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 WIMBORNE

648

WIMMER

of Pembroke, who commenced the building of Wilton House, still the abode of his descendants. There are no remains of the ancient buildings.

DuGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, II (London, 1846), 315; Hunt in Diet. Nat. Biog., a. v. Edith (London, 1888).

K.\YMUND Webster.

Wimborne (Wimburn or Winburn) Minster, in Dorsetshire, England. Between the years 70.")-23 a double monastery hke the famous house of St. Hilda at Whitby was founded at Wimborne by Sts. Cuthburga and Quimburga (feast 31 Aug.), sisters of Ine, King of the West Saxons (688-726). The dis- cipline of Wimborne which followed the Benedictine Rule was especially severe in the matter of the nuns' enclosure, into which not even prelates were allowed to enter. Under the Abbess St. Tctta there were a large number of nuns, among them St. Lioba, who was summoned to Germany by St. Boniface to govern the convent at Bischotfsheim, and her companion St. Thecla, afterwards Abbess of Kitzingen. The mon- astery was probably destroyed by raiding Danes in the ninth century: every trace of the Saxon buildings has vanished and even the site of St. Cuthburga's Church is uncertain.

Secular canons were estabUshed at Wimborne either by King Edward the Confessor or one of his predecessors of the same name. The church was collegiate and a royal free chapel, and is so entered in Domesday Book. The list of the deans, who were of royal appointment, exists from 1224 to 1547. The establishment numbered 17 persons, a dean, 4 preb- endaries, 3 vicars, 4 deacons, and 5 singing men. The deanery was in every case held in conjunction with some more important office. Reginald Pole was Dean of Wimborne from 1.517 to 1537, being but 17 years of age on his appointment. In 1547 the college was suppressed. The minster is now the Anglican parish church. Its extreme length is 198 feet. The width, exclusive of the transepts, varies from 23 feet in the nave to 21 in the choir and presbytery. There is a western tower 95 feet in height, and another above the transepts (84 feet). The thirteenth-century spire which formerly crowned this latter tower fell in 1600. The present church is the result of gi-adual growth during the church-building centuries up to the Reformation, without any of the great rebuilding operations such as took place in churches possessing popular shrines or great revenues. The church has suffered considerably at the hands of nineteenth- century restorers. It contains the beautiful altar- tomb of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and Margaret his wife, the parents of the celebrated Lady Margaret, Foundress of Christ's and St. John's Col- leges at Cambridge, and mother of King Henry VII. A small chained library dating from 1686 occupies a room over the vestry.

Perkins, Wimborne Minster and Christ Church Priory (Lon- don, 1902); Stanton, Menology of England and Wales, 431; HcTCHiNS, Hist, of Dorsetshire, II, .532; Dugdale, Monasticon, II, 88; VI, 1452.

Raymund Webster.

Wimmer, Boniface, archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, 14 January, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Arch- abboy, Beatty, Pennsylvania, 8 Dec, 1887. He made his Classical studies at Ratisbon and entered the University of Munich, to study law. When some scholarship fell vacant in the Gregorianuni he took the competitive examination with a view to studying for the priesthood, and, having won a scholarship, he finished his theological course there and was ordained on 1 Augu.st, 1831. After serving one year as curate at Allotting, a well-known place of pilgrimage, he entered the Abbey of Metten, where Benedictine life had just been restored through royal favour, and made his solemn vows on 27 Dec, 1833. For several years he lived the common life of

Boniface Wimmer From a photograph

obedience, and during that time he became interested in the matter of foreign missions. Reading much about the neglected condition of the German immi- grants in North America he finally made plans and took steps to transplant Benedictine activity into the United States. Several young men offered themselves to him as candidates; in a characteristic letter he explained to them the difficulties and the .sacrifices incidental to the undertaking and asked them to withdraw their apphcation unless they were wilUng to carry with him the cross of absolute self- sacrifice and to make the will and the glory of God their sole motive in the undertak- ing.

With five stu- dents and fifteen brother candi- dates Boniface Wimmer arrived in New York (16 Sept., 1846), where several well-meaning priests did their best to persuade him to abandon his plans, but their prophecies of certain failure did not discourage him. He went to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and accepted some land which Father H. Lemke, for years as- sociated with the Rev. Prince Gallitzin, had offered him. Conditions here in CarroUtown, proving unfavourable for the undertaking, he moved to a place forty miles east of Pittsburgh and accepted from Bishop O'Connor the location where St. Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary stand to-day. Under innumerable difficulties the new foundation slowly grew and prospered. The Louis mission society and several friends and benefactors helped the cause with pecuniary means. The school and the seminary were visibly blessed in their efforts, and the monastic community did much good by looking after the religious interests of the scattered settlers, and organizing them into parishes. Calls for German-speaking priests came from all sides a.nd many bishops offered to the growing Benedictine community German parishes for which they could not provide suitable priests of their own. In 1855 Father Wimmer became the first abbot of the monastery.

Although he was always willing to help any re- ligious cause to the extent of his means, Father Wimmer repeatedly, in his correspondence with applicants for admission into the order, emphasized the point that the jirimary object of Benedictine life is not any particular external activity, but the perfect Christian life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Often generous to a fault, he never counted the cost where good was to be done, but held fast to this supreme Benedictine law. All his undertakings pros- pered; he often accejited work that nobody else would imdertake because it seemed hopeless, and at the same time, having so spent his available men and means, he turned over the most ])romising and honor- able work to others. At his death fi\-e abbeys had grown out of his work and others were in course of formation. Hundreds of priests had been already educated in the schools which he founded, and many a good cause had received a mighty impulse tlirough the Benedictine life which he had spent himself to establi-sh in America.