Kilian Heller

Kilian Heller (born May 21, 1695 in Tauberrettersheim ; † September 15, 1738 in Seligenstadt ) was Bonifacius I. Heller, the 55th abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Seligenstadt.

Childhood and youth

Kilian Heller was born on May 21, 1695 in simple circumstances. His parents, Martin and Gertrud Heller, were hackers, they grew wine on a small scale and lived on it. He was baptized that same year. From 1701 he attended school, he had Latin lessons from around 1704 from the local pastor Johann Georg Schmitt. It was traded in Röttingen in St. Kilian in 1705 .

In 1713 the eighteen year old decided to become a priest. Since his father did not support these plans, he secretly joined wandering monks on the way to Würzburg . In December 1713 he appears in the register of the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg as Chilianus Heller Franco, pauper, Logicus . The matriculation entry indicates his origin in Franconia , his personal circumstances ( pauper = poor) and the intended subject of logic as a preliminary stage to theology . The stay there, however, did not last long. It is not known exactly why Heller dropped out of his studies in Würzburg in the fall of 1714. He moved from the Jesuit college there to the one in Aschaffenburg, where he enrolled in the logic course. He passed his first exam in logic in July 1715. He then studied physics , metaphysics and ethics , also with the Aschaffenburg Jesuits. In 1716 he came to Seligenstadt, his clothing for the novitiate with the Benedictines was on August 30, 1716. He studied theology and the writings of the church fathers in the monastery . He made his profession on September 8, 1717 and chose Bonifacius as the monastery name. In 1718 he finished his studies with the disputation . He was ordained a priest on July 11, 1720 .

Monastery offices

From 1720 he held the office of storage master, from 1721 provisionally and from 1722 finally the important one of cellar . From March 1726 he became an altarist and he held his masses to be read in the parish church of Seligenstadt. In October 1727 Abbot Petrus II. Called IV. Schultheis appointed him pastor of St. Johann Baptist in today's Hanau-Steinheim , the then independent Steinheim am Main.

Dept

Plan of the Seligenstadt Abbey from 1710.

The prelature building, in which Heller, as abbot, had visible conversions carried out to this day. The abbot's apartment was on the ground floor, the library and the rooms for important guests above.

Peter IV. Schultheis died on March 11, 1730. The election notice for the Abtswahl dated April 9 1730, the approval was previously owned by Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg been obtained. The election of the abbot took place on April 12, 1730, 25 Benedictines took part. In the fourth ballot, Bonifacius Heller was elected abbot. He was the 55th abbot of the monastery. After the investiture , he chose the motto: Aequalis in omnes (constant against all).

One of his first projects was the renovation of the prelature house and equipping it with a library. In 1731 he engaged Jacob Conrad Bechtold to furnish the new library hall with frescoes , which can still be seen today. The book holdings, on the other hand, were initially brought to Darmstadt after the monastery was secularized in 1811 and are now part of the Wiesbaden State Library .

After the library was completed in 1731, Bonifacius turned to redesigning the winter refectory in the convent building. The stucco was again made by Bechtold. Of the original 14 fields, only two remain today.

In 1732 Bonifacius took part in the episcopal ordination of the new elector and archbishop Philipp Karl von Eltz-Kempenich . In a contract in 1733 he granted him the right to hunt on monastic land.

Also in 1733 he commissioned Bechtold again to restore and add to a large canvas painting. It is a family tree of the abbots ( Series abbatum ), originally from 1640. His image can also be seen on it.

In 1734 he stayed in his hometown Tauberrettersheim to celebrate his 40th birthday. His gift to the congregation was a richly decorated monstrance , which is kept in the church treasury of St. Vitus to this day with a dedication inscription . On the way back he fell badly from his horse into the Tauber , from which he never really recovered, but he took part in the 1000th anniversary of the Amorbach monastery despite his injuries. During his rest, a confrere dedicated an antiphon to him ; the book in which it was written is still there and bears his abbot's coat of arms on the back.

In 1735 he had the altar of the sacristy in the Seligenstadt monastery, again by Bechtold, provided with a picture of the Virgin Mary in a column frame with pompous decoration. He can still be seen today, only the accompanying figures are missing. In the same year, the Benedictine Abbey of Wessobrunn sent an engraving of Mary to all German Benedictine monasteries after the painting was then created.

A number of works have been preserved from the Bonifacius foundations for various patronage churches, such as a Nepomuk figure in Steinheim.

In 1736 he had the south tower of the Einhard basilica , i.e. his own monastery church, rebuilt. In 1737 he arranged for a necrological shrine to be built in the church, which is still available today.

On the feast of his name day, a printed biography about Bonifacius I. Heller was published in Frankfurt am Main on June 5, 1738 ; the author was Leonardus Moeren from Großauheim .

Bonifacius I. Heller died on September 15, 1738 of the late effects of his fall. He is buried in the Einhard basilica in Seligenstadt, his tomb made of black marble and white alabaster is on the east wall of the south transept. The plate was donated by his successor but one, Bonifacius II. Merget in 1755.

literature

• Karl Vitus Heller: Picture chronicle: Abbot Bonifacius I. Heller 1695 - 1738, from Tauberrettersheimer Häckerjungen to Abbot of the Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt am Main , Einhard- Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Michelstadt 1989
• F. Leonhard Moeren: IMMORTALE GLORIOSI NOMINIS DECUS IMMORTALI BENEFACTORUM GLORIA COMPARATUM, SOLENNIS AGGRATULATIO ANNIVERSARIO VENERANDO NOMINIS REVERENDISSIMI, PERILLUSTRIS, AMPLISSIMI ACI GRATIOSI DOMINI ACI CIFELISSIMI, DOMINI, ORDOMINI. S. BENEDICTI, REGALIS ABBATIAE AD SS. MM. MARCELLINUM ET PETRUM IN SELIGENSTATT, S. CONGREG. BURSFELD. ABBATIS DISNISSIMI, & c. DOMINI IN GAISSELBACH, OMMERSBACH ET HOFFSTAETTEN. Frankfurt am Main 1738

predecessor	Office	successor
Petrus II. Called IV. Schultheis	Abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Seligenstadt 1730–1738	Hyacinthus Buchner