Augustin Ostermayer

Augustin Ostermayer OSB, baptized Johannes Michael (born December 3, 1694 in Munich , † September 15, 1742 in Stephansposching ), was a German Benedictine and abbot of the Benedictine monastery Metten in Lower Bavaria .

biography

Johannes Michael Ostermayer graduated from the Jesuit High School in Munich (today: Wilhelmsgymnasium Munich ) in 1710 .

At the solemn profession in Metten in 1712, Johannes Michael Ostermayer was given the religious name Augustin. He then studied theology at the Benedictine University of Salzburg and worked as a sub-rain in the local Konvikt . After being ordained a priest in 1718, he went to the Bavarian State University of Ingolstadt to study law . After successfully completing his studies, he returned to his home monastery and was entrusted as chaplain with pastoral care in the Stephansposching parish entrusted to the Metten monastery .

When Abbot Benedikt Höld ​​died in 1730 after only one year in office, the convent of Metten elected Augustin Ostermayer as his successor. As abbot, Augustin Ostermayer stood out as the builder. He continued the work on the new construction of the parish church in Michaelsbuch , which was subordinate to the Metten Monastery , and laid the foundation stone for a new rectory there. In Metten Monastery, construction began in 1734 on the east wing of the large monastery courtyard, which was to contain a new and representative ballroom; the plans were provided by the Metten monastery master builder Benedikt Schöttl . In 1739 the new baroque building of the parish church in Stephansposching began.

Abbot Augustin, who was appointed deputy prelate by the Bavarian elector in 1740 , also endeavored to renew the life of the monastery in Metten. To this end, he tried to bring the monastery closer to the Bavarian Benedictine Congregation , to which the Metten Abbey had not joined. This rapprochement documents the reform of the statutes carried out by Abbot Augustin, which regulated daily life in Metten Monastery.

With the outbreak of the Austrian War of Succession after 1740, work on the buildings begun by Abbot Augustin came to a standstill. The abbot and the convent suffered badly from the consequences of the war. The Austrian officer and militant Franz Freiherr von der Trenck invaded Metten with his Pandurs and plundered the monastery. In 1742 the war forced Abbot Augustin and the convent to leave the Metten Monastery and seek refuge on the other side of the Danube in Stephansposching. The abbot and eight other conventuals died here of an epidemic that broke out as a result of the war. The financial burden associated with the war meant that the buildings could not be completed until a decade later under the successors of Abbot Augustin.

literature

• Wilhelm Fink : History of the development of the Benedictine abbey Metten. Vol. 1: The professorship book of the abbey (studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order and its branches. Supplementary booklet 1,1), Munich 1927, p. 44.
• Maurus Gandershofer : The merits of the Benedictines of Metten in the care of the sciences and the arts. A recollection dedicated to the former residents of this monastery , Landshut 1841, p. 17f.
• Rupert Mittermüller : The Metten Monastery and its Aebte. An overview of the history of this old Benedictine monastery , Straubing 1856, pp. 209–215.

Web links

• Totenrotel by Abbot Augustin Ostermayer OSB

Individual evidence

1. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976; Vol. 2, p. 157.

predecessor	Office	successor
Benedict II Höld	Abbot of Metten Monastery 1730–1742	Columban Gigl