Bernhard Breil

The abbot's coat of arms above the east portal of Baumgartenberg Abbey

Bernhard Breil (* 1609 in Pfaffstätten ; † December 29 or 30, 1683 in Baumgartenberg ) was an Austrian Cistercian and abbot of two monasteries.

life and work

Hans Breil joined the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in 1627 and took the religious name Bernhard . On April 23, 1628 he made his solemn profession and studied theology at the University of Vienna ( Bachelor of Science 1637). In 1633 he was ordained a priest . From 1637 he was (under his childhood friend Abbot Michael Schnabel ) subprior, prior , pastor and librarian in Heiligenkreuz. From 1640 to 1649 he was abbot of the Neukloster Abbey , whose difficult situation he vigorously improved, and from 1649 until his death abbot of the Baumgartenberg Abbey , where conditions were also in need of reform. He is considered the "second founder" for both monasteries. His edition of the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux (arranged according to the annual cycle) was widely used.

His gravestone in the Baumgartenberg Abbey Church bears the inscription:

“Quem olaudam quaeris dicam, ne forte graveris. Until fuit hic praesul, until neomysta simul. "

- Inscription on the tombstone

Works

• (Eds.) D . Bernardi Primi Clarævallensis Abbatis, Ordinis Cisterciensium Antesignani, melliflui Ecclesiæ Doctoris Sermones In Dominicas & Festa per annum , Salzburg, Johann Baptist Mayr, 1666 (802 pages).

literature

• Aelred Pexa , Abbot Bernhard Breil. The co-renewer of Cistercian life in Austria on the 250th anniversary of his death , in: Cistercienser Chronik 45, 1913, pp. 1–14.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ P. Florian Watzl: The Cistercians of Heiligenkreuz, presented in chronological order according to the sources . Styria, Graz 1898, p. 74.See: Die Cistercienser von Heiligenkreuz , accessed on March 30, 2017.

Web links

• Bernardus Breil in the Regesta Ecclesiastica Salisburgensia (RES) of the Archdiocese of Salzburg