a district school, and an industrial school for poor boys. 
Ottobeuren has been a member of the Bavarian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation since 1893.
[edit] Monks of Ottobeuren
Noteworthy among monks of Ottobeuren are:
- Nicolas Ellenbog, humanist, d. 1543
- Jacob Molitor, the learned and saintly prior, d. 1675
- Albert Krey, the hagiographer, d. 1713
- Fr. Schmier, canonist, d. 1728
- Augustine Bayrhamer, d. 1782 historian
- Maurus Feyerabend, d. 1818, historian
- The learned Abbot Honoratus Goehl (1767-1802), who was a promoter of true church music, and founded two schools
- Ulric Schiegg, the mathematician and astronomer, d. 1810.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Schleglmann, Geschichte der Säkularisation im rechtsrheinischen Bayern, III, Ratisbon, 1906, 611-54)
