Marienmünster Abbey
The Marienmünster Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in the North Rhine-Westphalian city Marienmünster . The monastery was closed in 1803. From 1965 to 2014 Passionists lived there, taking care of the surrounding parishes.
history
In 1127 Widekind I became Count of Schwalenberg . In the following year, on the advice of his cousin or brother-in-law, Paderborn Bishop Bernhard I von Oesede , he and his wife Lutrud von Itter founded the Benedictine abbey as an expiatory monastery. They made land available in the immediate vicinity of their ancestral castle, the Oldenburg , had the church and monastery buildings built and equipped the monastery with goods for the livelihood of the monks.
On the feast of the Assumption of Mary on August 15, 1128, Bishop Bernhard I consecrated the monastery and church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary , the Apostle James the Elder and St. Christopher . The spiritual care was taken over by 12 monks from the Corvey Benedictine Abbey . The first abbot was Gerhard .
The monastery reached its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries. During the imperial period at the end of the 13th century, the surrounding area had become desolate due to the destruction of farms and villages. Abbot Hermann secured the monastery by fortifying Vörden and Bredenborn (today districts of Marienmünster) with a castle.
During the Thirty Years' War , the monastery and the church were attacked twice by the mad Christian and plundered. Hessian and Swedish troops laid the monastery and church in ruins from 1641 to 1646. Abbot Ambrosius Langen had the church rebuilt from 1661. The builder Ludwig Baer from Lügde created the plans and had a hall church built from the formerly Romanesque basilica. A new choir was also built.
During the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763) there were acts of war in the area with troop movements, which, among other things, resulted in billeting and reparations. In 1760, Brunswick and Hanoverian troops plundered the monastery and used it as a stable. In 1761 there was a battle in the area around Marienmünster with considerable destruction. The report by the Abbot of Marienmünster took up 90 pages about the events in and around Marienmünster and the payments that were demanded from the monastery. After the end of the war the economic basis of the monastery was destroyed.
From the beginning, the abbey church also served as a parish church for the surrounding villages.
After the secularization on March 31, 1803, the church and the monastery became the property of the Kingdom of Prussia . The 39 monks of the monastery were released and received a pension. After the handover, the inventory, which included valuable works of art, and the library were auctioned off.
Half of the monastery buildings - apart from the church and one wing of the building - as well as the extensive property were sold to a Catholic and a Protestant interested party, who converted the monastery into a farm.
After the dissolution of the monastery, however, the parish remained and is responsible for looking after the parishes in the area. Because of this, two monks were allowed to stay and continue their work. The other parishes were looked after by diocesan priests. Fathers of the Congregation of the Passionists took over pastoral care in 1967. They gave pastoral care to the surrounding communities and hospitals.
The Marienmünster Abbey was named after the newly created town of Marienmünster during the municipal reform on January 1, 1970 .
use
Marienmünster is still a recognized place of pilgrimage today because of the portrait of the painful Mother of God . The former abbey church is the parish church of the parish of St. Jakobus the Elder , which belongs to the Marienmünster pastoral association in the Höxter dean's office of the Archdiocese of Paderborn .
Up to September 2014, about five Fathers from the Order of the Passionists lived in the abbey . The order, suffering from worries about the next generation, left the abbey in early September 2014. After the living quarters were renovated, a new priest moved into them. He left Marienmünster Abbey at the end of 2016 - a priest from the French Communaute St. Martin had been working in Marienmünster since autumn 2017. From 2019 a total of three priests should work here permanently. After differences between the conservative priests of the Communaute St. Martin and the parish, it was decided in spring 2019 that the priests from Évron were not suitable users of the abbey church and that another place of activity in the diocese of Paderborn was being sought for them.
The monastery courtyard was used for agriculture until the 20th century. In 2006 the Marienmünster Cultural Foundation was established, which led to the conversion of parts of the farm as a public meeting place and educational center with a musical focus. For this purpose, the three large farm buildings of the sheepfold, travel barn and field barn have been converted since 2007. Since then, events and concert series have been taking place in the premises. The concert hall set up in the Ackerscheune is used as a recording and playing location for classical and chamber music. In 2015, a visitor center for around 1.3 million euros was built on the cloister courtyard, in front of the cloister wall.
