Maria Frieden Abbey (Dahlem)
The Abbey Maria Peace (lat. Abbatia Beatae Mariae de Pace ) is a monastery of Trappist nuns in Dahlem (North Eifel).
history
The beginnings
On March 24, 1952, Mariawald Abbey bought the former Dahlemer Binz sheep farm from the British occupying forces for DM 27,500 . This was created in 1935 by the National Socialist People's Welfare as a "model sheep farm". After the Second World War , the site was confiscated by the British occupying forces.
With the acquired 70 acres of land, the order had the basis to found a new - and at that time the only - women's convent of this order in Germany. The monks of Mariawald chose Maria Frieden as the name for the new foundation - shaped by the experiences of two world wars - because the prayer for peace has always been the main concern of the nuns of the monastery and is still today.
The first three settlers who moved into the monastery were monks from Mariawald: P. Albericus Bergs, P. Angelus Hinzmann and Br. Georg Hauser. They built up the agriculture and set up the former home of the shepherd family Kapelle as well as living rooms and bedrooms for the nuns .
Founding as a women's monastery
The first four nuns to move into the monastery on December 8, 1952 were Sr. Pauline, Sr. Franca, Sr. Theobalda and Sr. Veronika from the Dutch Abbey of Koonigsoord near Tilburg . In the course of the following year more nuns from the Netherlands came to Maria Frieden and the monastery was able to be further built with our combined forces. The actual founding act took place on December 8, 1953. The 16 founding sisters gathered in the parish church in Dahlem. Domkapitular Walter Neujean held a prayer service with a Eucharistic blessing as the representative of the Aachen bishop . Then there was a procession to the monastery. There the sisters were introduced to the cloister by Abbot Christopherus Elsen . On this day the regular monastic life of the Trappist order began in Maria Frieden with the full hour prayer .
The nuns initially earned their livelihood from chicken, pig and cattle breeding and agriculture. In September 1954, they also started making a herbal liqueur .
At Easter 1954 the first postulants entered Maria Frieden.
The life of the monastery is threatened by plans to build a military airfield
The plans to build a military airfield for jet fighters near the monastery meant a setback for the thriving new foundation. Because of the noise, a Trappist life would no longer have been possible there.
The abbess of the mother monastery Konigsoord, M. Gertrudis Demarrez, and the superior of Maria Frieden, Sr. Pauline de Reuver, submitted a petition to the then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer . A few weeks later, the then Defense Minister Theodor Blank announced that the military airfield would not be built.
Elevation to the abbey and expansion
On September 21, 1955, Maria Frieden was elevated to the status of an abbey . On November 5, 1955, the sisters elected their previous superior, Sr. Pauline de Reuver, as their first abbess .
From the mid-1950s, the previously only provisional rooms of the monastery became too narrow for the steadily growing community. So the monastery was expanded.
On August 12, 1955, Auxiliary Bishop Friedrich Hünermann from Aachen laid the foundation stone for the new monastery church. On December 8, 1958, the Aachen Bishop Johannes Pohlschneider consecrated the new monastery church. After completion of the monastery church, the monastery building itself was expanded from 1960. The keystone was laid in 1968. It was designed by Sr. Praxedis and the Marienwald abbot P. Otto as a dove with an olive branch as a symbol of peace.
In 1984 the now independent Gethsemani Priory in Dannenfels was founded from Dahlem .
Development of the parament weaving mill
Since the end of the 1960s, agriculture has proven to be unprofitable, so that it has since been reduced more and more and finally abandoned completely. In addition to selling the monastery liqueur, the sisters opened up another source of income by setting up a weaving mill and producing parament .
Successor to the first abbess
In the fall of 1967 Abbess Pauline had to resign from office for health reasons.
Sr. Christophora van Dijck was elected as her successor. She held the office until 1970 and then became librarian. In 1976 she was the first of Maria Frieden's sisters to die.
From 1971 to 1983 Sr. Fabiana van Swaaij was the abbess of the monastery. The innovations in monastic life after the Second Vatican Council fell during her term of office . These include, in particular, the abolition of the separation between choir and lay sisters and liturgical innovations such as the introduction of the vernacular in the liturgy . The monastery church was structurally adapted to the requirements of the liturgical reform.
From 1983 to 1984 Sr. Ruth Mersmann was the abbess of the monastery community. During her term of office, the Trappist monastery Gethsemani was re-established on the Donnersberg in the Palatinate , to which Sr. Josefa and Sr. Praxedis were sent by Maria Frieden.
Sr. Justina Lumcerová was succeeded in the abbess office of Sr. Ruth . She was followed on February 22, 1993 by Sr. Gabriele Visser.
Sr. Blandina Paschalis Schlömer OCSO, who lived in the abbey from 1972 to 2000, became known for her research on the Manoppello veil .
Maria Gratia Adler was elected the new abbess in 2012 and took over the management of the abbey from Sr. M. Magdalena Aust.
Life in the monastery
The nuns in Maria Frieden live according to the Regula Benedicti , the monastic rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia , and the Trappist constitutions. According to the monastic ideal, prayer , reading and physical work determine their daily rhythm.
The foundation of the monastic life in Maria Frieden is the contemplative way of life, which is supposed to enable people to be "penetrated" by God's closeness in everyday life. The nuns live withdrawn in order to search for God and to refer to his existence through their lives.
The day begins in Maria Frieden at 4:05 a.m. with the first common prayer, the Vigil . Then the nuns hold silent contemplation. During the week, find at 07:00 Lauds and at 07:30 the Holy Mass held. After the third at 9:00 a.m., the morning working time begins, which is concluded at 12:15 p.m. with the prayer of the sext . Lunch is then taken in silence. After a short break, the Non takes place at 2:20 p.m. This is followed by the afternoon working hours. Vespers is prayed at 5:15 p.m. Then dinner is taken. After a short rest, the day is concluded at 19:25 with the prayer of Compline .
At the end of 2013 there were 22 nuns living in Maria Frieden. In March 2020 it was announced that the nuns will give up the monastery in 2021 because it is no longer financially viable.
swell
- ↑ Prayer times
- ^ Gudrun Klinkhammer: Maria Frieden Abbey in Dahlem: four hours of prayer a day. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. December 3, 2013, accessed February 7, 2014 .
- ↑ https://www.wochenspiegellive.de/eifel/kreis-euskirchen/dahlem/artikel/trappistinnen-züge-abtei-maria-frieden-auf-63696/
literature
- M. Gilles: Maria-Frieden near Dahlem, Schleiden district, Eifel. The only German Trappist abbey. Mariawald, Mariawald Abbey, 1st edition 1957.
- Maria Frieden Dahlem Abbey. 1953 - 2003. Lindenberg, Kunstverlag Josef Fink, 2003. ISBN 3-89870-151-4 .
Web links
- Portal of the Maria Frieden Abbey.
- Entry to Abbey Maria Frieden (Dahlem) on order online .
Coordinates: 50 ° 23 '49.7 " N , 6 ° 31' 8.8" E
