Francis Klesin

Franziskus Klesin OSB (born November 23, 1643 in Feldkirch ; † June 12, 1708 in Ochsenhausen ) was the 21st abbot of the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen in today's Biberach district in Upper Swabia .

Life

Francis took his religious vows on January 23, 1660 . In 1668 he was ordained a priest . During his studies at the Paris-Lodron University in Salzburg , he studied theology and canon law . He then taught theology for three years and philosophy for two years at the monastery school in Ochsenhausen . Then he was a teacher at the monastery school in Rottweil . For five years he held the post of subpriors in the monastery. He then became pastor in Tannheim before the convent elected him abbot in 1689. The episcopal investiture in the office took place on April 23, 1690, by the auxiliary bishop of the Prince-Bishop of Constance Johann Wolfgang von Bodmann . The briefing took place later because the deposed predecessor abbot Plazidus Kobolt and his brother Abbot Wilibald (Wilibaldo) Kobolt from Weingarten Abbey contested the election.

Construction and acquisitions

St. Martin (Tannheim) with coat of arms Abbot Franziskus Klesin

On October 30, 1691, the acquired relic of Saint Justina of Padua was laid out as the fourth Holy Body in the collegiate church and lavishly decorated over the next few weeks. The body was buried on December 16, 1691. Francis has three new altars set up. A cross altar , Mother of God altar and Sebastian's altar . Six half-length portraits of the existing patrons of the monastery Georg , Mauritius , Innocent , Martin , Emeretiana and Justina were made for the sum of 4,500 guilders. In 1698 he increased the church tower and gave it its typical shape today.

In 1696 he rebuilt the Ochsenhauser Pflegehof at the official seat in Tannheim and in 1702 the Tannheimer parish church St. Martin. The eighth planning master builder of the Au guild, Franz Beer von Au, received 2,500 guilders for the new church . The old church stood on a hill and had become dilapidated. Spannfronen and a single payment of 300 guilders, made the parish.

He built a prison and workshop on the monastery grounds . In 1691 he acquired the Grand Tenth of Laubach and Illerbachen from Baron Bemmelberg for 5800 guilders. In 1693 he bought a winery in Immenstaad on Lake Constance for 3,240 guilders. In 1699 he acquired the town of Obersulmetingen from Baron Ulm auf Erbach for 90,000 guilders. After the death of the last world priest Konrad Ehinger from the parish of Bellamont , the parish was finally incorporated into the Ochsenhausen monastery. A point of contention that ran through the history of the abbey remained the rights over the parish of Laupheim .

Two monks, Ulrich Han and Magnus Einsle, left the convent, which was particularly hard on Abbot Francis.

War of the Spanish Succession

During the War of the Spanish Succession , which lasted from 1701 to 1713 and largely took place on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire , the monastery stood between the warring parties. The monastery received billets and war contributions . Abbot Francis fled to Horn Castle in Switzerland. A large part of the monks fled to Tyrol , Styria or the Swiss Lake Constance area.

On June 19, 1704, the French kidnapped Prior Anselm Fischer, Subprior Heinrich Tauscher, Alphons Reichle and Blasius Medikus to the neighboring imperial city of Memmingen . The monk Meinrad Hager was kidnapped to the west of neighboring Biberach . The ransom money extorted was 1,500 guilders per hostage . On December 23, 2007 , Athanasius Merz, who had been abducted to Alsace , was released for a payment of 10,000 guilders . On May 6, 1708, Abbot Francis suffered a stroke from which he did not recover. He died on June 12, 1708.

At his death, the main treasury of the monastery recorded a positive balance of 23,000 guilders.

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 version ), p. 167

predecessor	Office	successor
Plazidus Kobolt OSB	Abbot of Ochsenhausen 1689–1708	Hieronymus II. Lindau OSB