Maximilian Gereon von Galen

Maximilian Gereon Count of Galen

Maximilian Gereon Count of Galen

Grave of Maximilian Gereon von Galen in the Maximus chapel of the cathedral in Münster / Westphalia, Germany

Count Maximilian Gereon von Galen (born October 10, 1832 in Münster ; † November 5, 1908 there ) was a German Roman Catholic theologian and auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Münster .

Youth and education

Maximilian Gereon Graf von Galen came from the noble family Galen and was the fifth of 13 children of the treasurer of the prince-bishopric of Münster, Johann Matthias von Galen, and his wife Anna, née Freiin von Ketteler . He grew up at House Assen near Lippborg and Dinklage Castle . He attended the Rhenish Knight Academy in Bedburg and the Paulinum Grammar School (Münster) , where he graduated from high school in 1851. First he studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven and at the University of Bonn . After a year he turned to the study of theology , which he completed in the seminary of Mainz . There he was ordained a priest on July 26, 1856 by his uncle, Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler .

Spiritual career

His first activity was that of an episcopal chaplain and secretary to his uncle. In 1859 he became professor of moral theology and liturgy in the Mainz seminary and there in 1864 Subregens . At the same time he was a New Testament lecturer in the seminar . In 1862 he was in Rome for the doctor of theology and philosophy doctorate . In 1869 he took over the office of spiritual at the Gymnasialkonvikt in Dieburg and in 1872 became administrator and 1874 pastor of the parish of St. Christoph in Mainz . During the Kulturkampf and afterwards he was nominated as a candidate for bishopric by the cathedral chapters in Limburg and in Osnabrück in 1877 in Mainz and in 1898 , because of his state-designated as "ultramontan" , strictly church-loyal attitude, but in each case by the Prussian or Hessian-Darmstadt government declined. In 1884 the bishop appointed him cathedral capitular . In 1894 he took over the management of the newly established Agnesstift for shop assistants in Münster.

Auxiliary bishop

On July 16, 1895 he was by Pope Leo XIII. appointed auxiliary bishop in Münster and titular bishop of Myrina . The episcopal ordination took place because of the continuing Prussian distrust on July 25, 1895 at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome by the Cardinal Bishop of Frascati , Serafino Vannutelli . Co-consecrators were Archbishop Giovanni Ponzi and the Vicar Apostolic of Madagascar , Jean-Baptiste Cazet SJ .

As auxiliary bishop, Maximilian Gereon von Galen undertook many confirmation and visitation trips to the diocese of Münster and consecrated churches and altars on behalf of his diocesan bishop Hermann Jakob Dingelstad . From 1904 to 1906 his nephew, Clemens August Graf von Galen , who later became the “Lion of Münster”, was his chaplain and secretary. Maximilian Gereon Graf von Galen was buried in a chapel in the ambulatory of St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster .

Honors

• 1857 Papal secret chamberlain ( monsignor )
• 1890 Spiritual Council
• 1906 Papal assistant to the throne by Pius X.

Own publication

• St. Joseph. Model of the Christian classes and patron saint of the diocese. Mainz 1872, 2nd edition 1887

literature

• City of God (Illustrated by the Steyler Missionaries ): Obituary with photo, year 1909, pp. 227–228.
• Friedrich Helmert: The cathedral capitulars since 1832 . In: Alois Schröer (ed.): The cathedral chapter of Münster. Münster 1976, pp. 351, 440.
• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the German-speaking countries 1785/1803 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-428-05447-4 , p. 227.
• Michael Hirschfeld: Auxiliary Bishop Maximilian Gereon Graf von Galen (1832–1908) as a target of anti-ultramontan church policy in the German Empire. In: Yearbook for the Oldenburger Münsterland 2006. pp. 66–92.
• Michael Hirschfeld:  Galen, Maximilian Gereon Graf von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 473-478.

Web links

• Entry on Maximilian Gereon von Galen on catholic-hierarchy.org