Abbey church
The original abbey church was built in Romanesque style after 1150 . It was a three-aisled , two-bay basilica with a transept, a single-bay choir and an apse . It had a westwork with two towers and an octagonal crossing tower . Only the central and transept and the lower part of the crossing tower have survived from this period.
The church was significantly rebuilt in the 17th century. From 1661 the basilica nave was converted into a hall . The crossing tower was raised in 1679 and given a baroque tower dome . To the east, the church was extended by a three-bay choir, to which a sacristy was added in 1700 .
In 1854/55 the south aisle and the two west towers were renewed in the neo-Romanesque style based on the example of St. Kiliani .
The church's extensive baroque inventory includes the high altar and two side altars, which were created by Paul Gladbach in the 1680s and restored between 1956 and 1966. The organ was created by Johann Patroclus Möller between 1736 and 1738 .
A four-part bronze bell hangs in the south tower today with the notes e '- g' - a '- c' '
Marienmünster Abbey as a bat quarter and FFH area
The attic of the abbey was designated as an FFH area of Marienmünster Monastery (DE-4121-303) with a size of 0.53 hectares in 2004 . In the attic of the abbey there is a nursery for the great mouse- eared bat (Myotis myotis). The FFH area was designated to protect the nursery there. The aim is to maintain spaciousness, hanging places and microclimatic conditions in the monastery. Also the accessibility of the bat quarter by keeping the entry openings and the flight paths in front of them open. Disturbances during the rearing of the young should be prevented.
The nursery is filmed with infrared cameras and broadcast on the Internet.
literature
- Franz Xaver Schrader: Regesta and documents on the history of the former Benedictine Abbey Marienmünster. In: Journal for patriotic history and antiquity 45 (1887) -49 (1891).
- Handbook of German art monuments , North Rhine-Westphalia, II. Westphalia, unchanged. New edition with Nachtr., Munich / Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-422-00390-8 , pp. 396-397.
- Albert Ludorff : The architectural and art monuments of Westphalia . Volume 37: The architectural and art monuments of the Höxter district. Münster iW 1914, p. 165 ff.
Web links
- Document registers from the archive of the Marienmünster Monastery / digital Westphalian document database (DWUD)
- Description of the abbey and cultural foundation near the city of Marienmünster
- Photos and brief description
Individual evidence
- ↑ Inauguration of the Church
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Destruction in the Thirty Years War )
- ↑ a b Marienmünster Pastoral Association
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: After secularization )
- ↑ After the monastery was dissolved
- ↑ Change of pastoral care ( Memento of December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: belonging to the archbishopric )
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Passionists leave the abbey )
- ↑ Farewell to the Passionists
- ↑ http://www.nw.de/lokal/kreis_hoexter/marienmuenster/21531161_Kirche-Abschied-von-Pastor-in-Marienmuenster-und-Zammlung-von-sieben-Gemeinden.html?em_cnt=21531161
- ↑ https://www.marienmuenster.de/index.php?id=62&tx_hwnews_hwnews%5BnewsartikelId%5D=467&tx_hwnews_hwnews%5Bcontroller%5D=Newsartikel&tx_hwnews_hwnews%5Baction%5D=show&sword_list% BC = 1% C3r
- ↑ http://www.westfalen-blatt.de/OWL/Kreis-Hoexter/Hoexter/3143864-Franzoesische-Gemeinschaft-Communaute-St.-Martin-uebernehmen-Kloster-Marienmuenster-Erzbischof-Becker-und-100-Seminaristen- visit-Corvey
- ↑ https://www.nw.de/lokal/kreis_hoexter/marienmuenster/22419197_Franzoesische-Priester-kommen-doch-nicht-nach-Marienmuenster.html
- ↑ https://www.nw.de/lokal/kreis_hoexter/marienmuenster/22427954_Warum-die-franzoesischen-Priester-jetzt-doch-nicht-nach-Marienmuenster-kommen.html
- ↑ 4121-303 Marienmünster Monastery. (FFH area) Profiles of the Natura 2000 areas. Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . Retrieved November 17, 2017.
- ↑ Marienmünster Abbey on the website Kulturland Kreis Höxter
Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 54.2 " N , 9 ° 12 ′ 44.9" E