“Beuron Archabbey is a major house of the Benedictine Order located at Beuron in the upper Danube valley in Baden-Württemberg.

“It was founded in 1863 by the brothers Maurus and Placidus Wolter, in buildings which until 1802 had housed an Augustinian monastery. Between 1875 and 1887 because of political conditions during the ‘Kulturkampf’ (‘cultural struggle’) the monks had to leave the abbey, but used the opportunity to found new communities elsewhere, which afterwards joined together under the leadership of Beuron as the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.

“The abbey continues to be a centre of study. The library is the largest monastic library in Germany, with over 400,000 books. Since 1884 the abbey has published the Missale Romanum, a lay missal originally produced by Father Anselm Schott of Beuron. The abbey also houses the Vetus-Latina-Institut (Ancient Latin Institute), which has for its purpose the collection and publication of all extant old Latin translations of the Bible.”