Ignatius of Senestrey

Bishop Ignatius of Senestrey

Coat of arms as bishop of Regensburg and personal archbishop with honorary pallium (1858–1906)

Tomb of Ignatius of Senestrey in St. Jakob, Regensburg

Ignatius Senestrey , from Senestrey since 1858 , (born July 13, 1818 in Bärnau , † August 16, 1906 in Regensburg ) was Bishop of Regensburg from 1858 to 1906 .

Life

Ignatius of Senestrey was trained at the Collegium Germanicum and was ordained a priest on March 19, 1842 . In 1858 he was taken over by Pope Pius IX. appointed Bishop of Regensburg. He was ordained bishop on May 2, 1858, by Cardinal Flavio Chigi .

Senestrey always sided with the Pope . His appointment as bishop sparked public protests. During the First Vatican Council he was a staunch advocate of the dogma of papal infallibility . Senestrey's appointment to the Regensburg cathedral was not met with enthusiasm, especially in the cathedral chapter . It was hoped that their own candidate, Johann Baptist Lemberger, would be appointed bishop by the Bavarian King Maximilian II . The disappointment in both the liberal and the conservative camp was great when the nomination in Regensburg became known on January 27, 1858. Conservatives accused Senestrey of having too much nationality, while liberals saw him only as a Jesuit pupil. Even within the Bavarian episcopate , the bishops were divided. In this mood Senestrey was officially enthroned on May 2nd by the papal nuncio as a token of the appreciation that the Vatican had shown him. At that time he made the publicist Willibald Apollinar Maier his bishop's secretary.

Shortly afterwards there was the first clash between the cathedral chapter and the bishop. The canons presented Senestrey with an "invoice" for the festivities, which, according to the primary order, required the new bishop to cover the expenses. But Senestrey refused to pay the costs.

Soon after taking over the official business, the bishop not only had the apartments moved to the former Niedermünster women's monastery , but also initiated construction work on the cathedral. He wanted to have the two tower stumps completed. This happened from 1859 to 1869 and gave the west facade of the Regensburg Cathedral its current appearance.

Succeeded Senestrey, the Scottish monastery of St. Jacob , against the backdrop of its extraterritorial status, the monastery resolutions of secularization had survived in 1803 after the transition of Regensburg in Bavaria in 1810, in 1862 "because of staff shortages" of Pope Pius IX. dissolve and transfer to the diocese of Regensburg. After renovation work between 1866 and 1872, the diocese's seminary moved into the former monastery rooms. Senestrey determined his later burial place in the church of the Schottenkloster, the later seminary church.

In the spring of 1877, an alleged miracle healing in the hamlet of Mettenbuch swelled the stream of pilgrims that had already arisen due to the descriptions of "miraculous-faced children". However, Senestrey, like the local priest, was suspicious and had the children interrogated in isolated monasteries. As a result, Senestrey had a pastoral letter read out in all the churches of his diocese on January 23, 1879, which described the Mettenbuch apparitions as spurious. Despite the rejection, the Mettenbuch pilgrimage to the “comforter of the afflicted” lives on to this day.

During his time as Bishop of Regensburg he came under the influence of the mystic Louise Beck , who (probably partly through blackmail) gained increasing influence on his administration and his life and through him influenced Bavarian church politics. When she died on August 9, 1879, Senestrey said he no longer knew how to run the diocese.

Senestrey initiated - ultimately unsuccessful - posthumous inquisition proceedings against his predecessor in office Johann Michael Sailer .

In the last decade of the 19th century he was awarded the honorary title of Archbishop ad personam and the pallium .

literature

• Karl Hausberger : History of the diocese of Regensburg. Vol. 2: From the baroque to the present. Regensburg 1989, 156-192.
• Paul Mai : Bishop Ignatius von Senestréy as a member of the deputation for questions of faith at Vatican I. In: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg 109 (1969) 115-143.
• Paul Mai: Ignatius of Senestréy. Bishop of Regensburg (1858–1906). In: Contributions to the history of the diocese of Regensburg 23/24 (1989) 751-760.
• Paul Mai:  Senestrey, Ignatius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 252 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Otto Weiß : Instructions from the beyond? The influence of mystical phenomena on the leadership of orders and churches in the 19th century. Pustet, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3791723891 .
• Johannes Kreuzenbeck:  Senestrey, Ignatius von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 1328-1331.
• Hubert Wolf : Johann Michael von Sailer . The posthumous inquisition trial . Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3506776716 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Ignatius von Senestrey in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Ignatius of Senestrey on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on May 30, 2017.
• general information ( Memento from February 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MERIAN monthly issue, 16th year (1963), issue 6, p. 88 ff
2. ^ Mettenbuch pilgrimage since 1876

predecessor	Office	successor
Valentin Riedel	Bishop of Regensburg 1858–1906	Anton von Henle