Gorze Abbey

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Former lay church from the 13th century

The Abbey Gorze in the town of Gorze near Metz was founded around 757 and abolished 1572nd She belonged to the Benedictine order and was the focus of the Gorz reform movement , especially in the 10th and 11th centuries .

Preserved tympanum of the demolished monastery church from the 11th century

history

Early history

The founder of the Benedictine abbey was Bishop Chrodegang of Metz. The monastery was an episcopal monastery and richly wealthy. It was consecrated to Gorgonius of Rome .

The traditional founding date of the abbey is given as 748, but recent research assumes a forgery. With regard to the foundation, it refers to a privilege of Bishop Chrodegang, which was signed in Compiègne in May 757 . One of the signatories was the Bishop of Constance Sidonius . They were probably also participants in the Frankish Imperial Synod, which was taking place there at the same time.

A short time later, important impulses came from this monastery. It was one of the most important driving forces behind the implementation of Benedictine monasticism in the Frankish Empire . In this context, the reform of Gengenbach in 761 and the settlement of Lorsch Abbey in 765 belonged . Frothar , who later became Bishop of Toul , wrote in a letter (Letter 28) that he grew up here.

As a result, the abbey fell into disrepair. A first, unsustainable reform attempt was made around 843 under Bishop Adventius . After further decline, the community finally numbered only about 20 monks.

Time of the Gorzer reform

From 933 the abbey experienced a renewed boom under Bishop Adalberto I. He handed the monastery over to a group of clerics around Abbot Einold and the monk Johannes von Gorze , who wanted to establish a strict monastic community according to the rule of St. Benedict. The new beginning was supported by Bishop Adalberto by returning estranged monastery property. Gorze became the starting point of the Gorz reform, which eventually included 170 monasteries, u. a. also the Hirsau monastery (new building from 1059). Alongside the Cluny reform movement, it was one of the most important renewal movements of monastic life in the Middle Ages .

After the first wave of reforms subsided, Gorze emanated a new radiance from the second half of the 11th century. This Young Gorze reform mixed elements of the Cluny reform with the traditions from the older Gorze reform.

Overall, Gorze, supported by the nobility, high clergy and (German) royalty, gave important impulses for monastic life for around two hundred years. Numerous later reform bishops were trained in the monastery school. At times the monastery had an excellent library.

Late years

The monastery later lost its spiritual importance. However, a small monastic domain , the Terre-de-Gorze , developed. In 1453 the abbey lost its independence. She became dependent, first from the House of Borgia , later from the Duchy of Lorraine . In 1572 Gorze was secularized . In 1661 the Terre-de-Gorze came to France from the Holy Roman Empire . Although there was no longer a monastic community, there was a prince abbot until 1752 .

The old Saint-Étienne abbey church was demolished in 1609. The Gothic lay and popular church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul from the first quarter of the 13th century has been preserved.

The St. Georgenberg Monastery in Worms- Pfeddersheim was a branch convent of the Gorze Abbey.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Bannasch: Gorzer Reform. In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 467f.
  • Edeltraud Klueting : Monasteria semper reformanda. Monastery and order reforms in the Middle Ages . Lit-Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7415-X , p. 19ff. ( Historia profana et ecclesiastica 12).
  • Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present . 4th completely revised edition. Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , p. 206.
  • André Vauchez et al. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages . Volume 1: A-J . Clarke et al., Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-227-67931-8 , p. 623.

Web links

Commons : Gorze Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b M. Parisse, Art. Gorze, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters. Verlag JB Metzler, Vol. 4, columns 1565-1567.
  2. ↑ Helmut Maurer: “The Bishops of Constance from the end of the 6th century to 1206”, Walter de Gruyter 2003, page 45
  3. ^ Bernward Schmidt: Church history of the Middle Ages . WBG, Darmstadt 2017, p. 85 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 3 ′ 14.9 "  N , 5 ° 59 ′ 49.3"  E