Monday, November 17, 2008

Process of Beatification for Former Abbot of Heiligenkreuz Opened

This Saturday November 15th, the process for the beatification of Karl Braunstorfer (1895-1978), Abbot of Heiligenkreuz from 1945 until 1969, was solemnly opened in the Abbey church by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal von Schönborn. Abbot Braunstorfer played an important role in the history of this exemplary monastery. As the Abbot Præses of the Austrian Cistercian Congregation, he attended the Second Vatican Council. Having returned to Heiligenkreuz, he implemented there the liturgical renewal in the way he as one of the Council Fathers understood it: in great continuity with liturgical tradition, without rupture, maintaining and indeed reinvigorating Latin Gregorian Chant as the form of expression proper to the Roman liturgy. After having resigned as abbot due to the frailty of age, he dedicated his last years to the reedition of the Latin Cistercian Office. Here are some impressions from the Pontifical Vespers during which the opening of the process took place:



The website for the process - so far only in German - can be found here.

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