ILDEFONS. — Benedictine abbot, promoter of the liturgical movement in Germany, born at Junkersdorf (Cologne) on 27 November 1874, died at Maria Laach on 2 September 1946. In 1895 he entered the celebrated Rhenish monastery of Maria Laach (Andernach am Rhein); he studied at Seckau (Austria), at S. Anselmo (Rome), specializing in Christian archaeology, and then at Maredsous (Belgium). In 1913 he was elected the 44th abbot of Maria Laach.
A man of extraordinary gifts of mind and heart, devoted to scientific research, especially in the fields of the history of law, art, and monasticism, and fully aware of the current problems of religious life, H. was, during the two decades between the two world wars, not only for his abbey but also for Catholic intellectuals in Germany and abroad, the leader of a profound movement of liturgical renewal.
Even in contributing to the rebirth of liturgical “science,” H. ultimately aimed at the religious goal of «liturgiae vitam vivere» (Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei). A fine psychologist, an effective orator, and a connoisseur of sacred art, H. exercised a broad influence and was the guide of the important association «Katholischer Akademikerverband».
In 1911 he founded the collection of monographs entitled Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens (16 vols.), which he followed with the series of liturgical popularizations Ecclesia Orans (19 vols.). H. published more than 10 books or pamphlets, the most celebrated of which are: Der heilige Benedikt. Ein Charakterbild (3rd ed., Düsseldorf 1926; translations into Hungarian, Flemish, English, Italian [Montecassino 1932], French, and Bohemian); Sinn und Geist der Benediktinerregel (Einsiedeln 1944).