WETTINGEN-MEHRERAU. - Abbey nullius, under the title of B. Maria Vergine Maris Stella, in Switzerland, in the Canton of Aargau.
Since 18 October 1854 it has been united with the title of the priory of M. It is immediately subject. At W. in Switzerland, in 1227, a Cistercian abbey was founded by Rapreyswil and his wife Anna of Homberg, on the river Dimuzat, « ad Limagi ripam » in the Canton of Aargau, not far from Baden. The abbey was suppressed in 1841. But in 1854 some monks, together with the abbot, obtained from Emperor Francesco Giuseppe permission to occupy the ancient Benedictine abbey of SS. Pietro e Paolo at M. near Bregenz in Vorarlberg, called Augia maior, Augia alba, or Insula maior, founded in 1698 by Ubrico, count of Bregenz, and suppressed in 1806. Thus M. became a priory dependent on W.
By decree of 4 June 1923, the S. Congregation of Religious approved the Augense Congregation, commonly called that of M., formerly Helvetic-Germanic, of the Cistercian Order (AAS, 15 [1923], p. 359).
The abbot of W.-M. is president of the Augense Congregation, commonly called that of M., to which belong 8 abbeys of monks, 3 conventual priories, one simple priory, and 10 abbeys of nuns. The monks are engaged in the 1st College of S. Bernardo (a lycée with public status), and in the school of agriculture; 7 monasteries of nuns depend on the abbot of W.-M.; some monks serve at the Marian sanctuary of Birnau on Lake Constance in Germany.