Celestine Frener

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Cölestin Frener OSB (born March 27, 1664 in Konstanz , † September 10, 1737 in Ochsenhausen ) was from 1725 to 1737 the 24th abbot of the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen , in today's district of Biberach in Upper Swabia .

Life

Born and raised in Constance, Cölestin Frener passed through all of the important monastic offices of the Ochsenhausen Benedictine monastery before being elected abbot. Geisenhof describes him in his chronicle of the monastery as tall, gaunt, cheerful and youthfully lively. On June 14, 1682 he took the religious vows under Abbot Plazidus Kobolt . He then studied philosophy and theology at the Paris-Lodron University in Salzburg . He was ordained a priest on January 6, 1689, the feast day of the Three Kings . After the death of Abbot Beda Werner , he was elected abbot in 1725, at the age of 62. Coelestin himself raised concerns about his old age and the resulting costs of inauguration .

During his time as a curator and pastor at the official seat of the Ochsenhausen monastery in Tannheim , he had developed a fondness for cadastral systems and cartography . Every house in the village was given the name of a saint instead of the house number that is used today. This name of the place of residence was visibly attached to every house. Some of the houses were also painted with scenes from the life of this saint. Some of the names and paintings have been preserved on farms to this day.

Term of office

Old rectory in Tannheim

First he completed the church of St. Blasius in Bellamont and initiated the construction of the castle and official seat of the monastery in Obersulmetingen . The interior of the collegiate church was given a baroque style . The coats of arms of the abbots who redesigned the collegiate church of St. Georg over the centuries, Simon Lengenberger , Bartholomäus Ehinger and Coelestin Frener, are placed in the entrance area of ​​the church.

The front of the entrance has been completely rebuilt with blocks brought from Bregenz. A lead-cast picture of St. George on horseback was placed above the entrance. Statues of the apostles Peter and Paul replaced the little turrets above the entrance. Joseph Gabler received the order to install an organ in St. Georg.

Frener also expanded the library by purchasing books. He had a pharmacy set up in the monastery wing and hired a doctor for the monastery area. Before that, medical help had to be sought in Biberach. The first doctor was a Franz Josef Russ from Rapperswil. He converted the legal relationship between the monastery and the town of Obersulmetingen from a fall loan to an inheritance, which burdened the monastery’s finances with 17,000 guilders. In 1735, under his aegis , the monastery acquired control of Untersulmetingen for 170,000 guilders. He sold a winery in Feldkirch to Franz Anton Klesin for 2,250 guilders.

Cölestin had good relations with Prince Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg from the prince monastery in Kempten , to whom he made several of his conventuals available as teachers.

In his final years, the abbot had an open wound on his foot. When the cantors sang the Santa Maria at a mass on September 8, 1737 and he knelt on his prayer stool , he sank to the right. He suffered a stroke and without regaining consciousness, Abbot Cölestin passed away on September 10, 1737 at the age of seventy-three.

literature

  • 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.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Geisenhof : Brief history of the former imperial monastery Ochsenhausen in Swabia . Ganser, Ottobeuren 1829 ( digitized , p. 181)
predecessor Office successor
Beda Werner Abbot of Ochsenhausen
1725–1737 		Benedict Denzel
personal data
SURNAME Frener, Celestin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German abbot of the Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1664
PLACE OF BIRTH Constancy
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1737
Place of death Ochsenhausen