Placidus Wolter

Placidus Wolter OSB (born April 24, 1828 in Bonn as Ernst Wolter ; † September 13, 1908 in Beuron ) was a Benedictine , first abbot of Maredsous and second archabbot of Beuron and the Beuron Benedictine Congregation . He is one of the re-founders of Benedictine monasticism in Germany in the 19th century.

Live and act

Ernst Wolter was the son of the brewer Lorenz Wolter. Six of his twelve children became priests or nuns. After taking up the study of theology and philosophy at the University of Bonn in 1846 Ernst Wolter received in 1851 in Cologne , the ordination . He then worked in various positions as a teacher and pastor, most recently in 1854 at the Aachen Cathedral School . In 1855 he entered the Roman Benedictine Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls , where he received the religious name Placidus and made profession in 1856 . With the blessing of Pope Pius IX. and his abbot, he and his brother Maurus Wolter were sent to Germany outside of Bavaria to revive Benedictine life. After an attempt in Materborn near Kleve, the Wolter brothers moved into the abandoned Augustinian Canons of Beuron in the Danube Valley in 1862 . Pater Placidus worked here in 1863 as an organizer in the expansion of the Beuron Priory, then in 1869 as Prior in Arnstein , in 1874 he was sent to Maredsous (Belgium) as first prior and in 1876 to Erdington (England) as a temporary worker . In 1878 Abbot Maurus Wolter appointed him 1st Abbot of Maredsous. After his brother's death, Placidus Wolter was elected as co-founder of Beuron and senior abbot of the Beuron congregation in 1890 as Archabbot of Beuron and thus head of the Beuron monastery association, whose further expansion he led: he founded, promoted or supported the foundations of 1888 Mont César (Leuven ), 1892 Maria Laach , 1899 Gerleve , 1904 St. Maria bei Kempten, 1906 the Dormition Abbey (Jerusalem) and convents: 1893 Maredret (Belgium) and 1904 Eibingen ; In addition, Archabbot Placidus Wolter supported the ailing Portuguese and Brazilian Benedictine monasteries. In Beuron, the Archabbot arranged for the Chapel of Grace to be added and the Theological School to be expanded.

Archabbot Placidus consolidated the Beuron Monastery and the Congregation. He “was not the visionary like his brother Maurus, but had a good hand to continue and expand the work” (Jakobus Kaffanke).

literature

• Sebastian von Oer : Archabbot Placidus Wolter. Ein Lebensbild , Verlag Herder, Freiburg 1909; [P. Sebastian von Oer was P. Wolters private secretary]
• Peter Häger, Jakobus Kaffanke OSB (ed.): Between departure and persistence. Life and work of the second Archabbot of Beuron, Placidus Wolter (1828–1908) , LIT Verlag, Münster 2008 (= Beuroner Schriften und Studien 1), ISBN 978-3-8258-1420-5

Web links

• Entry to Placidus Wolter on medal online
• Entry about Placidus Wolter in Biographia Benedictina

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Prior of Maredsous 1874–1876	Gérard van Caloen
-	Abbot of Maredsous 1878–1890	Hildebrand de Hemptinne
Maurus Wolter	Archabbot of Beuron and the Beuron Congregation 1890–1908	Ildefon's racks