officers of the United States army unit that had marched into Metten were some who had studied at St. Vincent and St. John." Besides the boarding school, the abbey runs various craft enterprises. Dom Edmund Beck, a monk of Metten, edited many of the Syriac works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. School Like many Benedictine abbeys in Europe, the monks ran a school for local boys. St.-Michaels-Gymnasium is a state recognised coeducational day and boarding school still run by the abbey. It is a Humanistisches ("humanist") and Neusprachliches ("languages") gymnasium, meaning that its curriculum specialises in the classics and modern languages. Notable alumni include educationist Aloys Fischer, diplomat Karl von Spreti, military officer Vincenz Müller and Karl-Josef Cardinal Rauber. Library The original library was established in the 1260s and was expanded over the years. The present library was constructed between 1722 and 1726 in the Baroque style by Abbot Roman II Märkl. At the time of secularization, many of the books were sent to municipal and university libraries. The library was used to store grain. Upon the abbey's reestablishment, some were returned; others were donated from estates or closed monasteries. Because so many monastic libraries had been confiscated, the monks found old manuscripts and early printed books on the market at reasonable prices. A 1415 manuscript found in the abbey's library helped identify the meaning of the abbreviations for the Vade retro satana (Step back Satan) formula that appears on Saint Benedict Medals. The library, which is open for tours, contains over 150,000 volumes on theology, philosophy and history, including a 1434 illuminated volume of Gregorian chant hand-written on sheepskin parchment. Gallery Notes References Georg Aichinger: Kloster Metten und seine Umgebungen, Landshut 1859. Benedikt Busch: Die Abtei Metten im Dritten Reich, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bistums Regensburg 15 (1981) 333–362. Georg Dehio – Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Bayern II: Niederbayern, bearbeitet von Michael Brix, mit Beiträgen von Franz Bischoff, Gerhard Hackl und Volker Liedke, München/Berlin 1988, 398–405. Wilhelm Fink: Entwicklungsgeschichte der Benedictinerabtei Metten. Bd. 1: Das Profeßbuch der Abtei (Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige. Ergänzungsheft 1,1), München 1927. Wilhelm Fink: Entwicklungsgeschichte der Benedictinerabtei Metten. Bd. 2: Das königliche Kloster (Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige. Ergänzungsheft 1,2), München 1928. Wilhelm Fink: Entwicklungsgeschichte der Benedictinerabtei Metten. Bd. 3: Das landständische Kloster (1275–1803) (Studien und Mitteilungen