Martin Boos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Boos

Martin Boos (* December 25, 1762 in the hamlet of Huttenried, today in Ingenried im Allgäu ; † August 29, 1825 in Sayn , today in Bendorf ) was a Roman Catholic priest, initiator of the Allgäu revival movement and u. a. Pastor in Gallneukirchen . His Christocentric proclamation was similar to Protestant sermons and was suspicious of some Catholics. Several times Boos ended up in church prisons because of his preaching. His life and work is well documented in the numerous letters collected by Johannes Evangelista Goßner after Boos' death.

Life

Martin Boos was born as one of 16 children of wealthy farmers in the Allgäu (belonging to the diocese of Augsburg ). When he was four years old, both parents died. He was entrusted to his uncle in Augsburg , who sent him to the (then still existing) University of Dillingen to study theology after leaving school . Johann Michael Sailer taught here , who was later in contact with Boss and the supporters of the Allgäu awakening movement for a long time. After that, Boos worked as a chaplain in various places . The Allgäu revival broke out in Wiggensbach . The key phrase in Boos' preaching was “Christ for us and in us”. In 1797 he was suspected of heresy, and the Augsburg Bishop Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony initiated an investigation which resulted in Boos being imprisoned in Augsburg for more than a year. During an escape, the code name Zobo was used for him; he occasionally used this name later.

Eventually Boos followed the advice to look for another diocese and moved to Linz in 1799 . After he had worked as a chaplain in several places, he became pastor in Gallneukirchen (1806-1816). His preaching was rated by some as "Reformation" - after the tolerance patent of 1781 there was great mistrust in this regard. In addition, there was a particular suspicion of foreigners during the Napoleonic Wars . In 1810 there was a revival. Boos was imprisoned in Linz for a year, half a year of which was locked in his solitary cell (1815/16). A late consequence of his work in Gallneukirchen and the church measures directed against Boos and his message was the establishment of a Protestant congregation there.

Boos resolutely refused to move to the Protestant church, which he wrote in a letter to a friend dated November 2, 1823: “My church is the established animal for you, which according to Rev 17:12 is enthroned on many waters. But I have not yet come as far as you in my conviction, and from childhood on I have considered her [the Catholic Church] to be my mother, as the keeper, protector and expounder of the teaching of Christ and his apostles and respect. "

After his release he went back to Bavaria. In 1817 he became a teacher for Latin and religion at the high school in Düsseldorf , in 1819 he became a pastor in Sayn near Koblenz , where he finally died and was buried.

Autobiography and letters

  • Johannes Evangelista Goßner (ed.): Martin Boos, the preacher of the justice that applies before God. His autobiographer. Karl Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1826 (posthumously, mainly based on numerous letters from Boos, compiled “autobiography”, printed in Fraktur, consisting of two parts: autobiography , pp. I-XII + pp. 1–408; letters from Martin Boos. Ein Addendum , pp. 409-789) ( digitized version );
  • based on this, numerous shorter selection editions appeared, e.g. B. from Otto Bornhak: Martin Boos, a fearless confessor . Bookstore of the educational association, Neukirchen 1926 (64 pages), or from the Upper Austrian Protestant Association for Inner Mission, J. Wimmer in Linz, Gallneukirchen 1927 (87 pages).
  • The "autobiography" (i.e. the first half, without the letters of the addendum) in the 2nd edition from 1831 re-edited by Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer , for the first time in modern Latin script and for the first time with a table of contents (in the series Studies on the History of Christian Movements of the Reformation Tradition in Austria ; 5). Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Bonn 2012 (473 pages).

Remembrance day

August 29 in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst Weigelt: The Allgäu Catholic Awakening Movement . In: Ulrich Gäbler (Ed.): History of Pietism. Pietism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries . tape 3 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-55348-X , p. 87-99 .
  2. ↑ In the autobiography of Boos in the chapter "Boos is challenged by Seeg to Augsburg in court".
  3. ↑ Johannes Evangelista Goßner: Martin Boos, the preacher of the righteousness that applies before God. His autobiographer . Ed .: Johannes Evangelista Goßner. Karl Trauchnitz, Leipzig 1826, p. 771 .
  4. ↑ Martin Boos in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Web links

Wikisource: Martin Boos  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Boos, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zobo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic pastor and professor of theology
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Huttenried
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1825
Place of death Sayn