BOPPERT, KONRAD. - Ascetical writer, b. at Constance on 10 February 1750, d. at St. Paul in Carinthia on 31 July 1811. A Benedictine monk at St. Blasien in the Black Forest, he took his vows in 1773 and was ordained priest in 1775. He held various offices in the monastery, where he distinguished himself by remarkable musical gifts; he administered the
parish of Ibach from 1799 to 1803 and, after the suppression of St. Blasien, withdrew to St. Paul in Carinthia.
His name is associated with a work which cost him 18 years of assiduous labour: Scutura fidei ad vnsu quotidianos sacerdotum (5 vols., St. Blasien 1806); it was reprinted in 12 vols. by Herder at Freiburg im Br. (1853–55) and by Dura at Naples (1856), and was subsequently translated into French and German. It is a breviarum eucharisticum, offering daily meditations and prayers for before and after Mass, drawn largely from the Fathers, the councils, and the scholastic theologians (about 2,000 quotations). Despite its historical-critical shortcomings, this extensive compilation, permeated as it is with sincere piety, constitutes solid nourishment still useful today for priestly souls.