Kremsmünster - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 465

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

KREMSMÜNSTER. — Benedictine abbey in Upper Austria (diocese of Linz), with 26 incorporated parishes, a grammar school, astronomical observatory, boarding school, and retreat house; it is among the most celebrated institutions as a center of study and education.

K. was founded by Tassilone III, duke of Bavaria, in 777, expressly for the purpose of cultivating and civilizing the undeveloped territories of that region, then a Bavarian march. The primitive church of the Most Holy Savior was dedicated on 9 November of the same year; the first abbot was Fater, Tassilone’s chaplain, a monk of Mondsee, from which the first monks came. For many centuries a true forge of civilization, K. experienced a temporary decline during the period of the Magyar incursions. At that time it passed to the bishops of Passau (Eigenklöster), but around 1013, under Abbot Sigmaro, it regained its independence, embracing the reform of Gorze. The 11th and 12th centuries mark the peak of its development: the church was rebuilt in Romanesque style, and a scriptorium and a renowned school were established. Another magnificent flowering took place in the 16th–18th centuries: the grammar school was founded (1549), the first institution sui generis in Austria; the church, like the entire monastery, was transformed in the Baroque style; a museum and an armory were founded; and a magnificent hall was created for the library. It contains more than 100,000 volumes, 1,800 manuscripts, and approximately 800 incunabula. The two codices millenarii, precious Carolingian Gospel books, deserve particular mention. Highly original are the fish nursery, with five compartments (1690–1715), and the “mathematical tower” (1748–60). Joseph II did not suppress K.; this was done instead by Nazism (1941–45), which transformed it into a national museum of sacred art. Among the most celebrated monks, mention should be made of: Bernardo Norico (12th century), historiographer; Simone Rettenbacher (1643–1706), considered the most learned man in Germany of his time, librarian, historian, and poet; and Ignazio Schüch, moral theologian (1823–93), whose Handbuch der Pastoraltheologie went through 20 editions. Among the most distinguished works of art are: the Tassilone chalice, a highly valuable work of Anglo-Saxon art, commissioned for his family in England around 760 and donated at the time of the foundation; and the monument to Guntero, the legendary son of Tassilone, an enormous sculpture in colored hard stone, dating from around 1300.

Following the appeal of Pius XI (1922) for social and charitable works, the Opera di Subiaco arose and took canonical form under the aegis of the monks of K., namely the Congregation of the Benedictine Oblate Sisters of the Heart

Article illustration — KRASIŃSKI, ZYGMUNT — Portrait. Work by Ary Schäfer (ca. 1855).
(from Pisma Zygmunta Krasinskogo, edited by J. Grubek, Krakow 1918, fasc. 2)

of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, devoted to all works of social charity in the parishes, with a special motherhouse near K., a higher school of social charity, and a retreat and training house for parish domestic servants. The sisters are already active in many parishes. — Vedi tav. XLVII.

BIBL.: Cottineau, I, cols. 1529–30; Th. Dorn, Abriss der Baugeschichte K. s. Linz 1929; K. Werner, K. in Wort und Bild, Stey 1929; K. Holter, Die Wiegedrucke des Stiftes K.s. Linz 1947; N. Schachinger, Das Werk Subiaco, in Benediktinisches Mbochum in Österreich, edited by H. Tausch, Vienna 1949, p. 300 ff. R. M. Spuller, Die Benediktinerinnen des Unbefl. Herzens Mariä von Subiaco, ibid., p. 304 ff.; P. Stollenmayer, Der Tussilokelch, in Festschrift zum 400-jährigen Bestande des öffentl. Gymnasiums der Benediktiner zu K., Wels 1949, pp. 1–110; W. Neumüller, Zur mittelalterlichen Bibliotheksgeschichte von K., ibid., pp. 265–312.

Giuseppe Löw