Beat Küttel

Beat Küttel , born as Joseph Marcel (born June 2, 1733 in Gersau , Canton Schwyz ; † May 18, 1808 in Einsiedeln , Canton Schwyz) was a Swiss Benedictine and the last prince abbot of the Einsiedeln monastery . He led the abbey through the turmoil of the French Revolution and the Helvetic Republic and was a staunch opponent of the ideas of the Catholic Enlightenment .

Life

His father, Johann Georg, held the office of Landammann in his homeland, the Free Republic of Gersau. At the age of 18, he made his profession on September 29, 1751 in Einsiedeln Abbey . In 1755 he was ordained a priest. His first field of activity was assigned to him in the monastery school, of which he was appointed head in 1762. Four years later he took on another important post within the community, that of governor responsible for economic affairs. In 1774 he was appointed as dean deputy to the abbot.

On December 4, 1780 he was elected Abbot of Einsiedeln by his confreres. While his predecessor, Marian Müller , was open to various issues relating to the Enlightenment, he has always proven to be a staunch opponent. A short time after taking up his abbate , he therefore sent enlightening-minded confreres to outposts.

In 1782 he concluded a centuries-long dispute with the diocese of Constance with a concordat , with the abbey now definitely being granted exemption . After the outbreak of the French Revolution, he sought to alleviate the suffering of the hermit population by means of grain imports and subsidized bread, while under him between 1789 and 1798 over 2,000 French revolutionary refugees - mostly clergy from Alsace - found refuge for longer or shorter periods of time. By consciously cultivating relationships with various people in power both inside and outside the Confederation - for example with Francis II , to whom he twice granted a loan of 100,000 guilders to finance the First Coalition War - he tried to keep his prince's existence in the storms of the Time to secure.

Shortly before the French occupation and looting of Einsiedeln at the beginning of May 1798, he fled to the monastic estates in St. Gerold in Vorarlberg . After his return in 1802 he led the internal and external reconstruction of the monastery, trying with all his efforts to restore the conditions of the Ancien Régime .

literature

• Thomas Fässler: New beginnings and resistance. Einsiedeln Monastery in the area of ​​tension between the Baroque, Enlightenment and Revolution. Egg 2019, ISBN 978-3-906812-04-5 .
• Rudolf Henggeler : Profession book of the Princely Benedictine Abbey U. L. Frau von Einsiedeln. Ceremony for the millennial existence of the monastery (= Monasticon-Benedictinum Helvetiae. 3). Self-published by the monastery, Einsiedeln 1933, OCLC 632720797 .
• Albert Hug: Küttel, Beat. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 6, 2008 . (Attention: wrong year of birth!)
• Joachim Salzgeber: Einsiedeln. Abbots. In: Helvetia Sacra . Dept. III: The orders with Benedictine rule. Volume 1: Early Monasteries, the Benedictines in Switzerland. 1st chapter. Edited by Elsanne Gilomen-Schenkel. Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel / Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-317-01533-0 , pp. 549-594, here: pp. 584 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Marian Müller (1773-1780)	Abbot of Einsiedeln 1780–1808	Konrad Tanner (1808-1825)