Nikolaus Joseph Albert von Diesbach

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Nikolaus Joseph Albert von Diesbach (also: Diessbach ; * February 15, 1732 in Bern , † December 22, 1798 in Vienna ) was a Swiss Roman Catholic clergyman and Jesuit who worked in Turin and Vienna.

life and work

Origin and Conversion

Nikolaus Albert von Diesbach came from a Bernese patrician family and was brought up in the Calvinist faith. A military career in the army of Charles Emmanuel I of Sardinia took him to the Turin, Nice and Alessandria area . At the end of 1749 he became a captain. In 1754, the meeting with a young woman in Nice, whom he married in Turin, moved him to convert to the Catholic faith and to switch to a Catholic regiment.

The Jesuit

When he lost his wife after three years of marriage, he gave his little daughter into the care of the Visitantes of Nice and in 1759 entered the Jesuit order in Genoa . From now on he called himself Nikolaus Joseph Albert, studied in Milan and was ordained a priest in Freiburg im Üechtland in 1764 by the Bishop of Lausanne . From 1769 he was in Turin and worked as a missionary traveling preacher. In 1773 he experienced the abolition of the Jesuit order and stayed briefly in the Hauterive monastery .

The anti-enlightener and founder of the circle of friends

In order to combat the unbelief of the upper class, which was influenced by Voltaire , the trilingual Diesbach published several works with the zeal of the convert (in French, with translation into Italian). Under the protection of Cardinal Carlo Vittorio Amedeo delle Lanze , he became an influential pastor and religious center of Savoy . He founded a Catholic circle of friends (Amicizia cristiana) for the dissemination of literature to the circles of the nobility and a circle of priestly friends (Amicizia sacerdotale ), to which Pio Bruno Lanteri belonged. In 1782 he was traded as a candidate for the successor to the Bishop of Lausanne, but he did not come from the canton.

Effectiveness in Vienna

With Lanteri he went in 1782 in the entourage of Pius VI. to Vienna, where he met Josef von Penkler , Maximilian Hell and Klemens Maria Hofbauer and, above all, had a decisive influence on the latter by drawing his attention to Alfons von Liguori and his theology of mercy (instead of Jansenistic rigor and a theology of fear). With a focus on Turin, Paris (there by pupils) and later especially Vienna (his permanent residence from 1790) Diesbach fought a pre-romantic struggle against the enlightenment currents, which he considered pernicious. In 1788 he held spiritual exercises with Elisabeth von Württemberg (1767–1790). In 1790 he called on Emperor Leopold II in an extensive memorandum (entitled Mémoire d'un Jésuite à SM pour rétablir les Jésuites et contre les Jansénistes ) to abandon Joseph II's church policy , to reject Jansenism and to re-admit the Society of Jesus .

Death in Vienna and appreciation

Diesbach died in Vienna at the age of 66 for unknown reasons, possibly as a victim of an assassination attempt. He was buried in the romantic cemetery in Maria Enzersdorf (the grave has fallen into disrepair). Hofbauer called him on August 19, 1802 a "vir doctus eximie et sanctus eminenter" (extraordinarily learned and of great holiness). Innerkofler spoke of a “heroic figure of the Catholic priesthood”. Decot calls him an "outstanding personality".

Works

  • Le Chrétien catholique inviolablement attaché à sa religion par la considération de quelques-unes des preuves qui en établissent la certitude. 3 vols. Paris 1771.
    • Le chrétien catholique, inviolablement attaché à sa religion par la considération des miracles qui en établissent la certitude. Nouvelle édition. Société catholique des bons livres, Paris 1826.
  • Il zelo meditativo di un pio solitario cristiano e cattolico espresso in una series di riflessioni, e di affetti. Fontana, Turin 1774 (“La voix du zèle”).
  • Assumed author: La pietà forte o sia Il carattere de 'primi tre secoli della chiesa. Friborg (Switzerland) 1777 (“La piété forte”).
  • Le solitaire chrétien et catholique. 2 vols. Piller, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1778.
    • Disinganni, o sia il solitario cristiano cattolico. Without location 1778.
  • Assumed author: Réflexions sur les ordres religieux ou Conseils de conscience à un homme en place qui les a demandés. Morin, Paris 1789.

literature

  • Candido Bona: Le "amicizie", società segrete e rinascita religiosa (1770-1830). Deputazione subalpina di storia patria, Turin 1962.
  • Rolf Decot : Jesuit pastoral care in Josephine Austria and in Northern Italy after 1773. Nikolaus Joseph Albert von Diesbach and the Amicizie Cristiane. In: Rolf Decot: Luther's Reformation between theology and imperial politics. Essays, ed. by Hans Josef Schmitz. Lembeck / Frankfurt am Main 2007, pp. 457–482 (see also pp. 436–439).
  • Adolf Innerkofler (1872–1942): An Austrian reformer. A picture of the life of St. Fr. Clement Maria Hofbauer, the most excellent promoter of the Redemptorist Congregation. Pustet, Regensburg 1910, 2., verb. Edition 1913.
  • Pietro Stella:  DIESSBACH, Nikolaus Joseph Albert. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 39:  Deodato-DiFalco. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1991, with literature.
  • Ernst Karl Winter : Fr. Nikolaus Joseph Albert von Diessbach SJ In: Journal for Swiss Church History / Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique suisse. No. 18, 1924, pp. 22-41.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Diesbach, Nikolaus Joseph Albert von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diessbach, Nikolaus Joseph Albert von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Jesuit and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1732
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1798
Place of death Vienna