METTEN, ABBEY OF

Benedictine abbey in the Diocese of Regensburg, Bavaria, south Germany. Founded (766) from reichenau by Bl. Gamelbert and the first abbot, Bl. Utto, it was made a royal cloister by Charlemagne with the duty of prayer for emperor and empire and became an important settlement cloister. The monks were expelled (1058) and replaced by canons, but returned under the hirsau observance (1157). In 1236 church and cloister burned down. The abbots obtained pontifical rights in 1439. After collapse during the Reformation, there was a revival at Metten under Abbot Johannes Nablas (1596–1624), who expanded the abbey. The church was restored under Roman Märkl (1706–29). The cloister was suppressed by Bavaria in 1803 but was restored in Offenberg castle (1826) and made an abbey (1840). Metten has had prominent monks. The miniatures in a MS of the rule (c. 1400) anticipated the "Danube style." Ildefons Lehner was a leader in the neo-Gothic movement c. 1860; Utto Kornmüller, a composer and scholar, represented classical church music; Edmund Schmidt did research on the Benedictine rule. Gregor Scherr became archbishop of Munich and Freising (1856), and Leo Mergel, bishop of Eichstätt (1905). Metten restored scheyern and Weltenburg and founded st. vincent archabbey in the United States.

Bibliography: Monumenta Mettensia in Monumenta Boica, v.11 (Munich 1767) 341–518. r. mittermÜller, Das Kloster Metten und seine Aebte (Straubing 1856). w. fink, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Benedictinerabtei Metten, 3 v. (Munich 1926–30); Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:375–376. p. lindner, Die Schriftsteller und die um Wissenschaft und Kunst verdienten Mitglieder des Benediktinerordens im heutigen Königreich Bayern vom Jahre 1750 bis zur Gegenwart, 2 v. (Regensburg 1880) 2:30; Monasticon metropolis Salzburgensis antiquae (Salzburg 1908) 273. o. l. kapsner, A Benedictine Bibliography: An Author Subject Union List, 2 v. (2d ed. Collegeville, Minn. 1962) 2:231. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:1833–34.

[w. fink]