Johannes Christoph Guetknecht

Johannes Christoph Guetknecht OSB (* 1596 in Horb am Neckar , † January 15, 1645 in Metten ) was a German Benedictine and abbot of Metten Monastery .

biography

Johannes Christoph Guetknecht entered the Metten Monastery in 1614 and professed here in 1615. He then studied philosophy and theology at the Jesuit Lyceum near Sankt Paul in Regensburg and at the Bavarian State University of Ingolstadt . After being ordained a priest in 1621, he took over the offices of director of the clergy and prior in the Metten monastery . When the Metten abbot Johannes Nablas was also elected abbot of the St. Emmeram monastery in Regensburg in 1623, Prior Johannes Christoph Guetknecht became the administrator and representative of the abbot, who was now mostly in Regensburg. When Johannes Nablas renounced the office of Abbot von Metten in 1628, Johannes Christoph Guetknecht was elected as his successor.

During his time as prior and administrator, Johannes Christoph Guetknecht was already entrusted with the construction of the large new convent building in Metten, commissioned by Abbot Johannes Nablas, the furnishings of which he completed during his time as abbot (furnishing the library). He himself commissioned the construction of the new farm buildings for the monastery. On the basis of the renovation work of his predecessor, Abbot Johannes Christoph Guetknecht was able to increase the ownership of the monastery.

The work of Abbot Johannes Christoph coincided with the Thirty Years' War , which demanded considerable financial burdens from the monastery. For the first time, the Mettner monks had to flee from the Swedish troops from the monastery in 1633. The abbot himself fled to Austria. After the monks returned, the plague broke out in the monastery. After the damage from the looting had been repaired, the monks had to flee the monastery again from the Swedes in 1641. This time Abbot Johannes Christoph Guetknecht found refuge in the neighboring monastery of Aldersbach .

The clever economic management and the efforts for the spiritual renewal of the monastery life in Metten, which were started by Johannes Nablas and energetically continued by Johannes Christoph Guetknecht, contributed to the fact that the monastery survived the period of the Thirty Years' War well and in the following Baroque period could reach new cultural bloom.

literature

• Wilhelm Fink , History of the Development of the Benedictine Abbey of Metten. Vol. 1: The professorship book of the abbey (studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order and its branches. Supplementary booklet 1,1), Munich 1927, p. 35.
• Rupert Mittermüller , The Metten Monastery and its Aebte. An overview of the history of this old Benedictine monastery , Straubing 1856, 161–168.

Web links

• Gravestone for Abbot Johannes Christoph Guetknecht in the cloister of Metten Monastery
• Coat of arms of Abbot Johannes Christoph Guetknecht on a historical book cover

predecessor	Office	successor
Johannes Nablas	Abbot of Metten Monastery 1628–1645	Maurus Lauter