Johann Valentin Metz

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Cross of the Speyer Cathedral Capitals (1822), as also worn by Johann Valentin Metz as a symbol of his canon dignity
The choir of the old Dominican Church in Speyer (today St. Ludwig) acquired by the Metz Foundation in 1829

Johann Valentin Metz (born December 11, 1745 in Hayna ; † May 24, 1829 in Speyer ) was a Catholic priest as well as the first cathedral provost and vicar general of the newly established diocese of Speyer in 1818 .

Live and act

Johann Valentin Metz was born in the village of Hayna, now a district of Herxheim near Landau . He attended grammar school in Speyer, became a pupil of the Jesuits in Mannheim and entered the Heidelberg clerical seminary . On April 4, 1772 he was ordained a priest in Bruchsal. In the same year the government of the Electorate of the Palatinate appointed him to Mannheim as a high school professor, where he also served as parish chaplain. In recognition of his services, Elector Karl Theodor transferred the parish of Böhl to the clergyman in 1786 , which he held until 1803. From 1803 to 1821 Johann Valentin Metz worked as pastor of Offenbach an der Queich and dean of the land chapter of Edenkoben . From 1801 until the reestablishment of the Speyer diocese in 1821, these parishes belonged to the Greater Mainz diocese .

With the conclusion of the Bavarian Concordat of 1817 , the lost diocese of Speyer could be re-established in 1818. The actual rebuilding took place until 1821. In that year the circumscription bull was published and a cathedral chapter was installed on November 7th. The enthronement of the first bishop, Matthäus Georg von Chandelle († 1826), took place on January 22, 1822.

Pope Pius VII appointed Johann Valentin Metz as provost of Speyer on October 12, 1821. Bishop Chandelle also appointed him his vicar general. Franz Xaver Remling describes Metz as "small and weak in body, but distinguished by a childlike pious mind, strict church principles, mild generosity, full of zeal and love for all that is good and edifying." He had a great deal with the previously responsible Bishop of Mainz, Joseph Ludwig Colmar Confessed reputation.

Due to his advanced age, Metz was only able to fill his office to a limited extent. He gave up the general vicariate in 1826 and remained provost until his death.

As early as November 22, 1822, Johann Valentin Metz had had permission to celebrate daily masses in his apartment due to his frailty. Nevertheless he took an active part in building the diocese. When Bishop Chandelle intended to found a seminary in 1822 , he offered him his entire fortune of 6,000 guilders and his collection of books as a gift. Nevertheless, the plan could not be realized until 1827 under the successor Johann Martin Manl . Now, too, Metz immediately participated in the establishment, made the seminary his universal heir and bequeathed him the considerable sum of 9,000 guilders. The money was used to pay for the choir of the old Dominican church , which was acquired shortly before his death in 1829 for 8,000 guilders and which then served as a seminary church (today St. Ludwig, Speyer ). That's why Bishop Nikolaus von Weis later had a memorial stone placed next to the sacristy door.

Johann Valentin Metz died in May 1829 and was buried in the old cemetery in Speyer . The grave no longer exists, when the former canon crypt was dissolved, the bones were reburied in the newly created cathedral chapter cemetery at St. Bernhard's Church. Here a stele commemorates the earliest canons of the new diocese. Metz is also recorded on it with his life data. Since 1776 he was one of the members of the Heidelberg Pactum Marianum , the death brotherhood of the former Jesuit Sodals .

literature

  • Egon Ehmer: Johannes Valentin Metz, the first vicar general of the current Diocese of Speyer , in: Mitteilungsblatt der Verbandsgemeinde Herxheim bei Landau , No. 21, 1995; (Find hint)
  • Guido Nonn: The canons since the re-establishment of the Speyer diocese, in 1817 , Volume 5 of the writings of the Speyer Diocesan Archives , 1981, p. 28
  • Obituary, in: Neue Speyerer Zeitung , No. 83, from July 9, 1829; (Digital scan)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Advertisement by civil servants employed in the Rhine district of the Kingdom of Baiern , 1823, p. 41; (Digital scan, Speyer Cathedral Chapter 1823)
  2. ^ Franz Xaver Remling : Modern History of the Bishops of Speyer , Speyer, 1867, p. 244; (Digital scan)
  3. ↑ ibid., P. 371, footnote 507
  4. ↑ ibid., P. 300
  5. ^ Intelligence Journal of the Rhine District , 1829, p. 56 u. 57 of the year; (Digital scan)
  6. ↑ ibid., P. 371, footnote 507
  7. ^ Franz Xaver Remling: Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria , Volume 1, Neustadt, 1836, p. 192; (Digital scan)
  8. ^ List of members of the Heidelberg Pactum Marianum, 1787, no page number; (Digital scan)
personal data
SURNAME Metz, Johann Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest, cathedral capitular, cathedral provost and vicar general in the diocese of Speyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1745
PLACE OF BIRTH Hayna
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1829
Place of death Speyer