OTTOBEUREN. – A Benedictine abbey near Memmingen in Bavaria.
It was founded in 764 by the Blessed Toto, who died around the year 815, and was dedicated to the martyr St Alexander. When discipline declined at the end of the 11th century, Abbot Adalamo (1082–94) introduced the Hirsau reform and restored the monastic buildings; his successor Rupert (1102–45) added a monastery for noblewomen. He was followed by Abbot Isengrim (1145–48), who composed the Annales maiores (in MGH, Scriptores, XVII, pp. 312 sg.) and Annales minores (ibid., pp. 315 sg.). The abbey suffered fire damage in 1153 and 1217; it again fell into decline in the 15th century, but revived under Abbot Leonard Wildemann (1508–46) and still more under Abbot R. Ness (1711–25), who built the present monastery in a style called the Swabian Escorial. The church was rebuilt in Bavarian rococo style under his direction, though completed by his successor A. Erb (1740–67). The abbey was secularised in 1803. King Ludwig I of Bavaria established a priory there in 1834; in 1918 the abbey was rebuilt, and the church was raised to the rank of a minor basilica in 1926.