VONIER, ANSCAR. - Benedictine abbot, theologian, born Martin on 18 November 1875 at Ring-
schnait (Württemberg, Germany), died at Buckfast (England) on 26 December 1938.
He spent his childhood at Rissegg; in 1889 he entered the College of French exiled Benedictines at Buckfast (Devonshire), and in 1893 took the habit there. Ordained priest on 17 December 1898, he earned a degree in philosophy at Sant’Anselmo (Rome) in 1900. He served as prefect of students and procurator at Buckfast (1900–1905), then returned to Rome to teach philosophy at Sant’Anselmo (October 1905). On 14 September 1906 he was elected second abbot of Buckfast, where from 1907 to 1932 he rebuilt the monastery and the ancient (12th-century) splendid church of the abbey (dating back to around 600), situated in the valley of the River Dart. The abbey had been suppressed in 1539, and its ruins had been purchased in 1880 by the expelled monks of La Pierre-qui-Vire. He endowed it with the magnificent “golden altar” (1931). A thinker, writer, and preacher of great renown, he exercised considerable spiritual influence through correspondence, books, retreats for clergy and laity, Sunday sermons, and almost daily spiritual conferences for his monks. Undaunted by tireless activity, he died on his return from a journey to Rome.
The sixteen volumes (many translated into French and German) left by V. are profound and original: The human soul (1913), The personality of Christ (1914), The christian mind (1918), The divine Motherhood (1921), A key to the doctrine of the Eucharist (1925), The life of the world to come (1926), The art of Christ (1927), The Angels (1928), The new and eternal Covenant (1930), Death and fudgement (1930), Christ the King of glory (1932), Christianus (1933), The Victory of Christ (1934), The Spirit and the Bride (1935; Italian trans., Lo Spirito e la Sposa, Florence 1949), The People of God (1937), Sketches and studies in theology (1940). The ten principal books of V. were collected in three volumes, 1951–1953, by the present abbot of Buckfast, Bruno Fehrenbacher, who slightly abridged the text by removing repetitions.