Anselm Aldenhoven

North wing of the prelature, in the gable of the middle risalit is the monogram of Anselm Aldenhoven and the year 1780

View of the north wing of the prelature with the abbey church

Anselm Aldenhoven OSB (born September 8, 1732 in Warth ; † June 15, 1810 in Cologne ) was the last abbot (1778–1802) of the former Brauweiler Abbey .

family

Anselm Aldenhoven was the son of the civil servant Adolf Heinrich Aldenhoven and Maria Katharina nee Päffgen, probably the daughter of the mayor of Zons , Johannes Päffgen. His nephew was the last Vogt of Odenkirchen Christian Joseph Aldenhoven, who was married to Benedicta Maria Christina Josepha Bouget and whose wedding was performed by Aldenhoven in his house chapel in the Brauweiler monastery on July 3, 1793.

Life

Anselm Aldenhoven, baptized Johann Nikolaus, entered the Benedictine Abbey of Brauweiler on November 1, 1751, where he took the religious vows a year later and took the religious name Anselm. He was ordained a priest on April 3, 1756 .

1748 and 1755 he was at the theological faculty of the University of Cologne enrolled . In the first years after his ordination he worked for the Abbey in Klotten and then at the wineries of the monastery in Rheingau . In May 1770 Aldenhoven was with the abbot Amandus at the general chapter of the Bursfeld congregation in the Maria Laach abbey . As a confidante of the abbot, he gradually became familiar with the legal transactions and economic conditions of the abbey. Before being elected abbot on July 21, 1778, he was an economist (administrator) of the Brauweiler court in Cologne. In the first ballot he was elected 51st Abbot of Brauweiler by the convention . The Cologne Archbishop and Elector Maximilian Friedrich confirmed the election and on August 16, 1778 received Anselm Aldenhoven in the church of Cologne Cistercian monastery Mariengarten from the hands of Auxiliary Bishop Karl Aloys von Koenigsegg-Aulendorf the benediction .

Major construction work was undertaken during his tenure. The baroque buildings that are still preserved today were erected under the architect Nikolaus Lauxen .

After the monastery was abolished under the French in 1802, Anselm Aldenhoven went to Cologne, where he was supported by the merchant Laurenz Fürth. For the 50th anniversary of the priesthood in 1806, his former confreres gave him a book on the history of the abbey. This has been preserved to this day and is known as the Old Repertory .

Aldenhoven died on June 15, 1810 in Cologne and was buried there in the Jesuit Church of St. Mary's Assumption . His grave is no longer preserved today.

Web links

Commons : Brauweiler Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Peter Schreiner : The history of the Brauweiler Abbey near Cologne 1024-1802. Completed new edition, Pulheim 2009 (Pulheim Contributions to History, 30th special publication), ISBN 978-3-927765-46-7 .