Benedict Strauch

Benedict Strauch (born March 12, 1724 in Frankenstein (Silesia) , † October 19, 1803 in Sagan ) was a German educator and Catholic theologian.

Life

Strauch had completed his first lessons at the city school in his hometown. At the grammar school in Olomouc and at the University of Wroclaw he devoted himself to philosophical and theological studies. In 1747 he entered the Augustinian monastery in Sagan and was ordained a priest in 1748 . He used his time to continue studying theology, especially canon law , patristics and church and secular history. After he had managed the position of church and cellar master for a short time in the Sagan Abbey , he became a chaplain in Dittersbach . But soon returned to Sagan as a town chaplain and Sunday preacher.

In 1762 he became prior , novice master and overseer of the schools belonging to the monastery. In connection with Johann Ignaz von Felbiger (1724–1788), who later became general director of the school system in the Austrian states, who had become prelate in Sagan in 1758, Strauch ensured a positive development of the monastery with him. He took into account the internal affairs of the monastery, while Felbiger directed his main attention to the external circumstances of the same. In doing so, both developed a Catholic school reform concept, which was later to find expression for the whole of Silesia in the General Land School Regulations of 1765.

He took care of the education of the young priests through public lectures and gave religious instruction to the youth himself in school. When Felbiger completely went into Austrian service in 1778, the prelature of the Sagan Abbey was transferred to Strauch. He tried to raise the lower income of the pen through thrift and restriction and he paid attention to the maintenance of internal discipline. He also continued the lectures he had previously given as prior in order to train the young priests.

Strauch had worked to improve the Catholic school system. He did this not only through his oral lecture, but also through writings, among which in particular his Roman Catholic catechism published in 1765 , his catechetical reflections published in 1768 , in which he gave a brief overview of Catholic dogmas, and his core of biblical stories printed in 1767 of the Old Testament gained importance. Several of these writings saw repeated editions. Following the most essential principles of Christian morality, he also drafted a short biblical history of religion in 1776 .

Works

• The Gospels as they were written by the four Evangelists, together with the lessons and epistles which are read throughout the year in the Catholic Church; for the use of Sagan's pen reading students. Sagan 1764, 3rd edition, Sagan 1771
• Roman Catholic catechism for the use of the Silesian schools for the second grade of children. Sagan 1765, 1767, 1776
• Roman Catholic catechism for the third grade of children in the schools of the Sagan Monastery. Sagan 1766, 1776
• Mr. Francois Lafitau, Bishop of Sisteron, spiritual letters to a nun of the monastery; from French. Bamberg and Würzburg 1767
• Core of the biblical story of the Old Testament, from which the most distinguished events of the people of God and of the most famous people from this people can be made known very easily to the youth. Sagan 1767
• Catechetical considerations in which the content of the Holy Roman Catholic Faith is presented in such a way that people who were poorly instructed in their youth or who have forgotten the instruction received can easily and touchingly make themselves known to the truths of faith and the duties of life of this holy religion . Bamberg and Würzburg 1768, 1771 ( online )
• Speech on the Sunday Latare 1765, the day of remembrance of Christianity introduced in Silesia eight hundred years ago, given in the collegiate and parish church at Sagan. Bamberg and Würzburg 1768
• Catholic prayer book, primarily for the use of common people. Sagan 1768
• M. Ignaz Schmidt: The catechist, according to his qualities and duties, translated from Latin. Sagan 1772 ( online ), 1775, part 2 ( online )
• Short biblical history of the religion, according to the main list of the Christian moral doctrine, for the town and country schools belonging to the Sagan peninsula. Sagan 1776
• Considerations of the prayers, especially for people who have been ill for a long time and who want to prepare well to die in a Christian way. Sagan 1789

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, Neustadt an der Orla, Volume 4, p. 416 ( Online )
• Georg Christoph Hamberger , Johann Georg Meusel : The learned Teutschland, or lexicon of the now living German writers. Verlag Meyer, Lemgo, 1798, Volume 7, p. 692 ( online );
• Manfred Brandl: The German Catholic theologians of modern times. Volume 2: Enlightenment. Neugebauer, Graz 1978, ISBN 978-3853760116 , p. 245. after: Hugo Hurter : Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae theologos exhibens aetate, natione, disciplinis distinctos . Wagner, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1903–1910.