Nicholas Nilles

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P. Nikolaus Nilles SJ, taken around 1875 by the Innsbruck photographer Friedrich Bopp

Nikolaus Nilles (born June 21, 1828 in Rippweiler , Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ; † January 31, 1907 in Innsbruck , Austria ) was a Roman Catholic university professor, Jesuit and canon lawyer .

Life

Nikolaus Nilles came from a wealthy farming family. After attending elementary school in his home town of Rippweiler and the Athénée Royal in Luxembourg, he studied theology in Rome as a convector of the Collegium Germanicum . He heard lectures from the dogmatists Johannes Baptist Franzelin , Carlo Passasslia (who was later dismissed from the order), Clemens Schrader and Giovanni Perrone and the canon lawyer Camillo Tarquini (1810–1874).

On April 10, 1852 he received in the Lateran Basilica , the priesthood by Costantino Cardinal Patrizi Naro . It was a special honor for the talented student that he was presented to Pope Pius IX on All Saints' Day in 1852 . and the assembled college of cardinals was allowed to preach the Latin sermon during the pontifical office .

In 1853, graying at a young age and afflicted with a heart condition, he returned to Luxembourg and, although already a doctor of theology and canon law, became a chaplain in Ansemburg , later a pastor in Tüntingen (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg).

On March 28, 1858, he joined the Society of Jesus in Baumgartenberg . In the following year he was sent to the University of Innsbruck as a professor of canon law; Nilles worked there from 1859 as associate professor, then from 1860 to 1898 as the successor to Josef Staffler SJ as professor. This quick appointment was due to a serious illness of Staffler, but it was also due to the intervention of Baron Karl Ernst Moy de Sons , at that time Rector Magnificus of Innsbruck University . In the Archive for Catholic Canon Law published by Moy, Nilles published Quaestiones selectae in jus liturgicum from 1853, i.e. from the first issue .

Nilles held the chair for canon law in Innsbruck until his retirement. He held the office of dean of the faculty several times. From 1860 to 1875, as Regens, he also headed the internationally recognized Theologenkonvikt St. Nikolaus (Nikolaihaus), which is now called Canisianum after a new building . He wrote several prayer books for the “priestly association under the protection of the divine heart of Jesus”, which he founded there; He gave the theologians' convict new, meticulous instructions ( consuetudines ) that were valid for a long time.

At the 25th anniversary of the office of Pope Pius IX. on June 16, 1871, Karl zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (since 1868 organizer of the Catholic Days and President of the Central Committee of German Catholics ; 1871 co-founder of the German Center Party ) conveyed the “congratulations of the German Catholics” and at the same time asked for the Sacred Heart of Jesus Feast for the whole Church to be elevated to a feast of the first order. Nikolaus Nilles, who wrote a collection of sources on the veneration of the Sacred Heart , was the author of this text.

The Luxembourg seminar professor Dominik Hengesch (1844–1899), the gray eminence in the diocese of Luxembourg , tried 1880–1883 ​​to establish Nilles as a candidate for the Luxembourg bishopric; This was opposed by the fact that Nilles, as a Jesuit, was not allowed to accept ecclesiastical dignity (so he should have left the order) and had also accepted Austrian citizenship because of the Innsbruck professorship. After a long vacancy, Johannes Joseph Koppes was elected Bishop of Luxembourg.

Nikolaus Nilles was considered conscientious, pious and humble by students and colleagues. The elderly scholar Nilles died on January 31, 1907 in Innsbruck and was buried in the burial place of the Jesuits.

Services

Nilles' particular scientific interest was in the oriental churches; the enthusiasm of his teacher passaglia for the Greek church fathers was influential here. He took up the concept of heortology , the doctrine of ecclesiastical holidays, coined by Louis de Thomassin d'Eynac , and applied it to the festival calendar of the oriental churches. This earned him the recognition of the Holy Synod , the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church at the time, but also of the Protestant scholar Adolf von Harnack . The Kalendarium manuale utriusque ecclesiae orientalis atque occidentalis , which deals with “calendar issues” between Eastern and Western Churches, is considered to be his main work, which is still important today. Because of his liturgical investigations, he is also considered a liturgical scholar . “In his research and teaching, Nilles turned to the legal structures of the various Eastern Church rites and their liturgies. He pursued the goal of making their similarities visible and usable for the unification of the church. (...) For Nilles, it was not just about researching history, but also about dialogue in the churches. "

