Benedict Denzel

Benedict Denzel

Benedikt Denzel OSB (born September 26, 1692 in Westerstetten , † October 11, 1767 in Ochsenhausen ) was from 1725 to 1767 the 25th abbot of the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen in today's Biberach district in Upper Swabia .

Life

Benedikt Denzel took the religious vows in the monastery Ochsenhausen on January 15, 1712 under Abbot Hieronymus II. Lindau . He was ordained a priest on October 9, 1718. He then held the office of novice master . In the villages of Obersulmetingen and Tannheim he was pastor and caretaker of the official seats of the monastery. He was elected abbot on September 25, 1737. One of his main concerns was the preservation of monastic discipline and order. During his tenure, thirty-five monks entered the convent and thirty-six died. He had to mourn the loss of a conventual by departure, who fled to Zurich in Switzerland on September 8, 1772 and died there. The Baroque , a movement in European architecture and an art form of absolutism and the Counter-Reformation , prevailed during his tenure in the interior and exterior design of sacred buildings in the area of ​​the Ochsenhausen monastery.

buildings

Denzel gave the facade its current shape

In 1748 the monastery acquired Horn Castle near Fischbach from the then Bishop of Constance Johann Franz Schenk von Stauffenberg for 126,000 guilders . Abbot Benedict had the castle repaired and a farm building added. In the immediate vicinity of Ochsenhausen, the churches in Reinstetten , Winterrieden , the Niederkirch , Rottum and the chapel in Wennedach were rebuilt in a baroque style. The rectory in Reinstetten was extended and embellished. A major renovation in the monastery triggered the removal of several wooden columns in the monastery refectory . The outer facades of the eastern and southern wings of the monastery complex were given their unmistakable appearance to this day. For the celebration of the Holy Mass at investitures , the abbot had a robe made for 8,000 guilders. The four holy bodies in the collegiate church of St. Georg were recast by the nuns of the Ennetach monastery near Mengen .

The training of the monks in foreign languages ​​took place during this time in the monastery of St. Blasien . The monks were sent to Irsee Monastery to train in mathematics . More books for the library were continuously bought and the armarium, a collection of physical devices, was expanded. In 1738 the monastery made a contribution to the clergy seminar in Meersburg in the amount of 8,000 guilders. A sum of 100,000 guilders flowed from the monastery to the Reich and the House of Habsburg as a war contribution for the Seven Years' War .

At the age of 75, Benedikt Denzel suffered a stroke . As a result, right-sided paralysis remained . From that point on, the abbot could no longer move unaided. On October 11, 1767, he died among his monks in the dining room of the monastery on the stroke of twelve o'clock.

literature

Abbot Benedict's coat of arms in the Niederkirch

• Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former Reichsstift Ochsenhausen in Swabia. Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized version ).
• Volker Himmelein (ed.): Old monasteries, new masters. The secularization in the German southwest 1803. Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2003. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-0212-2 (exhibition catalog and essay volume).
• Volker Himmelein, Franz Quarthal (Ed.): Vorderösterreich, Only the tail feather of the imperial eagle? The Habsburgs in the German southwest. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1999, ISBN 3-88294-277-0 (catalog of the state exhibition).
• Heribert Smolinsky : Church history of the modern age. Part 1. 2008.
• H.-J. Reiff, G. Spahr, D. Hauffe: Ochsenhausen monastery. History, art, present. Biberach 1985.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geisenhof: Brief History , p. 187

predecessor	Office	successor
Cölestin Frener OSB	Abbot of Ochsenhausen 1737–1767	Romuald World in OSB