Amadeus de Bie

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Amadeus de Bie OCist (born March 16, 1844 in Wouw , † June 25, 1920 in Rome ) was the 74th Abbot General of the Cistercian Order .

Abbot General Amadeus de Bie OCist

Life

Gerardus Franciscus de Bie was the eldest of four children in a Dutch family; all became religious. He entered Bornem Abbey on June 23, 1862 , took the religious name Amadeus, was ordained a priest on June 11, 1870 and celebrated his primacy six days later . He made temporary profession on August 30, 1863 and solemn profession on September 8, 1866. The years after his ordination he worked as a lecturer in philosophy and chaplain of an incorporated parish of Bornem. Together with the General Procurator Heinrich Smeulders , who was also Professe von Bornem, De Bie went to Canada in 1884 to found a monastery there.

The convent of Bornem elected him on 12 February 1895, the second abbot of the monastery and received on 3 May 1895, the benediction . He was elected Abbot General on October 2, 1900 and held this office until his death.

When he moved to Rome in 1900 to take on the office of Abbot General, a new chapter began for the Cistercian Order: De Bie was the first Abbot General since the French Revolution to be elected for life and to leave his profession to go to Rome pull. In 1900 there was still no official residence for the Cistercian general, this first had to be built by De Bie. He first lived as a guest in the Santa Croce monastery in Gerusalemme , then rented an apartment which he shared with the General Procurator and a lay brother from Bornem. First they lived in Piazza delle Terme 75, then in Via dello Statuto 92, until in 1927 - 27 years after his election as Abbot General - the Villa Stolberg on the Gianicolo (Via Giacomo Medici 3) was bought and became the Generalate House of the order was raised.

Even if the Religious Congregation had wished to hold the General Chapter in Rome since the end of the 19th century, the following took place in Austria; the General Chapter did not meet in Rome until 1925.

Another task for de Bie was the development of a draft for the Constitutiones de supremo Ordinis Regimine, the order constitutions.

During his term of office there were serious negotiations about accepting the former Trappist congregation of the Mariannhill Missionaries into the Cistercian order, but this did not happen. De Bie was unable to travel much due to poor health, so he delegated negotiations in Africa as well as most of the regular visitations in Europe.

literature

  • Adalgott Benz, Abbot General Amadeus De Bie †, in: Cistercienser Chronik 32 (1920) pp. 129–132; 145-150.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benedikta Schedl, The General Chapter of the Cistercian Order in 1900, in: Analecta Cisterciensia 51 (1995), pp. 111-320, here p. 199.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Leopold Wackarž Abbot General of the Cistercian Order
1900–1920 		Kassian Haid
personal data
SURNAME Bie, Amadeus de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bie, Gerardus Franciscus de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Abbot General of the Cistercian Order
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Wouw
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1920
Place of death Rome