WIMMER, Boniface, R. C. prelate, born in Thai-massing, Bavaria, 9 January, 1809 ; died in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 8 December, 1887. He received a classical education, took an academic course at Ratisbon, and entered the Munich university with the intention of studying law, but, changing his mind, .pursued a theological course in the Ratisbon seminary. On 31 July, 1831, he was ordained priest; and in the following year he was admitted to the Benedictine monastery in Metten, Bavaria, changing his baptismal name Sebastian to Boniface. During 1833-'6 he labored as professor and priest in Edenstetler, Augsburg', in 1840 became professor in the Louis gymnasium, Munich, and in 1846 arrived in the United States with four theological students and fifteen artisans, for the purpose of establishing an abbey for the education of German youth for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He settled near Beatty, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and on 28 September, 1848, land the foundation of the present St. Vincent's abbey. Two years afterward he founded St. Mary's priory in Elk county, Pennsylvania Pope Pius IX. raised his original settlement to the dignity first of a monastery, then of an abbey, and appointed him superior of St. Vincent's, 21 May, 1852, abbot ad triennium, 17 September, 1855, and abbot for life and president of the American congregation, 27 July, 1866. When the parent abbey was fully established and provided with a variety of manufacturing industries for its support, he set about founding branches in the south, and organized colonies in Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia in 1876-'7, and in southern Illinois in 1881. On 29 December, 1883, he celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his Benedictine profession amid ceremonies in which members of the order from all parts of the world participated, and on that occasion Pope Leo XIII. elevated him to the dignity of arch-abbot. He was a man of attractive manner, fine business ability, and large scholarship.