Maurus Xaverius Herbst or Florian Johann Friedrich Herbst (14 September 1701 – 4 April 1757) was a German Benedictine
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
.
Herbst was born in
Pleinfeld
Pleinfeld is a Franconian municipality and market town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in the German state of Bavaria. It is situated in the Metropolitan Area of Nuremberg and in the Franconian Lake District. Pleinfeld is a nationally r ...
to Franz Herbst (died 1731) and Anna Maria Clara Herbst (née Gulden). In 1704 his home town of Pleinfeld was under French occupation during the
Spanish War of Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish ...
. When the imperial troops, who had been quartered in the village, had to retreat, one of the soldiers took the young Herbst with them. He returned to his family three days later.
On 24 September 1742 Herbst was elected abbot of
Plankstetten Abbey and he was consecrated on 30 September. He died on 1757 in Abenberg during an exorcism. He was buried at Plankstetten Abbey.
After him, a kindergarten and a street were named his home town of Pleinfeld and a street in Plankstetten. In the diocese of Eichstätt, there is a veneration of saints around Maurus Xaverius, as he is attributed several healings. His feast day is 4 April.
References
External links
Maurus Xaverius Herbst
Maurus Xaverius Herbst
1701 births
1757 deaths
People from Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen
Benedictine abbots
German abbots
German exorcists
18th-century Christian abbots
18th-century abbots from the Holy Roman Empire
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