Edmund Weidner

Edmund Weidner (born October 16, 1701 in Tiengen ; † June 12, 1748 in Horgen ) was from 1737 to 1738 under the supervision of Mauritius Müller the librarian of the St. Gallen monastery .

Life

Emund Weidner, baptized Beat Wunibald, made his vows on his birthday in 1721 . He became a subdeacon on July 31, 1723 and a deacon on April 1, 1724. Weidner became a priest on April 6, 1726. The ordination took place two days later. From November 18, 1726, Father Edmund was first sub-custodian before he came to St. Johann on July 28, 1728 , where he became the boys' taskmaster. Soon afterwards he was suspected of intercourse with women and in the chapter punished the superiors. Since he did not improve, soon after he became a librarian, he was dismissed from office and suspended.

Escape from the monastery

After his suspension, Weidner fled to Arbon in the early morning of April 14, 1737 , accompanied by Barbara Falk, where he had previously enriched himself at the coin collection. He came to Meersburg , where he was found by the abbot's messengers who were forwarded to him and arrested with the help of secular violence. On April 19, he came back to St. Gallen, where ten days later he was sentenced in the chapter to 24 hours of strict imprisonment and lifelong confinement in a cell with suspension from all church offices. He was well treated and visited by specially designated fathers. At first he did a ten-day retreat and did quite well. After a few weeks, however, he began to complain and said it would be better if he could go to another monastery. At the same time he complained of health problems; But it was discovered that he was weakening himself by voluntarily starving himself, whereupon the doctor forced him to eat again so that he regained his strength.

On September 15, Weidner managed to break out of the cell through the wall. He hid in the brothers' bathroom. From there he wanted to escape through the church early in the morning. But he was found and taken into safe custody. According to the rule of the order, he was corporally punished for blasphemy and, when threatened with suicide, was handcuffed. Nevertheless he managed to prepare a new escape attempt, which he discovered himself, whereupon the cell was reinforced. On the night of December 25, 1738, when everything was in church, he was able to escape again. He is said to have been ghosted through the city of St. Gallen, wrapped in a woolen prayer shawl.

With the help of a St. Gallen citizen, Weidner made it to Zurich , where he was welcomed. After learning of the escape to Zurich, the abbot requested the extradition of the former clergyman for stealing in the monastery library and for fleeing the law because he had escaped the dungeon. The abbot pointed out that Zurich as a screen location of the Abbey this had to protect their rights. But Weidner did not extradite Zurich. He then became a pastor in Horgen after converting to the Reformed faith. Several attempts by the abbot to contact him personally and to persuade him to return failed, most recently in 1748 because Weidner had succumbed to a brief illness.

Act

As a pastor, Edmund Weidner published a pamphlet on his change of faith in which he sought to justify himself.

literature

• Rudolf Henggeler : Profession book of the princely. Benedictine abbey of St. Gallus and Otmar in St. Gallen. Zug 1929, pp. 371-372.
• Franz Weidmann: History of the library of St. Gallen from its foundation around the year 830 up to 1841. Edited from the sources on the millennial jubilee. St. Gallen 1841, pp. 158-160.

predecessor	Office	successor
Basil Balthasar	Librarian of St. Gallen 1737–1738 under the supervision of Mauritius Müller	Notker Heine