Johannes Gartner

Johannes Gartner OSB (born May 25, 1940 in Vienna , Austria as Gerhard Gartner ; † February 20, 2020 ) was an Austrian Benedictine . From 2000 to 2010 he was the 7th abbot of Seckau Abbey .

Life

His father Leopold Gartner was state school inspector and mayor in Weikendorf . During his time in the lower level of the Realgymnasium (1950 to 1954) with the De La Salle school brothers in Strebersdorf , he got to know religious life; to graduate from high school, he went to the Melker Stiftsgymnasium . After graduating from high school in Melk, he studied classical philology at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1963 with a doctorate. phil. and the teaching examinations in Latin and Greek. Since 1959 he was a member of the Catholic student association KÖHV Nordgau Vienna in the ÖCV .

After completing his doctorate, he worked as a teacher at the Stiftsgymnasium Seitenstetten and studied theology at the same time; on June 29, 1967 he was ordained a priest for the diocese of St. Pölten ; his first decade he was involved in school and as a pastor. In 1978 he became rector of the diocesan education center St. Hippolyt in St. Pölten; from 1980 to 1984 he served as the seminary spiritual.

Gartner entered the Seitenstetten novitiate on August 13, 1984 and made solemn profession four years later. In the monastery he was appointed novice and cleric magister and continued to teach at the Seitenstettner Stiftsgymnasium. He also had a teaching position at the theological college in St. Pölten .

When the Seckau monks postulated him to be the successor to Abbot Athanas Recheis in 1997, Gartner initially refused. They approached him again on June 26, 2000; in the meantime he was retired as a high school teacher and accepted the election. On September 23rd. J. gave him the ordination of the diocesan bishop Johann Weber . As a motto he chose the words from the Sermon on the Mount and the rule: Primum Regnum Dei - First the kingdom of God .

When he reached the age of 70, Gartner resigned from his office, as stipulated by the law of the Beuron congregation , and returned to Seitenstetten. There he looked after the parish of Allhartsberg, which was entrusted to the monastery, until a severe stroke on November 2, 2016.

Works (selection)

• The handwritten tradition of the Regula Benedicti in Austria . Vienna: Dissertation, 1962.
• The thread up. Meditations. St. Pölten – Vienna: Lower Austrian Press House, 1982.
• Flowers from the desert. Sermons. Vienna – Munich: Herold, 1983.
• Pilgrimage church Maria Seesal. History and description . Seitenstetten: self-published in 1986.
• History of the parish Ollersbach-Kirchstetten . Ollersbach: Parish Ollersbach-Kirchstetten, 1988.
• (with Berthold Heigl ) Psiathion. Meditations on the 2nd book of dialogues by Pope Gregory the Great . Seitenstetten: self-published ⁴ 2000.
• (with Josef Leithner), Life and Miracles of the Holy Abbot Berthold von Garsten (1110–1142) . Wels: The Best Kunstverlag, 2012.

Editing (selection)

• (with Michaela Puzicha and Plazidus Hungerbühler), sources and texts on the Rule of Benedict . St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 2007.