Ephrem van der Meulen

Ephrem August van der Meulen (born December 5, 1801 in Rhede , † March 1, 1884 in Reiningue ) was a German priest, headmaster and Cistercian . From 1850 to 1884 he was abbot of the Cistercian abbey lenberg .

Life

August van der Meulen, born in Rhede Castle in 1801, studied philosophy, theology and canon law in Münster and Bonn and was ordained a priest by Auxiliary Bishop Droste-Vischering in Münster in 1825 . He founded the Latin School in Bocholt, which he headed from 1825 to 1834, and was director of the Selektenschule in Frankfurt am Main from 1834 to 1842 .

After the death of his mentor Clemens Brentano in 1842, he first went to his brother Gustav van der Meulen in Cologne and in 1845 took over the position of chaplain at the Marienhospital in Aachen. In November 1847 he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Œlenberg, where he made his vows on December 8, 1848 with the religious name Ephrem and was elected abbot in 1850. He founded the abbey's library, which is still important today, and was also known outside the monastery as a preacher. In 1860 he repopulated the remains of the Mariawald monastery in Heimbach in the Eifel, which had been abolished during the secularization, with monks from Œlenberg. As Vicar General of the Congregation of Sept-Fons, he attended the First Vatican Council. In 1871 he re-edited the Exordia S. Ordinis Cisterciensis and in 1880 published a theological compendium in Latin.

He died on March 1st, 1884 after a long illness.

literature

• Karl Breuer: August van der Meulen, Abbot Ephrem 1801–1884. In: Yearbook of the Selektenschule 1930–1931. Frankfurt am Main, 1931 (pp. 9–70)
• Claude Muller: Van der Meulen, Auguste. In: Bernard Vogler et al .: Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine, Volume 2 (L'Alsace). Paris: Beauchesne, 1987 (p. 439f.)

Web links

• Van der Meulen, Ephrem in Biographia Cisterciensis , version of August 9, 2015
• Entry on Ephrem van der Meulen on Orden online (May 4, 2012)