{"id":5076,"date":"2019-02-11T16:57:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T15:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/osb.org\/?p=5076"},"modified":"2019-02-18T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T15:31:47","slug":"brother-robert-blank-osb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/2019\/02\/11\/brother-robert-blank-osb\/","title":{"rendered":"Brother Robert (Alois) Blank OSB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quite unexpectedly,\u00a0Brother Robert (Alois) Blank OSB\u00a0died in the infirmary of M\u00fcnsterschwarzach during the evening of 8 February 2019, during Vespers at about 6:20 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0He had wanted to come to supper, and when the nurse went again to look for him, he was found lying dead on his bed.\u00a0\u00a0Brother\u00a0Robert still had been coming each day to choir and to the refectory, meeting the monastic community at various places while making his rounds in the house and outside.\u00a0\u00a0He died in harmony with the antiphon for the Vespers canticle that day, \u201cHave the same mind as was in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

This principle served as the guide for the Catholic Christian family into which Alois Blank came into the world on 29 December 1930 in Bad Mergentheim-L\u00f6ffelstelzen, as the fourth child of Johann and Maria, n\u00e9e Ruf.\u00a0 The later 13-member family was influenced by his Benedictine uncle, our confr\u00e8re and missionary, Father Heribert Ruf, who was his mother\u2019s brother.\u00a0 \u00a0His journey towards entrance into the monastery on 15 February 1949 was straightforward: from primary school in his home town of L\u00f6ffelstelzen, through apprenticeship as a baker, to becoming a journeyman in 1948.\u00a0 His postulancy began on 6 March 1949, and his novitiate on 16 March 1950. From then on, he was known as Brother Robert, who entrusted himself to God and to his brothers for three years on 11 April 1951, and then for life on 9 May 1954.<\/p>\n

Brother Robert was a baker by profession, but he was assigned many areas of work in the monastery.\u00a0From 1951 to 1963, Brother Robert worked in the office of the mission procurator. \u00a0There he learned the art of letter writing. With this gift, he maintained loyalty to many people throughout his life and gifted them with his care and concern. When a farm in Krandorf, Upper Palatinate was donated to the abbey, Brother Robert moved there to serve as the kitchen master for guests and also as its guestmaster from 1963 to 1972, making sure that guests felt at home, body and soul.<\/p>\n

Returning then to the abbey, Brother Robert was entrusted with managing the guest kitchen from January 1973 until September 1994. There his entire person had a chance to develop:\u00a0 Countless guests were impressed by the guest master who was competent and always ready to serve.\u00a0 He not only served the food with his natural charm, but he was also a very good conversation partner when it came to all matters of life and faith.\u00a0 This „maternal“ man provided an essential face to our abbey.\u00a0 Within the monastery, Brother\u00a0Robert advocated his clear opinion and point of view. After his time as guestmaster, callers and visitors met him at the reception area of the administration building. He performed this service with his unique persistence until he was over 80 years old.\u00a0 During his later years, he resided in the assisted living section of the infirmary, in such a way that he could participate in the daily life of the community. With him, we lose a warmhearted confrere.\u00a0 We know him to be well received by Christ, whom he was accustomed to meet in our guests.<\/p>\n

May the Lord reward his faithful service to our community with eternal peace.\u00a0 The Farewell and Vigil were held on Saturday 9 February 2019 following supper.\u00a0\u00a0The Funeral Mass was celebrated on Thursday 14 February 2019 at 2 p.m., in the abbey church of M\u00fcnsterschwarzach, followed by burial in the monastery cemetery.<\/p>\n

Abbot Michael and the monastic community of M\u00fcnsterschwarzach<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div>
Obituary of Brother Robert Blank OSB (Abtei M\u00fcnsterschwarzach website, German)<\/span><\/a><\/div>
<\/div>
PDF OF BROTHER ROBERT BLANK’S DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT (German)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abtei M\u00fcnsterschwarzach, GERMANY
8 February 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}