Biography
Benedict Morel was born on 24 March 1803 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 1814, he entered the gymnasium in his hometown. A pilgrimage to Einsiedeln in 1817 influenced him deeply, and afterwards he entered the monastery school as a novice, where he took the name of Gall. In 1820 he took the final vows, and after several years spent in theological and philosophical studies, was ordained priest in 1826, being appointed forthwith instructor in the monastery school. From 1826 to 1832 he was professor of rhetoric, and until 1835 he lectured on philosophy. In this latter year he became librarian of the abbey, and retained this office to the end of his life, while also fulfilling the offices of choral director (1835–40), prefect (1836), and rector (1848) of the abbey school, archivist of the abbey (1839–45), counsellor of education of the Canton Schwyz (1843–5), and subprior of the abbey (1846–52). Morel, an aestheticist, made repeated art journeys to Munich, Vienna, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Paris. He considered the prime object of aesthetics to be the reconstruction of creation. He was also an accomplished violinist, and considered music an important branch of aesthetics.Works
Morel is best known for his ten volumes of lyric, didactic, and dramatic verse. It has been said that in his poems, "he shows himself now as a childlike pious monk, now as a good-natured humorist, now a man fully conversant with worldly affairs, and often as a keen satirist, forceful and epigrammatic in expression." Under Morel's care, the library of Einsiedeln was enriched in thirty-seven years by more than 26,000 volumes; the manuscripts he obtained include a 10th-century manuscript ofDrama
Under Morel's stewardship, the grew to become a significant institution. Morel worked to foster school drama there, including the publication of two volumes entitled . His only original dramatic work is the comedy (also known as ), written at the age of 21 (in 1824) in the course of three or four days. The subject of the play is an invalid soldier of the French invasion of Switzerland ofReferences
* * P. Benno Kühne, , Einsiedeln, 1875, Hist.- pol. Blätter, LXXXI, 559ff. * Karl Ludwig Leimbach, , VI (Leipzig, 1896), 394ff. * Hansruedi Humm (ed.), , , Einsiedeln (1992). {{DEFAULTSORT:Morel, Gall 1803 births 1872 deaths People from St. Gallen (city) Swiss writers in German Swiss Benedictines 19th-century Swiss Roman Catholic priests Benedictine scholars Benedictine writers People from Einsiedeln Burials at Einsiedeln Abbey