Raphael Molitor

Raphael Molitor OSB (* February 2, 1873 in Sigmaringen as Fidelis-Engelbert Molitor , † October 14, 1948 in Beuron ) was a German Benedictine and first abbot of Gerleve Abbey in the Münsterland , as well as canon lawyer and musicologist.

Life

Fidelis-Engelbert Molitor was the son of the cathedral music director Johann Baptist Molitor (1834–1900) and his wife Maria. He had four older siblings, three brothers (Gregor, Heinrich and Ambrosius) and sister Rosa. Under the influence of his father, he was a good organist from an early age and had extensive knowledge of music theory, which led to the fact that at the age of 17 he was appointed royal organist at the Emmaus monastery in Prague , where one of his brothers was already an organist. Instead of taking up the position, however, in 1890, like two of his brothers, he asked for admission to the Archabbey of Beuron . There he was given the religious name Raphael . After the novitiate and studies in Beuron, he continued his studies in dogmatics and canon law at the international Benedictine college Sant'Anselmo in Rome. After his ordination in 1897, he was a lecturer in dogmatics, canon law and moral theology in Beuron, where he was also responsible for organ playing together with one of his brothers.

In 1905, after the death of the previous prior, this position had to be filled in the newly founded monastery Gerleve from Beuron . The Archabbot of Beuron, Placidus Wolter , sent Father Raphael Molitor there to manage the monastery as prior. Although he was primarily a scientist and musician, he fulfilled his new role so successfully that the archabbot appointed him the first abbot of Gerleve a year later. On December 16, 1906 Molitor received in Münster Cathedral, the abbatial blessing .

Abbot Raphael attached great importance to choral singing and the scientific orientation of the convent, which also included the construction and careful maintenance of the monastery library . Furthermore, the construction of the abbey buildings continued during his tenure. The monastery developed well and was so attractive that in 1936 it had around 100 monks, most of whom came from the Rhenish-Westphalian area around the monastery. In 1941 the members of the order were expelled from their monastery by the National Socialists as part of the " monastery tower " and were banned from living in the provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia . The buildings were used by the rulers for various purposes, most recently as a military hospital , which was taken over by the liberating US Army . In 1946 the monks and their abbot were able to return. Raphael Molitor died during the first general chapter of the Beuron Congregation after the Second World War in Beuron, which he had to lead as Abbot Praeses (since 1936). He was buried in Gerleve.

plant

From 1901 Molitor published several scientific studies, mainly in the field of music history . He was appointed consultor of the Pontifical Commission for Church Music by Pope Pius X. He was involved in the publication of the Graduale Romanum (1908) and as a canon lawyer in the publication of the CIC ecclesiastical code (1917). In 1931 he received his doctorate in theology in Münster .

Fonts

• Josef Rheinberger and his compositions for the organ: dedicated to the memory of the immortalized master . 1903.
• The post-tridentine choral reform in Rome. A contribution to the music history of the 16th and 17th centuries. 1901/2 (reprint Hildesheim, 1967)
  • Volume 1: The Choral Reform under Gregory XIII. Publishing house Leuckart. Leipzig. 1901
  • Volume 2: The chorale reform under Clement VIII and Paul V. Leipzig. 1901
• Religiosi Iuris Capita Selecta, adumbravit Raphael Molitor OSB, Abbas St. Joseph in Guestfalia, Regensburg: Pustet, 1909
• From the legal history of Benedictine associations - investigations and sketches. Münster: Aschendorff, 1929: Volume I: Associations from monastery to monastery, Volume II: Association and exemption

literature

• Basilius Steidle : Abbot President Raphael Molitor †. In: Benediktinische Monatsschrift (BenM) 24 (1948) 463ff.
• Gerhard Österle: Abbot Raphael Molitor as a writer of religious law. In: Studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order and its branches (SMGB) 73 (1962) 14–40
• Basilius Senger: Molitor. In: SMGB, supplementary volume 29/2 (1987) 614ff.
• Martin Uhlenbrock:  Molitor, Raphael. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 727 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Marcel Albert: Molitor, Raphael. In: Maria Magdalena Rückert (Ed.): Württembergische biographies including Hohenzollern personalities. Volume I. On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-018500-4 , pp. 181-183 ( online ).

Sources / web links

• Molitor, Raphael, in: Biographia Benedictina (Benedictine Biography), version of September 20, 2011
• Order online: Molitor, Raphael
• Swabian organ romance: Molitor, Raphael OSB
• Literature by and about Raphael Molitor in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Abbot of Gerleve 1906–1948	Pius I. Buddenborg
( Raphael Walzer )	Abbot praeses of the Beuron Benedictine Congregation 1936–1948	Bernhard Durst