Ignatius Eggs

Ignatius Eggs: New Jerosolymitan Pilgrimage , illustrated edition 1667, title page

Ignatius Eggs , also Ignaz Eggs, religious name P. (ater) F. Ignatius von Rheinfelden (born October 4, 1618 in Rheinfelden ; † February 13, 1702 in Freiburg im Breisgau , according to other information in Laufenburg ) was a Capuchin priest , missionary and explorer in Palestine .

life and work

Ignatius Eggs was born in the year of the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War , on October 4, 1618 in Rheinfelden am Hochrhein , then in front of Austria . After training in Rheinfelden, Pruntrut and Freiburg im Breisgau, Eggs completed a law degree in Dillingen on the Danube and Innsbruck , but turned to the religious subject under the impression of the devastation of the month-long siege of Rheinfeld by French soldiers in 1634 and finally entered the Franciscan monastery in Freiburg im Breisgau. Since then Eggs has called himself by his religious name Pater F. Ignatius von Rheinfelden.

He was appointed by the Minister General of the Capuchin Order, Fortunatus von Catoro , as pastor of the Venetian fleet, which was involved in the 6th Venetian Turkish War at the time of Sultan Mehmet IV in 1655 under the direction of Laurenzio Marcello . In this capacity he took part in the Battle of the Dardanelles . Before and after that he stayed at various Aegean islands on to the resident Muslims to proselytize .

At the end of 1656 he accompanied Count Octavio von Thurn und Taxis (probably a relative or descendant of the eponymous imperial postmaster at Augsburg and Rheinhausen im Breisgau ) for 16 months on a trip to Palestine. He returned to Venice via Tire and Cyprus .

He wrote a description of these trips from 1655 to 1656, which first appeared in 1664 (without any illustrations). In 1667 it was published again, this time with numerous copperplate engravings (illustrations and maps of the Holy Land and the Battle of the Dardanelles), woodcuts (of Jerusalem and other places) and supplements. Further editions appeared in the following decades in Dillingen and Augsburg (1699, published by Maria Magdalena Utzschneider).

Then he was guardian of various monasteries for 29 years , where he was particularly committed to scientific work at the monastery schools.

Ignatius Eggs also had a decisive influence on the construction of a Capuchin monastery in Laufenburg (laying of the foundation stone: June 14, 1652, handover of the church and monastery to the Capuchins: April 4, 1660).

He is said to have played an important role in the resistance of the peasants against the Swedish occupation of the city of Laufenburg on the High Rhine under the leadership of Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar in January 1638.

His life provided the material for a historical novel by the Laufenburg author Petra Gabriel . In "The Cardinal's Prisoner" she wrongly equated him (for dramaturgical reasons) with the historically also traditional "Peasant Emperor". Eggs and the peasant emperor, however, were two different men. The open-air play “Ignatius, Bauernkaiser von Laufenburg” by the “Theater WIWA” (premiered for the 800th anniversary of Laufenburg in 2007) took up this idea later and also pointed out that Eggs and the Bauernkaiser are actually two people acted.

Ignatius Eggs was an uncle of the theologian Georg Joseph von Eggs (* 1663 in Rheinfelden, † 1755 in Rheinfelden).

literature

• Ignatius Eggs: Newe Jerosolomytanische Bilgerfahrt: or short description of the promised Heyligen Landts, entered and sanctified by Christ Jesus our Redeemer and soul maker , Konstanz: Geng, 1664 full text in the Google book search
• Ignatius Eggs (called Ignatius von Rheinfelden): New Jerosolymitanische Pilger-Fahrt: Or Kurtze description of the promised Holy Land , Würzburg: Hertz, 1667 (first non-illustrated edition: 1664).
• A. Schumann:  Eggs, Ignatius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 675.
• German Biographical Encyclopedia , Munich: KG Saur, p. 262
• Petra Gabriel: "The Prisoner of the Cardinal" [historical novel ], Weitbrecht- Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3522715357
• Karl Schröter: P. Ignatius Eggs von Rheinfelden: Das Lebensbild eines Kapuziners , [supplement to] the final report on the schools in Rheinfelden, 1859-1860, ([with 1] addendum on the Eggs family), Rheinfelden: Verlag Frick, 1860.
• Titus Tobler : Bibliographia geographica Palaestinae , Leipzig, 1867, p. 106.
• Karl Schib : History of the City of Rheinfelden , 1961

Web links

• Publications by and about Ignatius Eggs in VD 17 .
• Dominik Sauerländer: Eggs. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Images from the Jerosolymitan pilgrimage
• Play "Ignatius, Peasant Emperor of Laufenburg"