CASEL, ODO. - Distinguished Benedictine liturgist and theologian, b. 27 Sept. 1886 at Koblenz-Lützel, d. at the abbey of the Holy Cross of Herstelle on 28 March 1948. After completing his secondary studies at Andernach, he entered the abbey of Maria-Laach in 1905, where he made his vows in 1907 and was ordained a priest on 17 Sept. 1911.
He obtained his doctorate in theology at St. Anselm's in Rome with a thesis on the Eucharist in St. Justin, and in philosophy at Bonn with the dissertation: De philosophorum graecorum silentio mystico (Bonn 1919). These first fruits already indicated his intellectual orientation. Returning to Maria-Laach, with two fundamental monographs: Das Gedächtnis des Herrn in der alchristlichen Liturgie (Ecclesia Orans, no. III, Freiburg im Br. 1918) and Die Liturgie als Mysterienfeier (no. IX of the same collection, ibid. 1922) he revealed the originality of his thought and the novelty of his philological methods. From 1921 to 1941, through the dense pages of the Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, which he founded and directed with singular constancy, he matured his ideas, defending them against the many harsh attacks of opponents, clarifying them in the crucible of new studies (which he reviewed extensively) and of incessant criticism. The principal works of the fruitful twenty-year period are: Mysterium und Martyrum (in Jahrb. f. Lit. Wiss., 2 [1922], pp. 18-38); Das Mysteriengedächtnis der Messliturgie (ibid., 6 [1926], pp. 113-204); Mysteriengegenwart (ibid., 8 [1928], pp. 145-224); Das christlichen Kultmysterium (Regensburg 1932); Neue Zeugnisse für das Kultmysterium (in Jahrb. f. Lit. Wiss., 13 [1935], pp. 99-171); Glaube, Gnosis und Mysterium (ibid., 15 [1941], pp. 155-306).
In these works, going back to the mystery concept of religion, which Jesus Christ would have supernaturalized, he affirms that the essence of Christianity consists in the physical union of Christ with the Church, realized through the liturgy, in whose unfolding (in the sacrifice as in the Sacraments, in the sacraments as in the Divine Office) is implied the presence of Jesus Christ and of all his saving action (Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, parousia) in such a way that the whole saving drama of Christ is re-founded, repeating itself, in his mystical members. This mysterious "re-presentation" of the whole economy of salvation remains on this side of the divine omnipresence, but goes beyond the limited natural presence of bodies, souls, angels; it follows rather the law of a supernatural, pneumatic, sacramental presence. In this conception, the Mass must be considered as a sacrifice, because in its unfolding it re-presents (makes again present) the same (numerically) immolation of Calvary, which, by virtue of transubstantiation, acquires a new quando and a new ubi. These singular ideas made the name of C. very well known throughout Germany, in Belgium and in England. Today his fame crosses the frontiers of the Latin world with the joyful receptions of France: Italy has not yet stirred. It was natural that around so striking a personality and such new ideas two attitudes should take shape: that of fervent disciples (Warnach, Dekkers, Winzen) and of sincere admirers (Vonier, De Séguier, Rahner, Scheller, Goossens, Masure, Héris), as well as that of critics sometimes benign (Coppens, Stohr, Poschmann, Prüm, Hoffmann) and sometimes severe (Soenghen, Hanssens, above all Umberg). We are far indeed from that consensus which should make Casel's ideology acceptable, but although the work is still sub indice, the figure of the pious and learned Rhenish monk stands out clearly in the sky of Christian science and piety.