OTTOBEUREN. - Benedictine abbey near Memmingen in Bavaria.

It was founded in 764 by Bl. Toto, who died around the year 815, and dedicated to the martyr St. Alexander; after discipline had declined at the end of the 11th century, Abbot Adalamo (1082-94) introduced the Hirsau reform there and restored the monastic buildings; his successor Rupert (1102-45) added a monastery for noble ladies. He was followed by Abbot Isengrim (1145-1148), who composed the "Annales maiores" (in MGH, Scriptores, XVII, p. 312 ff.) and "Minores" (ibid., p. 315 ff.). Fire damaged the abbey in 1153 and in 1217; it declined again in the 15th century, while it flourished anew under Abbot Leonardo Wildemann (1508-46) and still more under Abbot R. Ness (1711-25), who erected the present monastery with a building that was given the name of the Swabian Escorial; the church too was rebuilt by him in the Bavarian rococo style, but completed by his successor A. Erb (1740-67). The abbey was secularized in 1803. King Louis I of Bavaria established a priory there in 1834; in 1918 the abbey was rebuilt anew and the church was elevated to a minor basilica in 1926.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: N. Lieb, Baugesch. von Kloster und Kirche O., Ottobeuren 1931; R. Renier, s. v. in LThK, VII, coll. 844-46; Cottineau, II, 2156-57.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec9_ottobeuren, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Ottobeuren}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {466}, 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/ottobeuren} }

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