SANKT FLORIAN, MONASTERY OF

In the Diocese of Linz, upper Austria. At the tomb of the martyr St. Florian (d. 304) arose a popular shrine that was a Benedictine cell at the time of Charlemagne. In 1071 Bp. St. altman of passau granted it to Augustinian canons, under whose provosts it has flourished to the present. The abbey soon had a famous school and was a center of learning and of the gregorian reform. Until the 15th century there was a women's cloister adjoining. In 1686 Provost David Fuhrmann started the present magnificent abbey, a masterpiece of the baroque style by the architects C. A. Carlone and J. Prandtauer, completed in 1745, and known for its refectory, prelature, and a marble hall. In the majestic church with its famous organ, the largest in Austria, A. Bruckner was organist from 1845 to 1855. Noted for its scholarship in the 19th century, Sankt Florian has a library of 120,000 volumes, 800 precious MSS, and more than 800 incunabula, besides rich collections of medieval art and numismatics. The abbey was suppressed (1941–45).

Bibliography: j. stÜlz, Geschichte des Chorherrnstiftes St. Florian (Linz 1835). f. linninger, Reichgottesarbeit in der Heimat (St. Florian 1954); Führer durch das Chorherrnstift St. Florian (4th ed. Linz 1960). g. schmidt, Die Malerschule von St. Florian (Graz 1962). j. zauner, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:143–144.

[n. backmund]