Munich (München) and Freising, Archdiocese of

MONACO (MUNICH) and FREISING, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In Bavaria, covering an area of 11,972 sq km; it has 2,057,220 inhabitants, of whom 1,744,574 are Catholic. It has 551 parishes served by 1,327 diocesan priests and 779 regular clergy, two seminaries, 43 male religious communities and 511 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 273).

The diocese was erected following the Bavarian Concordat of 1817 with the bull Dei ac Domini nostri of Pius VII in 1818. It was assigned the territory of the suppressed dioceses of Freising (founded by St Corbinian, organizer of the Church in Bavaria, 716) and Chiemsee, the provostship of Berchtesgaden and parts of the archdiocese of Salzburg located in Bavaria. It was assigned the suffragan dioceses of Augsburg, Regensburg and Passau. The cathedral is the church of Our Lady, built from 1468 to 1488 by Jörg von Pilling. The first archbishop was Baron Lothar Anselm von Gebsattel (1821–46). He founded the Tridentine Seminary at Freising and restored the monasteries of Scheyern, Reisach, Laufen, Tölz, Landshut, Altomünster and Frauenchiemsee. His successor, Karl August von Reisach (1846–55), firmly opposed state interference in ecclesiastical matters; created a cardinal by Pius IX in 1855, he later joined the Roman Curia. His successor, Georg von Scherr (1856–77), encountered considerable obstacles in his administration due to the intrigues of the Bavarian government and the difficulties arising from the Döllinger case and the rise of Altkatholizismus (“Old Catholics”). During the period of the Kulturkampf, the archdiocese was governed by Antonio von Steichle (1878–89), a noted Church historian, who, through the collective memorandum of the Bavarian episcopate that he convened in Freising in December 1887, succeeded in achieving a certain improvement in Church–State relations. He was succeeded by Anton von Thoma (1889–97), formerly bishop of Passau, who continued this work and succeeded in resolving the question of the Altkatholiken (1890). Franz Josef von Stein governed the archdiocese from 1898 to 1909; Franz von Bettinger from 1909 to 1917, a cardinal from 1914. The latter is known for his pastoral and charitable work: he founded the “Union of Catholic Press” and the “Parents’ School Organization.” All these initiatives were expanded by Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber (from 1917 onward), a cardinal from 1921, an intrepid defender of the Catholic faith against National Socialism. For the pastoral formation of the clergy of his diocese, the directives he issued at the two diocesan synods of 1920 and 1930 were of great importance.

Already in the Middle Ages, the region was populated by flourishing Benedictine monasteries, such as those of St Andrew on the Freising hill in the 8th century, of St Vitus on the Schönberg hill in the 9th century, of Ettal (1330) and the Cistercian monastery of Freisdorf in the 12th century. In 1221, during the lifetime of St Francis, a Franciscan convent was founded on the Anger, later transferred into the city; the building was subsequently ceded to the Poor Clares. In 1281 the first Augustinian monastery was founded. In the 16th century the Jesuits arrived in the region; in the 18th century the Capuchins, Carmelites and Theatines. At the beginning of the 19th century the Hieronymites and Oratorians arrived. Among the female orders, following the Poor Clares came the Servites, the Salesians, the Elisabethans and the English Ladies. After the secularization of 1803, which for a time saw the ruin of all these institutions, the old religious houses, to which many others were added, flourished anew.

The University of Munich arose through the efforts of King Ludwig I in 1826, when he transferred the Ludwig Maximilian University, which until then had been located in Landshut. This transfer was not merely a relocation but signified a refounding of the university’s spirit, which was freed from the Montgelas-inspired Enlightenment tendency to exclude any interference by religious authority in university teaching. Following the example of J. M. Sailer, an active circle for the Catholic renewal of studies and social life in Germany developed around the University of Munich. It is associated with the names of Görres, J. A. Möhler, F. von Baader, Phillips, Allioli, Ringseis, Döllinger, von Moy and Lassaux. After 1848 currents less favorable to Catholicism entered the university. During the discussions around Vatican Council I, the university sided with Döllinger; however, the Catholic theological faculty also boasts, in the second half of the 19th century, not a few illustrious names, including the professors G. von Hertling, Kl. Baeumker, H. Grauert, O. Bardenhewer, A. Knöpfler, W. Thalhofer, J. Bach, and others.

For art, V. BAVARIA, III. Sacred art; GERMANY, VI. Art. — See pl. LXXXVII.