KREMSMÜNSTER. - Benedictine abbey in Upper Austria (diocese of Linz), with 26 incorporated parishes, a gymnasium, an astronomical observatory, a boarding school, a retreat house, among the most famous as a seat of study and education.
K. was founded by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, in 777, with the explicit purpose of cultivating and civilizing the uncultivated 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, chaplain of Tassilo, a monk of Mondsee, from where the first monks came. For many centuries a true center of civilization, K. had a temporary eclipse at the time of the Magyar incursions. During this time it passed to the bishops of Passau (Eigenklöster), but around 1013, under Abbot Sigmar, it regained its independence, embracing the reform of Gorze. The 11th-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 occurred in the 16th-18th centuries: the gymnasium was erected (1549), the first institute sui generis in Austria, the church was transformed in Baroque style as was the entire monastery, a museum and the armory were founded, and a magnificent hall was created for the library. It contains more than 100,000 volumes, 1,800 manuscripts and about 800 incunabula. Noteworthy are the two codices millenarii, precious Carolingian gospel books. Very original is the fish pond, with 5 compartments (1690-1715) and the "mathematical tower" (1748-60). Joseph II did not suppress K.; Nazism did so instead (1941-45), transforming it into a national museum of sacred art. Among the most famous monks one must remember: Bernard of Noricum (12th century), historiographer; Simon Rettenbacher (1643-1706), considered the most learned man of his time in Germany, librarian, historian, poet; Ignaz Schüch, moralist (1823-93), whose Handbuch der Pastoraltheologie went through 20 editions. Among the most distinguished works of art one must mention: the chalice of Tassilo, a most valuable work of Anglo-Saxon art, commissioned for his family in England around 760 and donated at the time of the foundation; the monument of Gunther, legendary son of Tassilo, an enormous sculpture in colored hard stone, around 1300.
Following the appeal of Pius XI (1922) for social and charitable works, there arose and took canonical form under the aegis of the monks of K. the Work of Subiaco, that is the Congregation of the Benedictine Oblate Sisters of the Immaculate Heart
KRASIŃSKI, ZYGMUNT - Portrait. Work by Ary Schäfer (ca. 1855).
of Mary, dedicated to all works of social charity in the parishes, with a special mother house near K., a higher school of social charity, a retreat house and a formation house for parish service women. The sisters are already active in many parishes. - See plate XLVII.
