Melchior von Diepenbrock
Melchior Ferdinand Joseph Freiherr von Diepenbrock ( born January 6, 1798 in Bocholt, † January 20, 1853 at Schloss Johannesberg in the then Austrian Silesia ) was Prince-Bishop of Breslau and a cardinal.
Life
Diepenbrock Bocholt came from a patrician family. His parents were Anton Diepenbrock, Salm'scher Hofkammerrat, and Franziska, born Kesting. He spent his childhood on the family home in Holt Horst Wick, now a district of Bocholt. After participating in the French campaign of 1815 and the visit of the French Lyceum in Bonn, he decided - probably under the influence of the Landshut professor and later in Regensburg Bishop Johann Michael Sailer, the visiting Horst was 1818 - to take the clerical profession. After studying at the universities in Landshut, Mainz and Münster, he was ordained a priest in Regensburg in 1823. Thereafter he devoted himself to the study of the Church's mysticism of the Middle Ages.
1829 Diepenbrock became secretary of the newly elected Bishop of Regensburg Johann Michael Sailer. 1830 he was appointed canon. Although he succeeds Sailer - who died in 1832 - refused, he became the canon and preacher, in 1835 and dean in 1842 Vicar General. For his services he received Regensburg in 1845 the title of a Bavarian Barons.
Bishop of Breslau
After the death of Bishop Joseph Knauer Breslau the chapter elected at the explicit request of Pope Gregory XVI. Melchior von Diepenbrock on 15 January 1845, his successor. The episcopal ordination took the Salzburg Archbishop Schwarzenberg on 8 June 1845 in Salzburg.
As chief shepherd Diepenbrock took action for the renewal of ecclesial life and promoted the work of Catholic associations. Reducing poverty and improving social conditions he brought the Borromäerinnen and the Daughters of Charity and the School Sisters in his diocese and founded the Congregation of the Grey Sisters. During his tenure, the theological seminary in Breslau was expanded and founded a junior seminary.
With retreats and parish missions came from Diepenbrock the machinations of the German Catholics decided against, but tolerated the state church laws. Great attention was paid to his pastoral letter in the revolutionary year of 1848, which supported the Prussian state system.
On 19 May 1848 he was a Member of Parliament for the district of Opole member of the Frankfurt National Assembly, but resigned due to illness already on August 29, 1848 the Parliament of. 1850 appointed him King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the military chaplaincy for Prussia. For his services to the Church made him Pope Pius IX. in the consistory of September 30, 1850 in the same year a cardinal.
Even outside of his diocese Diepenbrock tried to influence. As the Kingdom of Bavaria was threatened by the Lola Montez affair, he wrote admonishing and warning letters to King Ludwig I, which should not be left without influence.
In his literary career, he transferred foreign-language works published in 1829 and the collection of minister with bouquet partly own seals.
1849 a newly created street was named for the Catholic church in Berlin garrison in Melchior street after him - the Silesians made up a large part of Catholics among the Protestant majority Prussian soldiers.
Diepenbrock, who in his summer residence in Jauernig died at the age of 55 years, cared for by his sister make charitable Apollonia, was buried in the Wrocław Cathedral.
Letters
Works
- Collection clergyman Bouquet of Spanish and German poets gardens, Regensburg 1826
- Memories of the young Count of Stolberg
- Heinrich Suso, called Amandus, life and writings, Regensburg 1829
- Collected sermons, Regensburg 1841-1843
- All pastoral letters, Münster 1853