Tobias Johannes Becker

Tobias Johannes Becker

Tobias Johannes Becker (Czech: Tobiáš Jan Becker ; * July 15, 1649 in Grulich , Königgrätzer Kreis ; † September 11, 1710 ) was Bishop of Königgrätz .

Origin and career

Tobias Johannes Becker was the son of a baker and a lay judge . After a Glatzer Jesuit missionary recognized his talent, he was allowed to attend the grammar school there and then studied in Prague. In 1670 he received his doctorate as Dr. phil. Because he wanted to become a clergyman, he went on to study theology and was ordained a priest on March 18, 1673 in Prague. He then worked as a pastor and confessor of the Prague Ursulines . In 1679 he was given pastoral care at the parish church by the Lamboy family , who owned the Arnau dominion in Eastern Bohemia and who held the church patronage there . With his appointment to the Prague cathedral chapter , he was appointed German cathedral preacher and in 1693 a scholaster . In St. Vitus Cathedral he had the statues of saints, which had been damaged by the Calvinists in 1619 , renewed at his own expense and the tomb of St. John of Nepomuk decorated with marble and plastic jewelry.

Bishop of Königgrätz

Coat of arms Tobias Johannes Becker, Bishop of Königgrätz (1702–1710)

After the death of Bishop Gottfried Kapaun von Swoykow from Königgrätz , Emperor Leopold I nominated Tobias Johannes Becker as his successor. The papal confirmation of April 3, 1702 followed on May 14th. J. the episcopal ordination in Leitmeritz by Bishop Jaroslaw Ignaz von Sternberg and two days later the assumption of office in Königgrätz .

As a bishop, Becker also performed pastoral duties, gave sermons and heard confessions. He visited his diocese and issued guidelines in 1704 for the clergy and in 1706 for dignified and simple priestly clothing. Since Protestantism was widespread in his diocese, he campaigned for the re-Catholicization of the faithful. Protestant activists should be reported and non-Catholic scriptures removed.

With the magistrate of the city of Königgrätz, the legal disputes that had hampered the development of the diocese under Becker's predecessors could be ended during his tenure. The Palais Gallas was converted into an episcopal residence and built on the site of the old castle canon apartments and the seminary with a Nepomuk church. The parish church was built in the episcopal town of Chrast and the episcopal castle was enlarged.

A particular concern of his was the development of the old cult site near his hometown of Grulich, which was called the " Mother of God Mountain ", into a place of pilgrimage with a Servite monastery . Even before he became bishop, Becker gave the miraculous image from his property for the new pilgrimage church in 1700 , a copy of the image of the Virgin Mary from Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. With the support of Count Althann , who owned the Grulich estate, Becker promoted the construction of a complex with a monastery, church, holy staircase, Loreto chapel and passageways, which developed into a well-known place of pilgrimage.

The increasing claim of the sovereigns to state church sovereignty also led, among other things, to the fact that Becker was held against the non-aristocratic origin. He therefore intended to give up his office as bishop and retire to the Servite monastery he had founded on the Mother of God Mountain. Since he died shortly afterwards, it never happened again. His body was buried in the Königgrätzer cathedral.

literature

• KA Huber, in Erwin Gatz : The Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire 1648–1803. ISBN 3-428-06763-0 , pp. 24-25

predecessor	Office	successor
Gottfried Kapaun von Swoykow	Bishop of Königgrätz 1702–1710	Johann Adam Wratislaw von Mitrowitz