Pankraz Vorster
Pancrazio Vorster ( born July 31, 1753 Naples, † September 9, 1829 in Muri ) was from 1796 to 1805, the last Prince-Abbot of St. Gallen.
Life
Vorster came from an old family of the prince country. He was born in Naples, the son of Captain Joseph Zacharias Vorster and Countess Anna Maria Rosa Berni. He grew up mainly by his uncle, who was a minister in Grub and Witten Bach. He took off his profession in 1771 in St. Gallen and taught philosophy, natural science and moral theology at the seminary. On July 13, 1777 he was ordained priest. In 1784 he undertook with Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger an educational trip to Swabia and Bavaria. In 1785 he is leading the opposition to Abbot Beda Angehrn which threatened the existence of the monastery in the eyes of many monks by his large investments and his autocratic administration. In September 1788, he was therefore demoted as " suboeconomus " in the sanktgallische exclave Ebringen in Freiburg im Breisgau. It was not until 1796 Vorster reconciled again with Abbot Beda Angehrn and returned to St. Gallen.
On June 1, 1796, Vorster was elected abbot and went immediately to the democratic aspirations in the dominions of the monastery contrary. But he had in 1797 the old landscape concede its own seal and the election of a district administrator. As arbitrarily dismissed on February 3, 1798 the chapter 's subjects to independence, was the secular rule of the monastery at the end. The last Governor of the monastery in the county of Toggenburg, Karl von Müller -Friedberg had to arbitrarily dismiss the Toggenburg in the independence on January 1. On 14 February took place in the Constituent Gossau rural community of the "Free Republic of the landscape of St. Gallen " instead. Vorster moved to Neu- Ravensburg, a santa Gallic enclave north of Lake Constance and brought an action on March 3, 1798 formally protest against the actions of his subjects. After the invasion of the French in St. Gallen Vorster tried in vain to extract a proclamation on June 9, 1798, the Imperial Abbey of Switzerland and back to affiliate to the Holy Roman Empire. With the arrival of the troops of the coalition in St. Gallen Vorster again returned on May 26, 1799 back to the monastery and began to build the rule again. But he was forced to flee again after Mehrerau since had turned the tide again after the defeat of the coalition in Zurich already on September 29. (→ Second Coalition War )
From exile in the sphere of Austria had Vorster continuously for the restoration of his monastery. Uncompromising he refused all offers of a restoration of the monastery without sovereignty rights. In 1803 he sent an emissary to the Helvetic Consulta in Paris to personally gain from Napoleon the restoration of the monastery. Despite the assurance in the Act of Mediation that all monasteries should be restored, the first Chief Magistrate of St. Gallen, Karl von Müller -Friedberg could prevent a restoration of the monastery of St. Gall, as the far-reaching claims Vorster the existence of the newly formed Canton St. would have jeopardized Gallen. Nevertheless Vorster still received on 17 November 1804 in Offenburg the benediction as abbot of St. Gallen by the Basel Bishop Franz Xaver von Neveu. Then on May 8, 1805, Grand Council of the Canton of St. Gallen approved the winding up of the monastery. So Vorster must be called tragically as gravediggers of the monastery despite his efforts, because he prevented any compromise solution.
Vorster was from the perspective of the Catholic Church continues abbot of the monastery, because the repeal was not sanctioned church. 1814/15 to Vorster tried personally at the Vienna Congress for a restoration of the monastery rule, but only succeeded in obtaining that Congress on November 20, 1815 a pension of 6000 florins zusprach him who was to perform the canton of St. Gallen. With the support of the Pope Vorster then tried at least the establishment of a bishopric of St. Gallen reach, but also failed so on July 16, 1816 before the confederate hearing. In the same year he moved to Arth. From 1819 he retired to the monastery Muri embittered, where he died in 1829. Formally he remained until his death, Abbot of St. Gallen, because the monastery from the perspective of the Catholic Church was not lifted until 1845. His body was taken in 1923 in the St. Gallen Cathedral.