Photos courtesy of Edgar Knaack
On 8 January, Fr. Patrick Schöder OSB was elected as the new abbot of Göttweig Benedictine Abbey. He succeeds Abbot Columban Luser as the 66th abbot of this historic monastery. Abbot Columban held this office for more than 15 years with prudence, spiritual depth, and foresight. The renewal of the entire roof structure will be particularly remembered. He made his position available due to age.
Abbot Patrick Schöder OSB was born in 1983 in Durban, South Africa, where he also spent his childhood. The family later moved to his father’s homeland in Austria. Initially, he entered the St. Pölten seminary, where he began studying theology. In 2006, he decided to join the Göttweig Benedictine Abbey, to which he felt particularly connected through the then-Abbot Clemens Lashofer. In 2010, he made his solemn profession. He studied theology, religious education, and English in St. Pölten and Salzburg and was ordained a priest on 24 June 2011.
Afterwards, he served as a chaplain in the parishes of Rabenstein/Pielach, Hofstetten-Grünau, and Loich. In 2013, he moved to Krems, where he took over student ministry and rebuilt the rectorate community of the Piarist Church in Krems. At the HAK/HAS school, Fr. Patrick taught religion and English, and from 2016 he also served as chaplain and religion teacher at the International School Krems.
In September 2020, Fr. Patrick was inducted into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in Linz and invested as a knight by Archbishop Alois Kothgasser.
Since 2021, Fr. Patrick has served as episcopal vicar for universities and student ministry in the Diocese of St. Pölten. In May 2024, Fr. Patrick was admitted as an honorary officer into the Constantinian Order of St. George of the House of Bourbon-Sicily and, in June 2024, was appointed chaplain of the House Order of Bourbon-Sicily for Austria. In September 2024, he was promoted to commander in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem during a ceremonial event in Klosterneuburg.