Dominic de Gentis
Dominikus de Gentis OP (born March 10, 1696 in Erkelenz as Wilhelm Philipp Gentis; † July 5, 1758 in Antwerp ) was bishop of Antwerp from 1749 to 1758 .
Life
Dominikus de Gentis was baptized on March 10, 1696 in the parish church of St. Lambertus in Erkelenz. He was the sixth of nine children of the married couple Johannes Martin Gentis from Erkelenz and Sibylla Elisabeth Hendrichs from Beeck . At the age of 15 he joined the Dominican order in Cologne and has called himself Dominic since taking his vows . At the age of 28, he became a priest consecrated and shortly after the rain of his monastery . In 1736 he was at the University of Cologne for a doctor of theology doctorate , where he had a number of years professorship held. Then he was appointed prior in Wesel and in Halberstadt and finally in 1745 as religious consultor to Rome , where he was at the same time librarian to Cardinal Casanate.
When the Episcopal See of Roermond was up for grabs in 1748 , with the local Bishop Johannes Antonius de Robiano being transferred to Antwerp, Dominikus Gentis was suggested as his successor. He owed this preference to the personal efforts of Empress Maria Theresa . Shortly before, he is said to have led a trial for her in Rome so skillfully that she became aware of him and now used her influence to raise him to the episcopal see of Roermond, which was in her Netherlands .
The Bishop of Roermond, however, wished to stay in Roermond, and now Dominikus Gentis himself was appointed Bishop of Antwerp in the consistory of May 5, 1749. He received his episcopal ordination in Rome on May 11th of that year and left the eternal city on June 19th to go to Vienna to see his patroness Maria Theresa. In August 1749 he was still in his hometown of Erkelenz, where he was the godfather of his nephew, the Erkelenz mayor Johannes Gerhard Meyer. On October 15, 1749 he finally made his solemn entry into the cathedral in Antwerp and took over the management of his diocese . In 1752 the imperial government in Vienna appointed him a Council of State and raised him to the nobility. From that time on, Dominikus Gentis used the aristocratic "de" for his name.
Dominikus de Gentis died on July 5, 1758 in Antwerp and was buried in the cathedral in the crypt of his predecessors. His motto was: sine spina et ungue = without thorn and spur, with which he wanted to express that he intended to govern his diocese with mildness and goodness. His coat of arms shows a red rafter on a golden background, a wild goose above and below, which is an allusion to his name genta = wild goose, and in the upper right and left corner a rose (medlar blossom), which refers to the Erkelenz city arms.
swell
- Revised and expanded text based on Josef Gaspers, Leo Sels u. a., History of the City of Erkelenz , Erkelenz 1926, pages 29 f.
- Heimatverein der Erkelenzer Lande, Genealogical Database , CD 3 (Church Book of Erkelenz), Erkelenz 2001
literature
- Friedel Krings, Dominikus de Gentis from Erkelenz , in the home calendar of the Erkelenzer Lande 1966, pages 105 ff.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gentis, Dominikus de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bishop of Antwerp |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 10, 1696 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Erkelenz |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 5, 1758 |
| Place of death | Antwerp |