Johann Melchior Sauter

Johann Melchior Sauter

Johann Melchior Sauter (born September 16, 1686 in Schleinsee , † April 16, 1746 in Wasserburg (Lake Constance) ) was a German dean and pastor.

Life

Sauter was born in 1686 as the first of eight children to his Catholic parents Eva, née Güntherin, and Johannes Sauter in a Schupflehenhof in Schleinsee, now a district of Kressbronn in the Lake Constance district. One of his two sisters later took over the farm, one brother became the landlord in Wasserburg, two other brothers, Johann Georg (* April 23, 1694, † 1754) and Gallus Anton (* October 19, 1697, † as chaplain in Haslach), chose also a spiritual profession.

Education and professions

Sauter showed an early interest in studies and made chasubles and altars out of paper. He was accepted as an altar boy in the monastery of St. Paul of Thebes in Langnau . Here he learned music and also Latin. He completed his advanced studies in the Wettingen-Mehrerau territorial abbey , which was then headed by Benedictines , and later studied theology , law and philosophy in Salzburg . After he was ordained a priest in Salzburg in 1709 , Sauter was awarded the doctorate of both rights (Latin: Doctor iuris utriusque ) in 1711 .

Melchior Sauter became court master of Count Ernst von Montfort , through whom he was installed in the pastor's office in Neukirch in 1716 . In 1720, the Prince Abbot of St. Gallen gave him the better endowed parish of Wasserburg, which he led until March 24, 1746. Because of his erudition, Sauter was appointed clerical councilor to the Bishop of Constance and in 1726 dean of the Lindau regional chapter .

death

Grave slab of JM Sauter

Sauter died of dropsy on April 16, 1746. The grave plaque installed in the Wasserburg parish church today describes his priestly life and his services:

Translation of the Latin text of the grave tablet:

Read and grieve hikers! - Under this simple stone lies the son of the Great Mother, the illustrious and venerable, noble and distinguished Mr. Melchior Sauter, Doctor iuris utriusque, the High Born and Most Revered Prince-Bishop of Constance, etc. Spiritual Councilor, the Venerable Land Chapter Lindau. Dean, first in Neukirch and then the local church pastor and most vigilant leader etc.

After he made the Immaculate Virgin the universal heir of his temporal fortune, he came to the grave on a Saturday that is dedicated to this very virgin, in the year after the birth of Christ in 1746, on April 16, on which the Saturday fell before White Sunday . He was deleted from the Book of the Living in his 61st year, his priesthood in the 37th, his pastoral activity in the 35th year, in the 20th of his deanery.

As long as he stayed on earth, he was distinguished by piety, wisdom, zeal for the souls entrusted to him, righteousness and experience in his administration. And because of that, he would have deserved a longer life had he not been more worthy of Heaven.

You, whoever you may be reading this, ask for eternal rest for him who has made immortal merits.

And as far as you can, imitate the fool in life!

The grave slab also shows Sauter's coat of arms : a pelican opening its chest and surrounded by three stars in its nest.

testament

Melchior Sauter left a will drawn up in 1739 . This was renewed in 1744 and confirmed in 1748. He bequeathed 500 guilders to "his" chapel at Schleinsee and 5000 guilders went to a chaplaincy - benefices for this chapel. There were also properties in Gattnau , Nitzenweiler and the former Nonnenbach (today Kressbronn).

From the foundation, it is possible to pay a priest, the chapel should, according to the will, become a center for the population: a Holy Mass should be read for the founder and his parents on three days each week, and children's teaching on Sundays and holidays held, sermons and rosaries are performed at the main Marian festivals and a mass is read every day from the Assumption Day (August 15) to the name of the Virgin (September 12) ( women in their thirties ).

Assumption Chapel

Assumption chapel with former chaplaincy

In 1737, Johann Melchior Sauter donated the chapel dedicated to St. Maria with the associated chaplaincy (completed in 1755) in today's Schleinsee district of Kressbronn. After the foundation stone was laid on July 18 and a construction period of one hundred days, the chapel was inaugurated on October 28, 1737 by Sauter - on behalf of the Constance Auxiliary Bishop Johann Anton Franz von Sirgenstein . The final consecration took place on July 7, 1746 by the Constance Auxiliary Bishop Franz Karl Joseph von Fugger-Glött .

The architecture of the chapel reflects the formal language and theme of the Baroque . Inside, the altarpieces - framed by figures of Saints John of Nepomuk and Franz Xavier - show an ascension in the choir and on the side altars the adoration of the kings and the Holy Family.

The chapel comes into focus every year on August 15, when the patronage is celebrated there for the Assumption of Mary .

In the chancel of the chapel today depends oil paintings , the Sauter, 58 years old, is considered the father of the chapel: Dressed in black robes of office interprets his left hand on a picture that depicts the Assumption Maiens, and his right hand pointing to two books (characters his erudition). In the background of the picture you can see the Schleinseekapelle donated by him - "his".

literature

• Don Antonio: Order of the clergy according to the inventory of the parish books, in “Festschrift for the jubilee of the parish church St. Gallus in Gattnau” . A. Kling, Kressbronn 1992.
• Göser, Lorenz L. and Kuhn, Elmar L .: Marienkapelle Schleinsee, in "Kressbronner Kirchenweg" . Fink, Lindenberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89870-422-9 .
• Kramer, Ingrid: The monuments of Dr. Melchior Sauter - How Schleinsee's most famous son tried to work forever, in “Leben am See - Heimatjahrbuch des Bodenseekreis. - Volume V " . Senn, Tettnang 1987, ISBN 3-88812-505-7 .