Klosterneuburg

KLOSTERNEUBURG. - Near Vienna (Austria), abbey of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of the Austrian Congregation, founded around 1106 by the margrave St. Leopold (canonized in 1485) of Babenberg, and by his wife Agnes, daughter of the emperor Henry IV, on the site of a Roman castle (Canabiaca) and near the "new castle" of the Babenbergs (hence the name); until 1133 it was a collegiate church of secular canons, presided over as second provost by the son of St. Leopold, Otto, who later became a Cistercian monk and bishop of Freising and made himself famous for his philosophy of history (Chronicon and Gesta Friderici). In that year the Canons Regular took over, coming, it seems, from Chiemsee, Passau and Salzburg, whose first provost was the blessed Artmann (d. 1164), bishop of Brixen. With the favor of princes and nobles the convent's landed endowment was soon increased (as appears from the precious "codex traditionum", preserved in the cloister archive, rich in papal, imperial and other documents) and it became a cultural center for Austria, as attested by the numerous manuscripts and works of art produced in the abbey itself. K. had a considerable part in the rise and flourishing of humanism at the University of Vienna.

Despite the many calamities caused by the wars of the Hussites and the Turks (in 1683, thanks to the lay brother Marcellinus Ortner, it successfully withstood a siege lasting 10 weeks) and particularly by the French wars, it always recovered new vigor and tenaciously re-established cloister discipline after periods of decadence. As the foundation and burial place of St. Leopold, K., under the House of Habsburg, rose to the rank of a national sanctuary, thus escaping the suppression of convents decreed by Joseph II. Among its provosts, besides the blessed Artmann, mention should be made of: the 6th, Wernher, elected bishop of Gurk in 1194, and the 62nd, Friedrich Gustav Piffl, cardinal-archbishop of Vienna (d. 1932). In 1735 K. was aggregated to the Congregation of the Canons Regular of the Lateran Savior, on account of which its provosts bear the title of "Lateran abbots". Since 1796 there has been a philosophical-theological institute there, attended by the professed clerics of the abbey itself and of other nearby houses of the Order. The Library contains 1245 manuscripts, 900 incunabula and more than 150,000 volumes, arranged according to modern criteria. In 1936, on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the foundation, Pius XI raised the abbey church to the rank of minor basilica. In the most recent period, K. was suppressed by the National Socialist government (1941-45), but preserved from war damage and spoliation. At present 67 priests and 8 professed clerics, 7 novices and 27 parishes, almost all in Vienna, with about 80,000 souls, belong to it.

WORKS OF ART

K. is very rich in works of art, among which mention should be made of the abbey church, a Romanesque basilica with three naves, built, on Rhenish models, in the years 1114-36; the Baroque decoration and that of the 17th and 18th centuries (notable are the choir and the high altar, designed by Matthias Steindl). Of high artistic value is the chapel of St. Leopold (formerly the chapter hall) with precious stained glass of the 14th and 15th centuries, a seven-branched bronze candelabrum in the Romanesque style, and the famous "Verdun Altar," executed in 1181, by order of Provost Wernher, by Nicholas of Verdun as a facing for the chancel screen, and representing in 51 small enamel panels on a gold ground, in typological fashion, the whole history of the Redemption. In 1329 it was made into a folding altar, whose rear wall was adorned with four tempera paintings of Giottoesque inspiration. This is the most distinguished Romanesque and Gothic work of art north of the Alps.

Also admired in K. are the cloister (13th-14th century), the "Madonna of K.," a stone sculpture of the 14th century, the so-called "Albrechtsaltar," a beautiful altar created around 1440 by James of Kaschau. The imperial residence, which forms a whole with the abbey, commissioned by Emperor Charles VI and built in the period 1730-40 on a design by Donato d'Allio (conceived on too grandiose a scale, only a third of it was completed), contains in the "hall of marbles" frescoes by Daniel Gran and in the so-called "imperial rooms" stuccoes on the ceilings. In the Picture Gallery notable are creations of the "Danube school" (Donauschule), bronzes and ivory sculptures, and in the treasury the archducal bodyguard of 1616 and very fine goldwork in the Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque styles.

LITURGICAL APOSTOLATE

In recent times K. has become famous for its liturgical apostolate among the people (volhalturgisches Apostolat). To this end Father Pius Parsch founded there in 1926 his monthly review Bibel und Liturgie, to which was later added the weekly Lebe mit der Kirche, intended for the great mass of the people. In 1923 he published the first liturgical calendar (Liturgiekalender), which under the title Das Jahr des Heiles, a guide through the liturgical year, subsequently went through 13 editions, and was translated into Italian (L'anno liturgico), French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Icelandic and Japanese. With the establishment by the abbey of a large modern printing house (St. Augustinus-Druckerei), sold after the suppression of 1941 by the National Socialists, and re-established in 1950, a wide diffusion of liturgical publications was made possible: liturgical texts, pamphlets, pictures, propaganda leaflets. - See plate XLV.

Severino Schmidt