Johann Joseph Gassner

Johann Joseph Gassner ( born August 22, 1727 Braz bei Bludenz in Vorarlberg, † April 4, 1779 in Pondorf ( today part of Kirchroth, Lower Bavaria ) ) was an exorcist and healer.

He studied with the Jesuits in Innsbruck and Prague, received in 1751 the office of Messner's early in Dalgs and in 1758 the parish in Lech am Arlberg. Most diseases attributing the influence of evil spirits, he lay down here on Devil Summoner by benediction jurisdictions and prayers and made for the purpose with the permission of the Bishop of Constance itself traveling to Constance, where this though convinced of Gassner charlatanism and rejected him after his parish. In 1774 he was, however, appointed by the Bishop Fugger from Regensburg to Ellwangen and later in Regensburg and there had been an indescribable inflow from Bohemia, Austria, Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, and even from the Lower Rhine provinces.

The healing of both the " Umsessenen ", that is, by disease -stricken, as the " possessed ", so the rest of the healthy, he carried out by means of exorcism, to Emperor Joseph II in 1777 intervened and Gaßner ordered to leave Regensburg. The bishop, who had appointed him his chaplain with the title of spiritual council, showed him to compensate the parish Pondorf, where he died quite lost.

Reception

The published writings about him are the contents of the magic library ( Augsburg 1776). His cures were defended by Eschmeyer in Kiesers Journal of animal magnetism. Even Johann Caspar Lavater had found the greatest attention value. In any case proceeded Gaßner disinterested and probably believed himself to his cures.

Peter Lenk sat Gaßner with a figure of his magic column in Meersburg a monument. Gassner had performed miraculous healings in 1774 in Meersburg in the summer, while allegedly brought a lame chaplain for running, for example. The sculpture shows Gaßner in quadruped on a pedestal, surrounded by gawking citizens how he evil spirits - expels in the form of bowel winds - little devil figures. The figure next to Gassner, who looks up with raised crucifix to the sky, represents the bishop resided in Meersburg Franz Konrad von Rodt, who, like Franz Anton Mesmer, little edified by the spectacle appeared.

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