OSSIACH. - Benedictine abbey, in Carinthia, on the lake of the same name, in the diocese of Gurk (formerly Salzburg), suppressed under Joseph II in 1783.

It was the oldest Benedictine abbey in Carinthia, founded around 1024 by the parents of Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia; it was a bulwark of faith and of sacred learning, even in the times of the "Reformation." The Romanesque church had a rich Baroque decoration by G. F. Fromiller (mid-18th century). Until 1484 there was a convent of Benedictine nuns nearby. Famous is the episode of Boleslaus II, king of Poland, the killer of St. Stanislaus of Kraków (1079), who, after public penance, withdrew to O., living for nine more years in absolute silence and solitude; only in death (1089) did he reveal his identity, leaving the monastery the royal ring. Until the suppression, in memory of this fact, the monks maintained 12 deaf-mutes; the tombstone of the penitent king is a Roman sepulchral monument.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: A. Brackmann, Germania Pontificia, I, Berlin 1910, p. 108 ff.; A. Jaksch, Monumenta hist. ducatus Carinthiae, II-IV, Klagenfurt 1904-1906; A. Krause, Die erloschenen Benediktinerkläster in Osterr., Vienna 1949, p. 102 ff.; Cottineau, II, col. 2132.

Giuseppe Löw

@incollection{ec9_ossiach, author = {Lów, Giuseppe}, title = {Ossiach}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {428}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ossiach} }

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