Edmund Schmidt (clergyman)

Edmund Schmidt OSB , baptized Josef Schmidt (born November 20, 1844 in Limburg , † December 21, 1916 in Metten ), was a German clergyman and Benedictine in the Bavarian monastery of Metten . He was the founder of modern text-critical research on the Rule of Benedict .

Life

Josef Schmidt attended the grammar school of the Metten monastery. After graduating from high school, he entered the Benedictine monastery here and was given the religious name Edmund. After studying theology at the University of Innsbruck , solemn profession in 1868 and being ordained priest in the same year, he worked as a teacher of shorthand and French at the Metten grammar school and as an educator in the seminary.

In addition, he devoted himself to researching the text history of the Rule of Benedict. The result of his research was the first scientific edition of the text of the Rule of Benedict based on the critical review and evaluation of the most important text witnesses. With this, Edmund Schmidt laid the foundation for further scientific research into the Rule of Benedict in the 20th century.

Works

• Regula SP Benedicti juxta antiquissimos codices recognita , Regensburg 1880.
• Preface to the Rule of St. Benedikt , in: Studies 1883 / I 1–23.
• Chapter IV of the Rule of St. Benedikt , in Studien 1883 / III 1–21.
• Article "Der St. Benedikt" in the 2nd edition of the Freiburg Church Lexicon, pp. 322-325.
• The Rule of Saint Benedict , translated by Edmund Schmidt OSB Regensburg 1892 (2nd improved edition 1893; 3rd edition 1904; 4th revised edition 1914).

literature

• Michael Kaufmann: Memento mori. In memory of the deceased conventuals of the Benedictine abbey of Metten since the rebuilding in 1830 (history of the development of the Benedictine abbey of Metten, Part V), Metten 2008, 236f.
• August Lindner: The writers and members of the Benedictine order in what is now the Kingdom of Bavaria were deserving of science and art. Supplements , 1884.