Johannes Leo von Mergel

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Bishop Leo von Mergel in Cappa Magna (1905)
Death card of Bishop Leo von Mergel OSB (1932)
Johannes Leo von Mergel monument in the baker's chapel of Eichstätter Cathedral

Johannes Leo von Mergel OSB (born December 9, 1847 in Rohrbach near Monheim (Swabia) ; † June 20, 1932 in Eichstätt ) was abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Metten and then the 75th bishop of Eichstätt .

Life

Youth and education

Johannes Mergel was born as the son of a small farmer in the village of Rohrbach, which today belongs to Rennertshofen . Although he had nine siblings and his father could barely support the large family, the talented farmer was sent to the Latin school in Eichstätt , where he graduated from university in 1868 and then studied philosophy and theology until 1873 . After his ordination on March 29, 1873, he was only used briefly as a chaplain in Gnadenberg . Then Bishop Franz Leopold Freiherr von Leonrod sent the talented new priest to Rome to continue his studies. There was marl chaplain to the German national church Santa Maria dell'Anima and in 1875 at the Apollinare to the doctor of canon law doctorate .

Diocesan priest in Eichstätt

After returning to Eichstätt, Mergel was appointed director of the Episcopal Boys' College. For health reasons, however, he had to give up this office and became a chaplain in 1876 , then beneficiary and religion teacher in Ingolstadt . His brother Joseph Mergel, who was four years older than him, died there as a beneficiary on January 13, 1884.

Benedictines in Metten

In 1882 he resigned from the service of the diocese and entered the Benedictine monastery of Metten, where he took the religious name Leo and from 1884 worked as prefect and a short time later as director of the boys' college there. At the same time he was a teacher for religion, Italian and Spanish at the monastery school. He taught the budding Benedictine clergy dogmatics and canon law. On June 25, 1898, the Metten convent elected him abbot. He was ordained abbot on July 28, 1898. After his inauguration, he began to renovate the monastery.

Bishop of Eichstätt

After the death of Bishop von Leonrod, the Bavarian Prince Regent Luitpold nominated him as his successor on October 28, 1905. After the papal appointment marl received on 27 December 1905 Eichstätt Cathedral from the apostolic nuncio in Bavaria, Archbishop Carlo Caputo , the episcopal ordination . Co- consecrators were the Bishop of Würzburg , Ferdinand von Schlör , and Franz Anton von Henle , Bishop of Regensburg . After the founder of the diocese Willibald, Mergel was the second Benedictine to hold the Eichstätt bishopric. In 1906, Mergel received the Bavarian nobility .

The primary concern of the new bishop was his seminary and his lyceum for the training of the next generation of priests, on average around 70 alumni from the diocese of Eichstätt and about ten alumni from other dioceses or from orders per academic year with the exception of the years of the First World War. In 1906 he acquired land for the farm buildings of his seminar. In 1906 he was able to expand biblical studies with his own professorship for the New Testament in the academic business of the university and in 1909 received state subsidies for the professors' salaries. He prescribed his own alumni not only to attend the philosophical and theological disciplines, but also to attend lectures in the natural sciences and world and art history, and he prescribed that examinations were also to be taken in these areas. In 1920 he had the physical lecture hall modernized. On February 26, 1924, he ordered his college to be named "Episcopal Philosophical-Theological College" based on new state practice, which also meant a certain appreciation. In 1929/30 he had the Munich architect Friedrich Ferdinand Haindl build an extension to the seminary - not suspecting that a few years later under National Socialism this extension benefited the influx of numerous candidates for priesthood from all over Germany; His primary concern was to promote the “health of the residents” and their musical education through more space.

As a religious, Mergel cared about the monasteries in the diocese. The St. Walburg Benedictine monastery in Eichstätt was elevated to an abbey in 1914 and the Plankstetten Benedictine monastery in 1917 . In 1920 the Provincialate Bavaria-Palatinate of the Niederbronn Sisters was established in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz . In 1922 the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother opened their novitiate in Abenberg . In 1931 Cistercians moved into Seligenporten . A total of 35 new monastic settlements were established in the diocese during the 27-year reign of the bishop.

