Bernard Kälin

Bernard Kälin OSB (born March 21, 1887 in Einsiedeln as Josef Martin Kälin ; † October 20, 1962 in Muri ) was a Swiss Benedictine monk . From 1945 to 1947 he was abbot of the Muri-Gries Abbey in Bozen ( South Tyrol ), then until 1959 Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation.

biography

The book Logic and Metaphysics

His parents were the timber merchant and district administrator Josef Martin Kälin and Anna Verena Schön. At the age of twelve, Kälin began the grammar school of the Einsiedeln monastery and finished it in 1907 with the Matura . The following year, Kälin entered the Muri-Gries Abbey near Bozen. He made his profession in 1909 and was ordained priest in 1912 . He then studied philosophy and history at the University of Freiburg im Üechtland , where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1918 .

In 1913, while still studying, Kälin began teaching philosophy at the Sarnen College . He carried out this activity until 1945. From 1929 to 1943 he headed the college as rector. Afterwards he was President of the Swiss High School Rectors' Conference. During this time he wrote several textbooks for teaching philosophy at Catholic high schools. He gave up teaching when he was elected abbot of Muri and Prior in Gries on August 10, 1945 .

He stayed in this position for just over two years, because on September 16, 1947, the Abbots' Congress was elected as Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation. As such, he was ex officio abbot of the Primate Abbey of Sant'Anselmo in Rome . There he founded the Institutum Monasticum to study monasticism. In 1956 he was made an honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology . In 1959 Kälin decided against re-election and returned to Sarnen . In 1960 he received honorary citizenship from the Sarnen community and the rural community of the canton of Obwalden . Kälin died in the Benedictine hospice in Muri in 1962 and was buried in Sarnen.

Works

• The Epistemology of St. Augustine. Sarnen: L. Ehrli, 1920 (doctoral thesis).
• On the philosophy of the Benedictine rule. Sarnen: L. Ehrli, 1929.
• One hundred years of the Sarnen College, 1841–1941. A historical-statistical sketch. Sarnen 1941.
• Philosophy textbook. Sarnen [u. a.]: Self-published by the Benedictine College [u. a.], 1950.
• Philosophy textbook. Volume I: Logic, ontology, cosmology, psychology, criteriology and theodicy. Sarnen 1957.
• Philosophy textbook. Volume II: Introduction to Ethics. Sarnen 1957.

literature

• Albert Bruckner : Helvetia Sacra. Volume III. 1972, p. 950 f.

Web links

• Leo Ettlin: Kälin, Bernard. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Kälin, Bernard. In: Biographia Benedictina (Benedictine Biography).
• Bernard Kälin on www.muri-gries.ch.

predecessor	Office	successor
Dominic II Bucher	Abbot of Muri-Gries 1945–1947	Stephan purchase
Fidelis of Stotzingen	Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation 1947–1959	Benno good