MARIA LAACH. - Benedictine abbey located near Koblenz on the Rhine in Germany, founded in 1093 by the Count Palatine Henry II (d. 1095), Count of Laach, and by his wife Adelaide of Orlamünde (d. 1100). The founding monks came from the abbey of St. Maximin in Trier. The original community was augmented by a group of monks from the abbey of Afflighem in Brabant, to which the priory of M. L. was subjected by the Count Palatine Siegfried (d. 1113), the founder's adoptive son, in 1112.
From the first abbot, Gilbert (1127-52), the series of abbots continued until 2 Aug. 1802, when the monastery was suppressed by the Napoleonic secularization. From 1474 until the suppression, the monastery belonged to the Bursfeld Union, of which 2 abbots of Laach were elected presidents. Around 1500 M. L. was the center of humanism in the monasteries of the Rhineland through the initiatives of the prior Johannes Butzbach (d. 1516) and of Jakob Siberti, well-known humanists. In 1892 the monks of Beuron took possession of the ancient Benedictine heritage of M. L. The first abbot of the new foundation, Willibrord Benzler, was elevated to the episcopal see of Metz in 1901; his successor, Fidelis of Stotzingen, was elected abbot primate of the Benedictine Confederation in 1913. Under the regime of the third abbot, Dom Ildefons Herwegen, a well-known promoter of the liturgical apostolate, the abbey became a center of liturgical and monastic studies. The principal scholarly initiatives of the monks of Laach in recent times are: the collection Ecclesia Orans, which deals with the important points of the Church's worship; the Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen, publications of unpublished liturgical texts, and related documents such as calendars and ascetic writings of antiquity and the Middle Ages relating to worship; the Liturgiegeschichtliche Forschungen, treating liturgies from the historical aspect; the Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft (1921-41), followed by the Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft (1st vol. in 1950); edited by Abbot I. Herwegen, the Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens.