Maurus Kaufmann

Maurus Kaufmann OSB (born March 29, 1871 in Elben as Johann Kaufmann ; † February 28, 1949 in Jerusalem ) was a German Benedictine of the Beuron Congregation and first abbot of the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Life

He was the son of the farmer Johann Anton Kaufmann and his wife Maria Elisabeth geb. Angel. After attending the grammar school in Attendorn , which he graduated from high school at Easter 1891 , he studied theology in Paderborn and received the sacrament of ordination for the diocese of Paderborn on March 22, 1895 . He first worked as a hospital chaplain in Bochum and then became pastor in Bochum-Hamme and Mülheim an der Möhne , before joining the Maria Laach Abbey as a diocesan priest after nine years . There he made his profession on June 11, 1905 . He then worked as an infirmary and as an economist in agriculture. In 1909 he was appointed as a teacher at the monastery high school in Seckau and later at the monastery school in Ettal . During the First World War he held the post of Vice Rector of the Greek College in Rome.

When the monastery on Mount Zion was again accessible to the German Benedictines after the First World War, the abbot of Maria Laach released Father Maurus Kaufmann for the repopulation of the monastery. In the winter of 1920/21 he went to the Holy Land and was entrusted with the leadership of the seminary in Beit Jala by the Latin Patriarch Luigi Barlassina . In 1925 he became prior of the Dormition Monastery on Mount Zion. On August 15, 1926, the Dormition was established by decree of Pius XI. raised to the abbey and Maurus Kaufmann was raised to its first abbot. His motto was: Veritas et bonitas - "Truth and goodness".

When part of the convent was interned during World War II , only Abbot Maurus and a few non-German priests were allowed to stay in the monastery. The convention was reunited only briefly in 1945 before it had to leave Mount Zion entirely in the first Israeli-Arab war. The brothers had to leave everything behind and lived outside the monastery, which was occupied by soldiers and partly destroyed, with the Borromean Sisters in St. Charles Hospice .

Abbot Maurus died on February 28, 1949 in St. Charles Hospice and was initially buried in the Borromeo Cemetery. On September 21, 1978 his bones were transferred to the Zion and buried in the monastery cemetery of Dormition Abbey .

Services

As abbot, he was mainly responsible for the interior design of the abbey church. The floor of the monastery church was provided with a mosaic and the choir was decorated with an apse mosaic. In addition, the crypt received the plastic representation of the fallen Mother of God . During his tenure, the convent grew to over 40 monks.

literature

• Karl Heinz Kaufmann: On the history of the village of Elben. In: Blickpunkt der Gemeinde Wenden , April / May 1994, No. 126.
• Jochen Krause: Born in Elben 125 years ago: Maurus Kaufmann, first abbot of the Sion monastery. In: Heimatstimmen aus dem Kreis Olpe , 183 (1996) pp. 138–142.

Web links

• Abbot Maurus Kaufmann OSB. Dormition Abbey, 2015, accessed November 15, 2016 . 
• Merchant, Maurus. In: Biographia Benedictina. October 8, 2011, accessed November 15, 2016 .