In the parish structure, particularly in the south of the expanding city of Nuremberg, the establishment of new pastoral care offices and parishes was necessary. 28 new churches were built under marl. In 1910 a new diocesan prayer and hymn book was published to promote religious life. He worked on improving the catechism until the German standard catechism appeared in 1925. In 1925 he converted Hirschberg Castle into a retreat house . In April 1927 he held a diocesan synod for his clergy - the first since 1548 - in which he announced new guidelines for pastoral care.

Leo von Mergel remained true to his monastic ideals throughout his life, he lived ascetic and withdrawn. From the quiet of his study he worked through countless letters and - the believer will add - through his prayer. On his 25th anniversary as bishop, he expressed the wish to refrain from personal gifts to him and instead to support his diocesan seminary, as he would have liked to see if any celebration on the occasion had not taken place; but he submitted, so that on May 23, 1930 a festival academy was held in the seminary. Two years later he died after a short illness and was buried in Eichstätter Dom ; a Jura stone - Relief with his portrait in a side chapel, designed by Theodor Georgii , remembers him. He had bequeathed his library to his seminary .

Honors

Authorship

  • Brief historical description of the seminar in Metten. In: St. Wolfgang's booklet for young people. Festival ceremony for the 900th anniversary of the main patron of the Diocese of Regensburg. From a priest of the same diocese. [St. Wolfgang.] Regensburg 1894. (15 quarto sheets and 1 page)

literature

  • Friedrich F. Haindl (draft and compilation): On the 25th anniversary of the bishopric of His Episcopal Grace Dr. Johannes Leo Ritter von Mergel. Jubilation by the bishop to the diocese and the diocese to the bishop. Eichstätt 1930. (anniversary commemorative publication)
  • Michael Kaufmann: Memento mori. In memory of the deceased conventuals of the Benedictine abbey of Metten since the reconstruction in 1830 (= development history of the Benedictine abbey of Metten, Part V). Metten 2008, pp. 278f.
  • Klaus Kreitmeir: The bishops of Eichstätt. Verlag Kirchenzeitung, Eichstätt 1992, pp. 97–99.
  • Klaus Kreitmeir: Also as a bishop monk. 75 years ago the 75th Eichstätt Bishop Leo von Mergel died. In: Church newspaper for the diocese of Eichstätt. No. 24 of June 17, 2007.
  • Michael Rackl : (Obituary). In: Annual report of the Episcopal University. 1931/32.
  • Franz Sales Romstöck: Personnel statistics and bibliography of the Episcopal Lyceum in Eichstätt. Ingolstadt 1894.
  • Beda Maria Sonnenberg. Johann Ev. Mergel as a pupil, student and diocesan priest. In: Old and Young Metten. 74 (2007/8), No. 1, pp. 68-77.
  • Association of Friends of the Willibald-Gymnasium e. V. (Ed.): The bishops and abbots of our grammar school. Christmas letter 2006, Eichstätt 2007, ISSN  0933-4572 , p. 8f.
  • Ferdinand von Werden : Dr. Johann Leo v. Mergel, Bishop of Eichstätt. Eichstaett 1932.
  • 400 years of the Collegium Willibaldinum Eichstätt. Eichstätt 1964, et al. Pp. 87, 279f.

Web links

Commons : Johannes Leo von Mergel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Franz Leopold von Leonrod Bishop of Eichstätt
1905–1932 		Konrad Graf von Preysing
Eugen Gebele Abbot praeses of the Bavarian Benedictine Congregation
1904–1905 		Gregor Danner
Benedict III Braunmüller Abbot of Metten Monastery
1898–1905 		Willibald Adam
personal data
SURNAME Mergel, Johannes Leo von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mergel, Leo; Mergel, Johannes Leo Ritter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Eichstätt; Abbot of Metten
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Rohrbach
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1932
Place of death Eichstatt