Relic stone from the Mount of Olives. Attached to unrecorded view of Jerusalem.

[Jerusalem] / [Relic]. Stein vom heil. [Oellberg zu Jerusalem] zum Andenken an die Pilgerreise des Hochwürd: Herrn Stadtpfarrers Simon Plank 1853, mit Sebastian Baumgartner. Freising: Anton Unthal, [1853 or shortly thereafter]. [14.9 x 11.0 cm], [1] f. lithograph view, text completed in manuscripts, and with an attached stone fragment. Folds, minor toning, spotting and edge wear, stone chipped.
 
 
An unrecorded—and quite unusual—lithograph view of Jerusalem produced specifically to commemorate the 1853 pilgrimage to Jerusalem made by Simon Plank (1809-72), parish priest in Freising. His travelling companion was a certain Sebastian Baumgartner. Attached to the sheet are fragments of a relic stone taken from the Mount of Olives.
 
The form reads (in translation): “Stone from the Holy [Mount of Olives in Jerusalem] in memory of the pilgrimage of the Reverend Simon Plank, parish priest, in 1853, with Sebastian Baumgrartner. The location “Mount of Olives in Jerusalem” is added in manuscript in a blank space, which suggests that Simon Plank collected stones from other sites in the Holy Land.
 
Plank’s pilgrimage was widely noted in the regional papers (e.g., in the 27 February 1853 issue of the Münchener Tagblatt) where he was said to be traveling with “a millworker” (presumably Baumgartner) and was expected to arrive in time for Easter (i.e., 27 March). 
 
One imagines that Simon Plank distributed these Holy-Land relic prints to friends and associates upon his return.
 
Plank seems to have been an energetic fellow and is known for his efforts in female education (I quote M. A. Kuttner at length here): “Fr. Simon Plank built [in 1850] a small convent with a chapel outside the city of Freising and dedicated it to St. Clare. He hoped that several women would live in community there, frequently pray before the Blessed Sacrament, conduct a kindergarten, and teach sewing to poor girls. After initial efforts failed, Fr. Plank transferred this property, which included a large garden and a small farm, to the Poor School Sisters with the intent that they would carry out his plans […] on December 9, 1864, Fr. Simon Plank withdrew the capital and interest that he had promised to give the Poor School Sisters so that perpetual adoration could be carried out at St. Clare Convent in Freising. Fr. Plank intended to entrust these funds to a local civil administration so that they would not be transferred to the motherhouse in Munich. Nevertheless, Fr. Plank insisted that the various purposes of his foundation would be carried out and threatened to take back everything he gave the sisters if this did not happen by January 1, 1865. The continued existence of St. Clare Convent was in danger (M. A. Kuttner, pp. 51-52, n. 24 & p. 142, n, 36).
 
 
This lithograph is not located by OCLC, KVK or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, nor have I found any other Holy Land items associated with Simon Plank.
 
*M. A. Kuttner, Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger Foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, vol. 5; J. B. Prechtl, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Freising Pfarrkirche u. Pfarrei St. Georg, vol. 4 (1878), pp. 80-83.