Benedict Menges
Benedikt Menges OSB (* July 31, 1840 in Obermohr as Josef Menges , now Steinwendi ; † July 11, 1904 in the Abbey of St. Bernhard, Cullman , Alabama , USA) was a Catholic priest , Benedictine and 1st abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Bernhard, Alabama, USA.
Life
Benedikt Menges was born as Josef Menges in Obermohr, Pfalz and was the son of a craftsman. In 1865 he emigrated to the USA, where he arrived on November 20, 1865. He joined the Benedictine order in St. Vincent Abbey , Latrobe, Westmoreland County , Pennsylvania, about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh . They were Bavarian Benedictines under Archabbot Bonifaz Wimmer , who were supported in their mission by King Ludwig I. On October 5, 1872, Menges resigned his religious profession, took on the religious name "Benedict" and was ordained a priest in the same year . The young priest was sent to St. Joseph's Church in Chicago as an assistant priest . Here and in the parish of St. Mary, Allegheny City , Pennsylvania , he worked until 1876. Then he was called to a German parish in St. Florian, Alabama . The colonists there had sought a pastor from the St. Vincent Abbey, as their previous priest, Pastor Michael Merz, had contracted smallpox while caring for people with smallpox and died. Pastor Merz came - like Benedikt Menges - from the diocese of Speyer and had previously been pastor of Grünstadt . Father Menges worked in St. Florian until 1878 and was replaced by Father Joseph Keller OSB - also from Obermohr in the Diocese of Speyer - who stayed there until 1884. When the yellow fever raged in Memphis and New Orleans in 1878 , Benedikt Menges was one of the most zealous carers for the sick. After his stay in St. Florian the Father officiated in Huntsville and Tuscumbia , Alabama. 1888-1891 he was prior in Corvington and Carolltown , Pennsylvania.
The German Benedictines were supposed to take over the regular pastoral care of the German settlers in Alabama and they finally founded the monastery (abbey) of St. Bernhard in Cullman - right next to the parish of St. Florian, where Menges had worked a few years earlier. Father Benedikt Menges was unanimously elected abbot on September 29, 1891 by the members of the order there. He held this office until 1904. Under his leadership, the Abbey of St. Bernhard, Cullmann, developed into a center of Catholic life in the southern United States. In 1892 the abbot from the Palatinate founded a college (school) near the monastery. In 1893 he was invited to Pope Leo XIII along with other Benedictine abbots. followed to Rome on the occasion of his 50th bishop's jubilee. On this occasion he also visited his Palatinate homeland and his birthplace Obermohr. He advertised his distant mission here and succeeded. His sister Elisabeth, his brother Bernhard and his son Josef followed him, together with others, to the USA. On December 21, 1897 Abbot Menges solemnly celebrated the silver jubilee of priests, for which guests from all over America appeared in St. Bernhard. In 1898, P. Ambrosius Reger, abbot from 1933 to 1938, published a description of the work of the Benedictines in Alabama in the USA. The last chapter deals with the person of Abbot Menges and describes in detail the celebrations for his silver consecration anniversary. The book is dedicated to him and the author writes in the dedication: "To his spiritual father, the pioneer of faith, the friend of the South, the founder of St. Bernhard." In 1900 Benedikt Menges was back home. He died in 1904 and is buried in the abbey he founded. His nephew, Father Bernhard Menges, was elected to succeed him as abbot .
literature
- Father Ambrosius Reger OSB: “The Benedictines in Alabama” , with photo by Abbot Benedikt Menges, Baltimore, USA, 1898
- Jakob Bisson : "Seven Speyer bishops and their time" . Pilger Publishing House. Speyer 1956. pp. 123-125.
- Roland Paul: "Obermohrer founded monastery in USA - life and work of Abbot Benedikt Menges" , in: Heimatkalender Kaiserslautern 1985, pp. 90–91
- Viktor Carl: "Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities" . Hennig Verlag Edenkoben. 1998. p. 460 u. 461.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Menges, Benedict |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Menges, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Priest, Benedictine abbot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1840 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Obermohr |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 11, 1904 |
| Place of death | Cullman |