Kremsmünster Abbey

Kremsmünster Abbey (german: Stift Kremsmünster) is a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in Upper Austria.

History

The monastery was founded in 777 AD by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria. According to the foundation legend, Tassilo founded the monastery on the site where his son, Gunther, had been attacked and killed by a wild boar during a hunting trip.

The first colony of monks came from Lower Bavaria, under Fateric, the first abbot. The new foundation received generous endowments from the founder and also from Charlemagne and his successors.

The position and reputation of the abbey soon became such that its abbots, in the absence of the bishop of the diocese (Passau), exercised the episcopal jurisdiction.

In the 10th century the abbey was destroyed in a raid by the Hungarians, and its possessions were divided among the Duke of Bavaria and other nobles and the bishops. It was restored, however, and recovered its property, under the emperor Henry II, when Saint Gotthard became abbot.

Kremsmünster, in common with other religious houses, then fell into a decline, which was fortunately halted by the action of bishop Altmann of Passau, who brought a community from Gottesau, and introduced the reformed observance of Cluny into the abbey. After this it became known as one of the most flourishing houses in Germany, "excelling all other abbeys" says an anonymous chronicler, "in observance and piety, also in respect to its lands, buildings, books, paintings, and other possessions, and in the number of its members prominent in learning and in art".

The monastic library was famous, and drew eminent scholars to Kremsmünster, where several important historical works were written, including histories of the bishops of Passau and of the dukes of Bavaria, and the chronicles of the abbey itself. Schrodl gives a list of writers connected with Kremsmünster from the eleventh to the 16th centuries, and of their literary labours. One of the most distinguished abbots was Ulrich Schoppenzaun (1454–1484), to whom, and to his disciple and successor Johann Schreiner (1505–1524), it is due that Kremsmünster survived the Reformation.

From the Reformation period onwards a succession of able abbots kept the abbey on track. Abbot Gregor Lechner (1543–1558), towards the middle of the 16th century, made the monastic school, previously private, into a public school, and did much to preserve Catholicism in the district, where the Protestant doctrines had become widely prevalent - to the extent that his successor, Abbot Weiner (1558–1565) favoured them and thus introduced dissension into the abbey, dissension which risked developing into serious disruption. This was prevented by succeeding abbots: Abbot Wolfradt especially (1613–1639) brought the monastery into so highly flourishing a condition that he was known as its third founder. Its reputation as a house of studies and learning was increased still further under his successor, Placid Buchauer (1644–1669).

Among the abbots of the 18th century the most prominent and distinguished was Alexander Fixlmillner (1731–1759), who built the great observatory, constructed many roads on the monastic estate, and was a man of edifying life and great charity to the poor. His nephew Placidus Fixlmillner, the first astronomer to compute the orbit of Uranus, was later appointed the director of the observatory.

Towards the end of the 18th century the policy of Emperor Joseph II with regard to the religious houses of his empire threatened to close Kremsmünster, like many others, but it was fortunate enough to escape.

The abbey suffered a great deal during the Napoleonic wars, and was slow in recovering its position. It was not until the abbacy of Thomas Mitterndorfer (1840–1860) that, having recovered its material security, and re-established learning and discipline, it regained its former prestige. One of the most illustrious abbots in the 19th century was Dom Cölestin Ganglbauer (died 1889), who celebrated in 1877 the 1100th anniversary of the foundation, became Archbishop of Vienna in 1881 and was raised to the cardinalate in 1884. In the 20th century Dom Leander Czerny, the distinguished entomologist, was abbot from 1905 to 1929.