Remigius Winckel

The coat of arms of Abbot Remigius Winckel

Remigius Winckel (real name Servatius Winckel ; * 1604 in Remich ; † August 9, 1654 in Groß-Steinheim ) was abbot of the Sponheim monastery from 1636/1637 to 1643 , he was also the titular abbot of the Disibodenberg monastery . In 1643 he was also awarded the title of Abbot of Hornbach in the Palatinate. From 1646 to 1654 Winckel was abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Münsterschwarzach .

The monasteries in front of Winckel

Half a century before Remigius Winckel's term of office was marked by the religious wars and the so-called Little Ice Age in the monasteries of the Palatinate . The monasteries suffered from the Reformation and most of them were even dissolved during this period. The last abbot for Disibodenberg is recorded in 1559, who handed over the monastery to the dukes of Zweibrücken. During the Thirty Years War there were a few attempts to revive the monasteries, but all of them failed.

Münsterschwarzach also had to struggle with crop failures and constant attacks from its Protestant neighbors. In addition, there was the embezzlement of the monastery property by some abbots . In 1631 the convent even had to leave the monastery, which had served the Swedes as soldiers' quarters for several years. Even after the convent returned to the dilapidated buildings, the war raged on. Winckel's predecessor, Nikolaus III. Molitor was elected abbot by only five monks due to the small strength of the convent.

Life

Early years

Remigius Winckel was born in 1604 as Servatius Winckel in Remich on the Moselle in what is now Luxembourg . His father was a merchant and was mostly called Orthonius in Latin. Nothing is known about his mother. The young Remigius' schooldays are also not recorded. Only the beginning of his studies is shown in the sources. He first enrolled at the University of Luxembourg before moving to the Jesuit Academy in Pont-à-Mousson . He completed his studies in Cologne.

Winckel began his theological career in 1627, before completing his degree, in Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg City. Only after he had made his vows did he finish his studies with a theological licentiate from the University of Cologne . Nothing is known about the details of his spiritual career, but ordination must be assumed, since Winckel became abbot in the monasteries of Sponheim and Disibodenberg in 1636/1637.

In the Pfalz

The two monasteries were badly devastated by the Thirty Years' War and had to be re-established during these years. As abbot, Remigius also received confirmation from the Archbishop of Mainz , Anselm Casimir Wambolt von Umstadt . Protestant troops passing through destroyed the monastery in Sponheim again in the 1740s and forced the abbot and his convent to flee the monastery buildings.

In 1642/1643 Remigius was summoned back to his monastery by the chapter of the Bursfeld congregation , to which the Abbey in Sponheim also belonged. Now, however, the Spaniards under General Spinola made life difficult for him: They wanted to build a Benedictine abbey with their compatriots and refused to pay out the monastery's proceeds to the Germans. On June 27, 1643 Remigius Winckel resigned as Abbot of Sponheim and Disibodenberg.

Again he was appointed abbot, but this time he was only titular abbot of the already dissolved Hornbach Abbey in the Palatinate, where he was handed down in 1643/1644. In addition, he took on pastoral activities as a pastor in Groß-Steinheim, today a district of Hanau. In addition, he supported the monastery alliance of the Bursfeld Congregation, for which he worked in 1644 as definitor and chapter secretary.

In 1646 a successor to the deceased abbot Silvanus Speht was sought in Münsterschwarzach . Philipp Erwein von Schönborn , as a bailiff in the service of Mainz, recommended his brother, Pastor Remigius Winckel , to the Würzburg prince-bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn . Winckel then became administrator of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey. Until the arrival of the new abbot, Maurus Faber, as Abbot of St. Stephan in Würzburg, was appointed head of the monastery.

In Münsterschwarzach

The election as abbot took place on August 7, 1646 between 9 and 10 a.m. The confirmation of the new abbot took place on July 14th of the same year by Johann Philipp von Schönborn. On January 21, 1647 Winckel was finally together with Abbot Peter of Ebrach benediziert . Previously, in 1646, he had already saved the abbey by asking the Protestant General Wrangel for soldiers from Schweinfurt to protect the monastery. His knowledge of French had served him well here.

At the same time, Winckel pushed for the abbey to be discharged. These efforts continued after the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648. Until 1651 the orphaned monastery villages were repopulated through new recruitment, order was restored through the reactivation and the new establishment of village regulations . Winckel also took care of the monastery itself: he had the destroyed monastery mill rebuilt, built a new gatehouse in 1652 and increased the number of livestock.

Spiritual life in Münsterschwarzach also flourished again during the time of peace. The reason for this was the recruitment of many young monks by the abbot. Many later monastery rulers came to the monastery during these years, which soon became a scientific center in the region. Driven by the Würzburg prince-bishops , the abbot also ended relations with the Bursfeld congregation, which, however, had already fallen asleep under his predecessors.

The abbot's death came on a trip in 1654. Winckel had just returned from the Tönisstein monastery in what is now Rhineland-Palatinate and was spending the night in his former place of work in Groß-Steinheim when he died of an asthma attack on August 9, 1654. His burial took place two days later, on August 11th, in front of the baptismal font of the Johanneskirche in Steinheim. An epitaph was set up in Münsterschwarzach in 1559.

coat of arms

The coat of arms in Münsterschwarzach

Remigius Winckel was the ninth abbot of the monastery, for whom a personal coat of arms has come down to us. A seal dated June 30, 1649 and a coat of arms stone in the gatehouse of Münsterschwarzach contain the prelate's mark. Description : Shared; above a lily, the outer lower leaves of which are bent upwards and covered with a gusset, below three 2: 1 turned down gussets. Information on the color scheme has not been passed down.

literature

• Kassius Hallinger: Chronology of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach a. M. (1390-1803) . In: Abtei Münsterschwarzach (Ed.): Abtei Münsterschwarzach. Works from their history . Münsterschwarzach 1938.
• Rainer Kengel: The coat of arms of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach . In: Abtei Münsterschwarzach (Ed.): Abtei Münsterschwarzach. Works from their history . Münsterschwarzach 1938.
• Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . Münsterschwarzach 2002.

Web links

Commons : Remigius Winckel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mahr, Johannes: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . P. 31.
2. ↑ Kassius Hallinger: The chronology of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach. P. 111.
3. ↑ Mahr, Johannes: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . P. 32.
4. ↑ Hallinger, Kassius: The chronology of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach . P. 112.
5. ↑ Kengel, Rainer: The coat of arms of the abbots of Münsterschwarzach . P. 148.

predecessor	Office	successor
Silvanus spies	Abbot of Münsterschwarzach 1646–1654	Benedict II. Weidenbusch