Neresheim, Abbey of
NERESHEIM, ABBEY OF
In Württemberg, south Germany; its patrons are SS. ulrich and afra of augsburg. Founded for canons by Count Hartmann of Dillingen (1095), it was settled by Benedictines from petershausen (1106) and zwiefalten (1119). In 1497 it joined the melk reform and in 1685 the Augsburg Congregation of the Holy Ghost. In the 17th and 18th centuries it had close ties with the Jesuit University of Dillingen and sent professors to the lyceum in Freising and the University of Salzburg, while it had its own school of philosophy and theology and a gymnasium (to 1806). Secularized in 1803 and awarded to the princes of Thurn and Taxis, it was restored as an abbey in 1920. The baroque cloister (1694–1714) has rich stucco-work; the church (1745–98), B. Neumann's most mature work, has cupola frescoes by Martin Knoller (1769–75). The humanist Abbot Benedikt Maria Angehrn (1755–87), cousin of Prince-abbot Beda Angehrn of sankt gallen (1767–96) and imperial administrator of sankt ulrich in Augsburg (1778–82), was opposed by the monk Benedikt Maria Werkmeister (b. 1745; d.1823), a talented scholar who championed the Catholic Enlightenment and had ties with I. H. von wessenberg. The monk K. Nack wrote a history of the abbey (Neresheim 1792).
Bibliography: p. weissenberger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:879–880.
[p. weissenberger]