Thalhofer, Valentin

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THALHOFER, VALENTIN

Exegete and liturgist; b. Unterroth, near Ulm, Jan. 21, 1825; d. Eichstätt, Sept. 17, 1891. He was professor of scripture, pastoral theology, and liturgy, and head of the Georgianum, a seminary in Munich. His unshaken Catholic loyalty, scholarship, and gifts as a teacher marked him as a distinguished educator of priests. Through his two-volume Handbuch der katholischen Liturgik (Freiburg 188393), he awakened interest in genuine liturgical science in the 19th century. Without rejecting symbolic explanations, he gave precedence to historical method. Even today, the specifically theological sections of his work are of great interest.

Bibliography: a. schmid, Valentin Thalhofer, Dompropst in Eichstátt: Lebensskizze (Kempten 1892). Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (Leipzig 18751910) 37:646648. l. eisenhofer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2nd ed. Freiburg 195765) 10:1920.

[b. neunheuser]