Abbot Pius Engelbert: A life between tradition and change in the monastery

Abbot Pius Engelbert: A life between tradition and change in the monastery

Pius Engelbert, who was abbot from the Benedictine monastery Gerleve in Münsterland from 1999 to 2006, died at the age of 88. This was announced by his community. Engelbert, a respected professor of church history, carried out significant changes in the abbey during his term, including the complete extension of the Abbey Church and the dealing with the history of forced labor in World War II. He was declared dead on October 6, 2023 in a care center in Coesfeld.

born in Cologne in 1936, Engelbert entered the Gerleve Abbey in 1956 and was an active member of church history research. After several teaching orders, especially in Rome at the Benedictine College Sant 'Anselmo, he returned to Gerleve in 1999. His successors, Laurentius Schlieker and later Andreas Werner, followed him after retiring in 2006. The abbey recognizes Engelbert as a versatile personality - historian, priest and monk - of great recognition in specialist circles and a broad public, for example through his work on behalf of the Holy Stool to investigate abuse allegations in the Benedictine Abbey Ettal.