ST. FLORIAN. - Abbey of the Lateran Canons Regular of the Austrian Congregation near Linz (Upper Austria).
The abbey is situated on the edge of a hill, on the site of the burial of the martyr St. Florian and companions (m.
in 304). A cell, perhaps, from Merovingian times, a monastery from the times of Charlemagne, under the immediate ownership of the bishops of Passau, to whom the region then belonged (and until 1778). Bishop St. Altmann entrusted the monastery in 1071 to the Canons Regular, and many parishes were soon united to it. Famous is the recluse Wilbrigis, who lived walled up near the church from 1248 until her death in 1289 (Vita of the contemporary abbot, Eynwick, in H. Pez, Script. rer. Austr., II, Leipzig 1725, pp. 216-75). During the Middle Ages it was also the destination of many pilgrimages to the tomb of the holy martyr. The monastery has its own theological faculty, counts 33 incorporated parishes and continues its traditional sacred and cultural vocation.
From fame to S. F. [St. Florian] comes the grandiose complex of its Baroque construction, among the finest examples of monumental ecclesiastical art. The church, dedicated to Mary Assumed, preserves pre-Romanesque vestiges (a crypt perhaps of the 9th century) and Gothic ones (dedication of the Gothic Basilica in 1291); it was then rebuilt and decorated in an exuberant but dignified Baroque style, from 1686 onward, through the work of A. C. Carlone (his greatest work), continued after his death (1708) by G. Prandtauer (builder of Melk), with even more ingenious modifications. Work continued until around the middle of the 18th century with the contribution of numerous Italian and native artists, among them the two Altomonte. In the church one should note above all the organ, by the great builder F. Krisman (1770-83); A. Bruckner served there as organist (1845-55; v. below). The two sacristies, jewels of the Baroque, are rich in precious sacred vestments. Among the most admired constructions are Prandtauer's grand staircase (1706-13); the ground-floor and upper halls, with grandiose frescoes and precious marbles; the Library (1744-50) with ca. 120,000 vols., including 885 manuscripts from as early as the 9th century and more than 800 incunabula; the imperial apartments, a series of 16 splendidly furnished rooms, served Pius VI on his journey to Vienna; large collections of art, paintings, coins, etc.
The abbey has prided itself almost continuously on members distinguished for sacred and secular learning; but a singular glory comes to it from the composer and organist A. Bruckner, who by his will wished to be buried there; S. F. is often a center of musical celebrations, even international ones.
Finally, one should note the arrangement, again in the underground chambers of the church, of ca. 6,000 skeletons believed to come either from the Roman cemetery of Laureacum (7 km away) or, more probably, from a battlefield of the age of the barbarian migrations.
Bibliography7 works
Giuseppe Löw