Kaspar von Questenberg

Kaspar von Questenberg
copper engraving by Johann Balzer (1772)

Kaspar von Questenberg OPraem (* 1571 in Cologne ; † June 28, 1640 in Prague ) was an abbot of the Strahov Premonstratensian Monastery in Prague, at the same time vicar general of the Bohemian Circari and worked as a writer of theological writings.

Live and act

Kaspar von Questenberg came from the old Cologne patrician family von Questenberg . After studying philosophy in Cologne , he joined the Strahov Premonstratensian Foundation near Prague. After his ordination he worked as a preacher at the Church of Our Lady and from 1595 to 1606 also as a pastor in Iglau (Jihlava) . In 1601 he accompanied his abbot Jan Lohelius on a trip to Rome and was elected abbot of the monastery himself in 1612 after Lohelius had been appointed archbishop of Prague .

He continued the reform work of his predecessor in the monastery. In the unified Bohemian, Moravian, Austrian and Silesian religious circles he worked as vicar general and later from 1614 as a visitor. He also held the office of chancellor in the archbishopric, was vicar general and from 1627 a member of the archbishop's reformation commission and from 1630 visitor for parts of Bohemia, which he was able to continue under Cardinal Ernst Adalbert von Harrach .

Expelled from the country in 1618, he returned to his monastery in 1621, from which he had to flee again for a short time in 1631. To train the next generation of the order, he founded the Collegium Norbertinum in 1628 and built the Norbertus Church between 1637 and 1639 . On May 1, 1627 he had the bones of St. Convict Norbert von Magdeburg and have him buried in Strahov Monastery.

For Strahov, Questenberg secured ownership of the orphaned monasteries Želiv and Milevsko and temporarily exercised the patronage of St. Nicholas in Prague's old town . He initiated the temporary resettlement of the monasteries Jerichow , Gottesgnaden and Ilfeld under imperial protection. He founded the Elisabeth Hospital in Prague's New Town for poor relief .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Questenberg, Caspar von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 24th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1872, p. 148 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ulrich G. Leinsle:  Questenberg, Kaspar von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 1107-1109.