Teobaldo Cesari

Teobaldo Cesari SOCist (* February 28, 1804 in Castello di Palazzo near Arcevia in the Marche as Cirillo Cesari ; † April 29, 1879 in Rome ) was Cistercian of the congregation "San Bernardo in Italia", Abbot of San Bernardo alle Terme in Rome ( 1850–1879), General Procurator of the Cistercian Order (1850–1856), General Praeses of the Italian Cistercian Congregation (1856–1879), Superior General of the Cistercian Order (1868–1879) and thus de facto first Abbot General of the Cistercian Order after the French Revolution, also participant in the First Vatican Council , member of the Accademia dell'Arcadia (under the name "Acasto Delpusiano") and the Accademia Religionis Catholicae.

Life

Origin. Cistercians. priest

Cirillo Cesari grew up as the sixth of nine children of a pious landowner family in the Diocese of Fossombrone in the Papal States on. Three of his uncles were priests. In 1821, at the age of 17, he entered the Cistercian monastery of San Bernardo alle Terme under Abbot Sisto Benigni and took the religious name Teobaldo (after Theobald von Marly ). He made his profession on June 2, 1822. After studying theology at the Santa Croce Abbey in Gerusalemme , he was ordained a priest on August 26, 1826 at the age of 22 and initially stayed in the San Bernardo Monastery, from 1830 as elected auditor.

Prior and dept

From 1832 he was prior of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Foce di Amelia . In 1839 he became secretary on the governing body of the Italian Cistercian Congregation. From 1842 to 1844 he was novice master in the Abbey of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, at the same time under General President Nivardo Tassini the second visitor to the Italian monasteries of the order. From 1843 (until his death) he was consultor of the Congregation on Indulgence at the Holy See . After a short renewed membership in the convent of San Bernardo, he was abbot of the Foce monastery from 1845 to 1850.

General Procurator

In 1850 he became (as successor to Livio Fabretti ) General Procurator of the Order (successor in 1856: Vinceslao Marchini) and at the same time Abbot of San Bernardo. On the question of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , he wrote a statement that dealt, among other things, with Bernhard von Clairvaux, who had spoken out against the introduction of a corresponding festival. Cesari's comment: “Si hodie viveret, mutaret sententiam” (Bernhard would judge differently today). For Bernhard's seven hundredth anniversary of his death, he reached Pope Pius IX in 1853 . an anniversary indulgence.

Abbot General

In 1856 Cesari was elected President of the Italian Cistercian Monasteries and thus General President of the Cistercian Order. He remained so (with re-elections in 1860, 1865 and 1870) until 1879. In 1861 all Italian Cistercian monasteries (except the two Roman ones) were dissolved (four Sardinian-Piedmontese had already been abolished in 1855). The Belgian abbey Bornem was visited by Cesari in 1856 and 1867, but not officially due to a scandal in the Benedictine monastery of Dendermonde . He was able to elevate the French monastery Sénanque under Marie-Bernard Barnouin to a Cistercian monastery in 1857 and visit it in 1863. He was able to partially visit the Austrian Cistercian Congregation (with 14 pens) founded on his initiative in 1859 ( Stams , Rein , Zirc , Heiligenkreuz , Ossegg , Neukloster ). After Pope Pius XI, a fellow countryman from the Marche region, had praised him in 1868 and called him “General Superior of the entire order” (including the Trappists ), he appointed all abbots from April 6 to 16, 1869 (with the exception of the Trappists) a general chapter to Rome, which had a unifying effect (but not beyond the respective observance). Even if the Trappists valued him, the two observances did not come to an agreement.

Council father. Last years and death

1869–1870 Cesari was a councilor at the 1st Vatican Council . He stood up for the secular rule of the Pope and advocated his infallibility . In 1870 he witnessed the conquest of Rome and the excommunication of the conquerors by the Pope, and 1873–1874 the expropriation and downsizing of the San Bernardo monastery. In 1871, together with the representatives of the Trappists at the Holy See, he achieved recognition of the revised liturgical books of the Cistercians, instead of adopting the Roman breviary as requested by the curia . In the fall of 1871 he visited Mogila Monastery . In 1872, at his instigation, the Cistercian Pope Eugene III. recognized as blessed. Cesari placed the novitiate in Cortona in 1876 . He died in the spring of 1879 at the age of 75 (successor: Gregorio Bartolini ).

Honors

His bones rest in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, where a monument commemorates him. Cesari was Socius of the Accademia di Religione Cattolica, founded in 1801 (1844) and a member of the Accademia dell'Arcadia .

Works

• Istoria della miracolosa immagine di Nostra Signora delle Grazie che si venera nella chiesa de 'RR. Monaci Cistercensi presso il Castello di Foce scritta da Don Teobaldo Cesari priore e vicario abbaziale di quel monistero (Rome 1841; ²1858)
• Giardino Spirituale (Rome 1844; ²1864)
• "Ordinis Cisterciensis Suffragia pro Dogmatica Ferenda Sententia super Mysterio Immaculatæ Conceptionis BV Mariae", in: Pareri dell'episcopato cattolico, di capitoli, di congregazioni, di università, di personaggi ragguardevoli ecc. ecc. sulla definizione dogmatica dell'Immacolato Concepimento della Beata Vergine Maria, rassegnati alla Santità di Pio IX. PM in occasione della sua enciclica data da Gaeta il 2 febbraio 1849, Volume 9 (Rome 1852) 269-312; reprinted as a special issue (Terni 1854)
• "Litterae postulatoriae pro recognitione cultus publici B. Eugenio III ab immemorabili tempore praestiti Eugenio Papae III sancto ac beato nuncupato (1863)", in: Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 1 (1945) 4-8
• "Letter to the S. Congregatio Episcoporum et Regularium for the Preservation of the Cistercian Rite (1863)", in: Analecta Cisterciensia 63 (2013) 316-320.
• "Submissions for the First Vatican Council (1868)", in: Analecta Cisterciensia 63 (2013) 343–351. 360-365.
• "Speeches before Pope Pius IX. (1873, 1877)", in: Analecta Cisterciensia 63 (2013) 383f; 255f.
• "Te in questo dì festivo, o sommo PIO", in: Nel faustissimo giorno 3rd July 1877. Pel Giubileo Episcopale del Sommo Pontefice Pio Nono (Rome 1877) 3f, reprinted in: Analecta Cisterciensia 63 (2013) 388-390.

literature

• Pius Maurer: "Abbot General Teobaldo Cesari (1804-1879), his life and work", in: Analecta Cisterciensia 63 (2013) 37-401.

Web links

• Teobaldo Cesari in the Biographia Cisterciensis