Alexander Setznagel

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Alexander Setznagel OSB (born September 4, 1801 in Pöls , † May 19, 1887 in Sankt Lambrecht ) was an Austrian Benedictine who was abbot of the St. Lambrecht Abbey from 1865 to 1887 .

Life

Alexander Setznagel was born on September 4, 1801 in Pöls in Upper Styria ; his baptismal name was Kajetan . He attended elementary school in the Obdach parish incorporated into St. Lambrecht Abbey, where he lived in the rectory during his stay there. After reaching the required age, he went to the first Latin school of the Admont Abbey and subsequently joined the kk Konvikt in Graz . There he also finished his high school studies and, after graduating from high school, began studying law at the University of Graz . He took this course for two years and entered the novitiate of St. Lambrecht Monastery in 1822 . This is said to have happened primarily under the influence of the parish vicar of Obdach, Prokop Schima , who was also the priory of the monastery, dean, pastor and school district overseer.

On November 10, 1822, at that time 21 years old, Setznagel was dressed and received the monastery name Alexander . Almost five years later he made his solemn profession on October 15, 1827 and celebrated his first mass some years later, on September 20, 1829 , after he had just been ordained a priest . Soon afterwards the young religious priest was given important functions and offices. From 1831 to 1836 he was subprior and from 1831 to 1837 master court master at the same time . During this period he also worked as the monastery kitchen master from 1831 to 1834 . After Rupert Schmidmayer and Kilian Drocker had served as administrators of the monastery in succession for the past 15 years, an abbot was elected in 1835. In this case, Setznagel was only one vote behind the first abbot since 1820, the previous professor and dean at the University of Salzburg Joachim Suppan .

In 1837 Setznagel took over the parish in Zeutschach and held office there until 1843. In that year, Abbot Joachim Suppan gave him the management of the Witschein (Svečina) monastery in the Windischen Bühel , as its administrator until 1865. After Suppan's death on October 1, 1864, Setznagel succeeded him as abbot on July 26, 1865 and was elected almost unanimously as such. During his tenure, the monastery built two large farm buildings. On the one hand, this was the so-called Alexanderhof , whose former stable building is now used as a residential building and is now a listed building ; on the other hand, this was a large building in Witschein. He also had the holdings of the abbey library enlarged and a new large organ for the abbey church purchased.

For his services to the monastery, as well as numerous acts of charity, Setznagel, who was always considered to be undemanding and modest, was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order . A year earlier he had celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest. He was also an honorary citizen of Mariazell , Witschein and Pöls.

On May 19, 1887, after a short illness, he died as a convent senior in St. Lambrecht and was buried four days later in the abbot's abbot, as was the practice with his predecessor as abbot. His successor, first as administrator and then officially as abbot, was Norbert Zechner .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Setznagel, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian dept
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Pöls , Holy Roman Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1887
Place of death Sankt Lambrecht , Austria-Hungary
predecessor Office successor
Joachim Suppan Abbot of St. Lambrecht Abbey
1865–1887 		Norbert Zechner