Monastery of Niederaltaich

The monastery of Niederaltaich is a monastery Benedictine founded in 731 by the duke Odilon of Bavaria. It is on the territory of the commune of Niederalteich, at the edge of the the Danube, and is devoted to holy Maurice.

History

After the construction of the first buildings in 731, Saint Pirmin managed to base a first community with monks come from the Monastère of Reichenau, on the Lac of Constancy. One allots to the first superior of the monastery, Eberswind, the drafting of the Lex Baiuvariorum, the oldest text of Common law of the south of Germany.

The monastery cleared great extents of forest from Bavaria Inférieure until on the territory of current the Czech Republic, thus melting 120 villages through the Bavarian forest. Under the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis Germanic the, the abbey field extended to the valley from the Wachau. Under the reign of Louis, the abbot Gozbald (825-855) was even archi Chancelier of empire. In 848, the monastery obtained the authorization to choose itself its abbot, then in 857 secular independence with respect to the kingdom of Francie Eastern. The abbey was collegial between 950 and 990.

The community of Niederaltaich provided to the wire centuries three archbishops, eight bishops and more than fifty abbots to the Church. The Magyar invasions were followed of a momentary decline of the community, which evolved to a secular statute. The rebirth of the abbey is the work of the abbot Gothard (996-1022). This prelate who, with the support of the duke Henri of Bavaria, future emperor under the name of Henri II, reformed the monasteries of southernmost Germany, and was later canonized, is undoubtedly the most known abbot of Niederaltaich. He became bishop of Hildesheim and is buried in this city.

The monastery lost its independence when in 1152 the emperor Frederic Barberousse made of them legacy with évêché of Bamberg. Then in 1242 the Wittelsbach became Vidame S of the abbey, and the abbey field remained a closed jurisdiction basic justice until the Sécularisation of Bavaria between 1802 and 1803. The most eminent abbots of Niederaltaich during these centuries were Hermann (of 1242 with 1273), the author of the “ Annales Hermanni ”; the reformers Kilian Weybeck (of 1503 with 1534) and Paulus Gmainer (of 1550 with 1585); Vitus Bacheneder, which was abbot of 1651 with 1666, provided the foundation of the new economic advancement of the area after the destruction and the massacres of the Guerre Thirty Year old; finally, one owes with the abbot Joscio Hamberger (1700 - 1739) the rebuilding of collegial, the buildings current baroques, and a Séminaire.

The Sécularisation of the Bavaria, consecutive with the Recès d' Empire in 1803 involved the dispersion of the community. In 1813, the lightning fell down on the collegial one, destroyed in the fire which followed: it was the beginning of the dilapidation of most of the buildings baroques of the abbey. One transformed the dormitories and the commun runs into apartments to be rented. The side chapels of collegial, its Gothic Transept and the episcopal vault were cut down and dismantled. 1918 had to be awaited so that with the financial aid of a professor of theology, Franz Xaver Knabenbauer, a community come from the monastery of Metten can return to occupy the site. The Vatican granted in 1932 the vault the title of “Basilica minor”. Lastly, it found the autonomous statute of abbey after the war in 1949, under the direction of the abbot Emmanuel Maria Heufelder.

The vestiges of the monastery of style baroque were gradually rehabilitated starting from 1953 - 1954 to form, by uninterrupted work, new buildings, where one installed in 1959 a private college. The Holy college Gothard, preserved in 1946, was increased of 1971 with 1973, but it closed its boarding school in 1994, which was refitted in private pension and inn of 1999 with 2001. There is today in Niederaltaich a permanent community of 30 brothers Benedictines, directed since 2001 by the abbot Marianus Bieber (born in 1958). The senior of the community is the abbot Emmanuel Jungclaussen (born in 1927), known in Germany for his many religious works.

Oecumenism

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