Frank Bayard (born 11 October 1971) is a German

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and 66th Grand Master of the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

Early life

After completing an apprenticeship as a banker at

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, Bayard studied business administration and European economics at the Wissenschaftliche Hochschule Lahr (WHL), graduating with a degree in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

Religious life

In 2000, Bayard entered the

, made his perpetual profession on 19 September 2004, and studied philosophy, Catholic theology, history, and health care management in Innsbruck and Vienna from 2001 to 2008. On 22 July 2006, he received the sacrament of priestly ordination in the Collegiate Church of Weyarn from the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Friedrich Cardinal Wetter. Since 2015, he has been a parochial vicar of the parish of

Gumpoldskirchen Gumpoldskirchen ( Central Bavarian: ''Gumpoidskiachn'') is a town in the district of Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Gumpoldskirchen borders on the municipalities Mödling, Guntramsdorf, Gaaden, Pfaffstätten and Traiskirchen. ...

in the Archdiocese of Vienna. In 2006 he was elected to the General Government of the Teutonic Order as General Councillor of the German Brotherly Province. From 2008 to 2018, he served as the order's general treasurer. On 22 August 2018, at the General Chapter of the Teutonic Order in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Bayard was elected to succeed Bruno Platter as Abbot General and Grand Master of the Order for a six-year term and was immediately installed in office. On 17 November of the same year, the abbatial blessing was imparted to him by the

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Archbishop of Vienna The Archbishop of Vienna is the prelate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna who is concurrently the metropolitan bishop of its ecclesiastical province which includes the dioceses of Eisenstadt, Linz and St. Pölten. From 1469 to 1513, ...

Christoph Schönborn Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Schönborn, OP (; born 22 January 1945) is a Bohemian-born Austrian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1995 until 2025. He was chairman of the Austrian Bishops' Conferen ...

, in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. After the founding of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders in December 2019, as a merger of the Superior's Conference and the Association of Women's Orders of Austria, the women's and men's orders of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the Diocese of Eisenstadt, the Diocesan Conference of Vienna/Eisenstadt, chaired by Secretary General Christine Rod, appointed Bayard as president of the Diocesan Conference of Vienna/Eisenstadt on 15 September 2020. , Bayard was also appointed a member of the board of the Institute of Austrian Religious Orders. After the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Bayard made a personal donation of €5,000 and a donation of €10,000 from the Order to the local government of

Malbork Malbork (German: ''Marienburg'') is a town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It is the seat of Malbork County and has a population of 36,709 people as of 2024. The town is located on the Nogat river, in the historical region of Pomerelia. Fo ...

in order to help Ukrainian refugees there.

Honours

Grand Cross Grand Cross is the highest class in many orders, and manifested in its insignia. Exceptionally, the highest class may be referred to as Grand Cordon or equivalent. In other cases, there may exist a rank even higher than Grand Cross, e.g. Gran ...

of the Order ''pro Merito Melitensi'' – Ecclesiastical class ''pro Piis Meritis Melitensi'' (13 October 2021). Awarded as a sign of the solidarity of the two orders of chivalry and in recognition of the achievements of the Teutonic Order in the service of the "Lord's Sick".

References

External links

Der Hochmeister
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayard, Frank 1971 births Living people Deutsche Bank people Grand masters of the Teutonic Order German abbots 21st-century German Roman Catholic priests

Early life

Religious life

Honours

References

Further reading

External links