Works

  • Cholera, potato disease, drought, floods, hailstorms, earthquakes and war, dearth of prices and hardship - an attempt at a common Christian discussion of the nature and causes of the great plagues of the present, as well as of the means against it. Wuerzburg, 1856.
  • De Rationibus Festorum Mobilium Utriusque Ecclesiae Occidentalis Atque Orientalis Commentarius usui Clericorum Accomodatus: Accedunt Breves Quaedam Animadversiones in Novam Kalendarii Rationem A Cl. Maedler Propositam. 1868.
  • Selecta pietatits exercitia erga sacratissimum cor Jesu et purissimum cor Mariae ex commentario de rationibus festorum utriusque cordis transcripta. Rauch, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1869.
  • Historia domus S. Nicolai Œniponte alumnis convictus theologorum pro xenio distributa anno 1870. Rauch, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1870.
  • De rationibus festorum sacratissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis Mariae e fontibus juris canonici erutis. Libri IV. Editio quarta, saecularis, in annum a prima revelatione festi ss. Cordis Jesu cc. novis accessionibus adornata. Wagner, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1875 (4).
  • Commentaria in concilium plenarium Baltimorense tertium. 1884.
  • Selectae disputationes academicae iuris ecclesiastici. 1886.
  • Commentarius de vocatione ad statum ecclesiasticum ex actis academiae iuris canonici. 1892.
  • Kalendarium manuale utriusque ecclesiae orientalis et occidentalis, academiis clericorum accomodatum, auspiciis commisarii apostolici auctius atque emendatius iterum. Rauch, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1896.
  • Kalendarium Christianorum S. Thomae, ritus syro-chaldaici in Malabaria. Rauch, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1897.
  • Symbolae ad illustrandam historiam Ecclesiae Orientalis in terris coronae Sancti Stephani Maximam partem nunc primum ex variis tabulariis, Romanis, Austriacis, Hungaricis, Transilvanis, Croaticis, Societatis Jesu alliisque fontibus accessu difficilibus erutae. Oeniponte (Innsbruck) undated
  • Varia pietatis exercitia erga Sacratissimum Cor Jesu cum idoneis instructionibus in usum juniorum clericorum ex libro de pestis utriusque SS Cordis exscripta. Rauch, Oeniponte (Innsbruck) 1898.

literature

  • Wilhelm Rees : Nikolaus Nilles. Academic teacher and priestly educator in Innsbruck. Lecture at: “Symbolae. Paths to Exploring the Greek Catholic Heritage. International conference to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Nikolaus Nilles SJ. ”In Nyíregyháza (Hungary), 23 November 2007 - 24 November 2007.
  • Dominik Hengesch: Letters to P. Nikolaus Nilles sj, Innsbruck. Edited by Jean Malget. Hoeser, Luxembourg 1990-1993. (4 volumes)
  • Peter Goller: Studied Catholic theology at the University of Innsbruck before the First World War (1857-1914). (Research on Innsbruck University History 19), Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck 1997. ISBN 3-7065-1224-6
  • Peter Leisching : From the time of the rise of Austrian canon law. in: Festschrift Nikolaus Grass. For the 70th birthday presented by colleagues and friends . Ed .: Kurt Ebert. Innsbruck 1986. ISBN 3-7030-0175-5 . Pp. 303-316.
  • One hundred years of the Innsbruck Theological Faculty . (= Journal for Catholic Theology 80/1, 1958).
  • Nikolaus Grass : The canon law teachers at Innsbruck University from 1672 to the present. A contribution to the history of science in Austria . In: Publications of the Museum Ferdinandeum 31 (1951), pp. 157–212.
  • Martin Blum: The Collegium Germanikum zu Rome and its pupils from the Luxembourg region. A contribution to the Luxembourg biography and church history . Luxemburg 1899. (with an overview of Nilles' scientific work)
  • Jean Malget:  NILLES, Nikolaus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1314-1322.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Johannes Mühlsteiger:  Nilles, Nikolaus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , pp. 277 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • En-Wikisource: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) / Nikolaus Nilles
  • A. Pinsker:  Nilles P. Nikolaus. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 7, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 132.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Leisching: From the time of the rise of Austrian canon law. in: Festschrift Nikolaus Grass . Ed .: Kurt Ebert. Innsbruck 1986. p. 314.
  2. ↑ Altregens P. Nikolaus Nilles SJ. Obituary in the correspondence sheet of the priestly prayer club, 41 (1907). Pp. 37-42. and pp. 61-62.
  3. ↑ Klaus Loetsch: Between many chairs. History of Protestantism in Luxembourg. P. 36. (PDF file; 831 kB)
  4. ^ University of Innsbruck for a conference in honor of Nikolaus Nilles on December 10, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Nilles, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nilles, Nicolaus; Nilles, Nicolao
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canon lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Rippweiler
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1907
Place of death innsbruck