ENGELBERG. — Benedictine abbey founded in 1120 in the upper valley of the Aa of the same name, at the foot of the Titlis in the canton of Obwalden (Switzerland), by Baron Corrado di Sellenbüren; its first abbot was Adelmo. Pope Callistus II and the Emperor Henry V placed the abbey under their protection (1124); the bishop of Constance established an independent parish in the valley.
The abbey rose to great renown under the government of Abbots Frowino (1174–78) and Bertoldo (1178–97); it became a center of culture with a library rich in illuminated manuscripts. Abbot Enrico I (1197–1223) procured for the monastery, probably from Alsace, a reliquary cross which, together with the ancient staurotheca, enclosed a particle of the Holy Cross. E. was destroyed by fire in 1199 and 1306; it was devastated by the plague in 1548, 1574, and 1583. Under Abbot G. B. Sigrist (1603–10), E. entered the Swiss Benedictine Congregation in 1602. After another fire, Abbot E. Crivelli had the church and monastery rebuilt by the architect G. Rueff (1730–34). The French occupied the abbey in 1798. The monastery contributed to the foundation of Rickenbach (1857) and Melchtal (1869), and to the missions in the United States at Conception Mo (1773), later an abbey in 1881, and at Mount Angel (1882, later an abbey in 1904). The buildings of E. were enlarged between 1925 and 1929. Since 1932, the monks of E. have also been in Cameroon and direct the major seminary at Yaunde.
The monastery library contains 600 manuscripts, including the « Bible », an illuminated manuscript by Ugone da Tennach, and more than 50,000 volumes; it also contains valuable works of art. The founder Corrado and the abbots Adelmo, Frowino, and Bertoldo enjoy a local cult as blessed, and the bodies of the first two are preserved.