VICARI, HERMANN VON

Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau (1842–68); b. Aulendorf (Württemberg), Germany, May 13, 1773; d. Freiburg, April 14, 1868. He came from a devout family of civil servants, was educated at the Abbey of weingarten and in Constance, and studied philosophy at St. Salvator in Augsburg (1790–91) and law in Vienna (1791–95). In 1797 he became doctor of canon and civil law at Dillingen, a priest (October 1), and canon of St. John's in Constance. From 1802 he was spiritual counselor and associate of Ignaz von wessenberg, vicar-general in Constance. After the suppression of this diocese (1821), he was the only person from Constance to become an official in the new Diocese of Freiburg, where he became a member of the cathedral chapter (1827), dean (1830), auxiliary bishop (1832), and archbishop (1842) after the government of Baden vetoed him as a choice (1836). His determined efforts to end State oppression of the Church were helped by general demands for freedom made in the Revolution of 1848. Three of his provincial synods (1851–53) had little success against the state, which imprisoned him for a week in 1854 after he had acted in accordance with ecclesiastical law. Negotiations led to a convention in 1859 that permitted the government a voice in appointments to benefices and joint Church-State administration of Church goods. Vicari did not survive a new struggle over compulsory nondenominational schools. After his death the see was vacant for 14 years. Vicari belongs among the leaders of the 19th-century German Catholic restoration.

Bibliography: l. h. maas, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche im Grossherzogtum Baden (Freiburg 1891). h. lauer, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche im Grossherzogtum Baden (Freiburg 1908). l. a. veit, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 6:121–129. j. sauer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ¹10:592–593. "Vicari," Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ² v.10.

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