Adrian Gretsch

Adrian Gretsch

Adrian Gretsch OSB (born October 11, 1753 in Vienna ; † October 28, 1826 there ) was an Austrian Roman Catholic dogmatist .

Life

Gretsch entered the Scots Abbey in Vienna in 1770 and was ordained a priest in 1776. He devoted himself to theology and taught dogmatics and Old Testament exegesis at the theological home school of the Schottenstift . In 1784 he became professor of theology at the University of Vienna , from 1792 he was examiner for the Rigorosen . In 1786 he was dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty .

As early as 1783, Gretsch was a curate at the monastery parish , and from 1786 he was a monastery preacher for 21 years. In 1804 Abbot Benno Pointner appointed him to the office of prior , which he gave up again in 1807 after Andreas Wenzel was elected abbot . In that year he retired to pastoral care in Gumpendorf , where he was pastor until his death in 1826 .

Throughout his life, Gretsch had an excellent reputation as a preacher, which was also valued by other Christian denominations . In the transition between the Enlightenment and Romanticism , he led the sermon beyond rationalism . His collected fasting , Sunday and holiday sermons were initially published in eight volumes and then repeatedly published in the course of the 19th century, enriched by his estate.

Works (selection)

• Fasting sermons . 2 volumes. Vienna 1796 (2nd edition 1804).
• Sunday sermons . 4 volumes. Vienna 1797–1799.
• Feyer's day sermons . 2 volumes. Vienna 1799.

literature

• Heinrich Doering: The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Depicted according to their life and work . Volume 1, Neustadt an der Orla 1831, p. 529 f.
• Scriptores Ordinis S. Benedicti, qui 1750-1880 forunt in Imperio Austriaco-Hungarico . Vienna 1881, pp. 144–146.
• Elisabeth Birnbaum: The Judit book in Vienna of the 17th and 18th centuries. Exegesis, sermon, music, theater, visual arts (= Austrian biblical studies 35). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-59571-8 .
• Ursula Silber: Gretsch, Adrian . In: Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Herder, Freiburg 1996, Sp. 1041, ISBN 3-451-22004-0 .