The Religious Language on the World in the Writings by Ildefons Schober

Abstract

The world is generally evil. With these words Ildefons Schober (the first Abbot of Seckau and the third Archabbot of the Beuron Abbey) describes the world and against this background he indicates the mission of orders. Schober's attitude to the world can be explained through a three-dimensional system of coordinates. This system in the vertical dimension requires the distance from the world, in the horizontal dimension it demands an active battle against the world, and the third dimension is the feeling of commitment to the ancestors' legacy. As it is, even today every order meets the challenge of balanced self-determination against these three dimensions. The life of Ildefons Schober can act as a beacon and a call for a proper specification of this spiritual system of coordinates. However, who was Ildefons Schober? He was born on 23 Feb. 1849 (as Friedrich) in the town of Pfullendorf, when he was 21 he entered the Benedictine Beuron Abbey. After he was exiled due to Kulturkampf in 1875, he went to Volders and Prague. In 1887 he was appointed to the position of the Abbot of Seckau, where he turned out to be a great administrator, in both practical and spiritual sense. In 1895 he was appointed as a Portuguese orders' inspector, and in 1896 he became a general for the newly-arising Benedictine mission in St. Ottilien, he brought many benefits not only to the town and country, but also to his own order. In 1908 he was elected to be the third Archabbey of Beuron, until his death he occupied the position inherited from the founding fathers – Maurus and Placidus Wolter, and together with them he is among the patriarchs of the Beuron Congregation.