(1870-1956), First Archabbot of Archabbey and Congregation of Saint Ottilien (Bavaria) The congregation was founded in 1884, incorporating the houses founded on the vision of
Andreas Amrhein, a monk of
Beuron Archabbey, who, finding it impossible to realise the vision of the Benedictine mission within Beuron, left to begin an independent community. He set up a
house in 1884 at
Reichenbach in the
Oberpfalz, but the site was too remote, and in 1887 the community moved to what is now
St. Ottilien Archabbey in
Oberbayern. In the same year the first missionary monks left for the Apostolic Prefecture of South
Zanzibar in
German East Africa, a territory which now comprises several dioceses in
Tanzania, which the monks serve from the abbeys of Peramiho,
Ndanda and
Hanga and several smaller houses. Similarly the Congregation's
Zululand mission (begun in 1921) is now an
independent monastery serving the
diocese it once helped to create. In 1908 an Asian mission field was added, comprising two abbeys in
North Korea and China, which after the end of
World War II were re-constituted as
Waegwan Abbey in
South Korea. There is also a
priory at
Digos on
Mindanao Island in the
Philippines, and a priory at Kumily in Kerala, India. Further monasteries were established in North and South America after
World War I, and more recently several new foundations have been made in Uganda, Togo, Cuba, Egypt. Until 2012, the Archabbot of St. Ottilien was the ex officio president of the congregation. Since 2012 the president is elected by the General Chapter. As of January 17, 2025, the Abbot President is Javier Aparacio, O.S.B. Women religious have formed part of the Missionary Benedictine enterprise from the beginning, based at first at St. Ottilien but shortly after at their own house nearby. They have developed independently and today form the
Congregation of Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. ==Demographics==