VONIER, ANSCAR. — Benedictine abbot and theologian, in the world Martin, born on 11 November 1875 at Ringschnait (Württemberg, Germany), died at Buckfast (England) on 26 December 1938.
He spent his childhood at Rissegg; in 1889 he entered the College of the exiled French Benedictines at Buckfast (Devonshire), and then took the habit there (1893). Ordained a priest (17 December 1898), he received a degree in philosophy at S. Anselmo (Rome) in 1900; prefect of students and procurator at Buckfast (1900–1905), he returned to Rome to teach philosophy at S. Anselmo (October 1905). On 14 September 1906 he was elected the 2nd abbot of Buckfast, where from 1907 to 1932 he rebuilt the monastery and the splendid ancient (12th-century) abbey church (dating from about 600), in the valley of the River Dart, suppressed in 1539, whose 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 highly esteemed thinker, writer, and preacher, he exercised great spiritual influence through his correspondence, books, retreats for clergy and laity, Sunday sermons, and the almost daily spiritual conferences he gave to his monks. Exhausted by tireless activity, he died on his return from a journey to Rome.
The 16 volumes (many of them translated into French and German), profound and original, left by V. are: 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 Judgement (1930), Christ the King of glory (1932), Christianus (1933), The Victory of Christ (1934), The Spirit and the Bride (1935; Italian translation, Lo Spirito e la Sposa, Florence 1949), The People of God (1937), Sketches and studies in theology (1940). V.’s ten principal books were collected in 3 volumes, from 1951 to 1953, by the then abbot of Buckfast, Bruno Fehrenbacher, who shortened the text somewhat by removing repetitions.