Remiremont Abbey

Former Saint-Pierre collegiate church

Interior of the former Saint-Pierre collegiate church

The Saint-Pierre de Remiremont Abbey was a Benedictine monastery and later a secular women's monastery in Remiremont in the Vosges . It was founded in the 7th century and disbanded during the French Revolution . The abbesses of Remiremont were princesses of the Holy Roman Empire . Medieval German names for the monastery are "Rumberc" (13th century), "Rombech" (1410) and Reimersberg. The abbey church has had the status of a Monument historique since December 29, 1983 .

history

The abbey was founded around 620 by Romarich (Remiré, * around 570 in France, † December 8th around 653 in Remiremont), a nobleman at the time of the Merovingian kings Theudebert II and Chlothar II of Australia . Roma Rich resigned in 600 to the Benedictine - Luxeuil Abbey , where he also vows took off. In 620 he received the originally Gallo-Roman and now Franconian Villa Habendum in today's Remiremont on the upper reaches of the Moselle from Chlothar II . He founded a double monastery consecrated to Peter , first the women's monastery on a hill, then the men's monastery in the valley, which he ran together with Amatus (Amé, * around 560 in Grenoble, † around 628 in Remiremont) and after his death alone. Romarich's successor in turn was Adelphius († after 669 in Luxeuil).

A few years after the foundation, when the growing up Australian King Dagobert I moved to Neustria in 629 to take control of the entire Franconian Empire , his previous tutor, Bishop Arnulf von Metz , the progenitor of the Arnulfingers and Carolingians , withdrew to Remiremont, where he probably died 640 or 641. He found his first resting place in the monastery until his successor in the episcopate Goericus had the bones transferred from the monastery to Metz .

Around 818 the monastery was supplemented by a fortified convent at the confluence of the Moselle and Moselotte rivers. After the death of King Lothar II in 869, his lover Waldrada retired to Remiremont, she died here on April 9 of an unknown year.

In 910, at the time of the Hungarian invasions , the nuns found refuge in the valley, and in the 11th century they settled here for good. At that time, the monastery was governed by the Count of Metz from the Matfriede family : Gerhard, * 925/935, 963 Count of Metz; Richard, * around 950, † 986, 965-986 Count of Metz, and Gerhard, † 1044/45, Count of Metz. In 1091 Remiremont transferred part of the bailiwick, the protection of the abbey ("custodia"), to the Duke of Lorraine in the person of Dietrich II , a grandson of the younger Count Gerhard, but expressly not the legal side ("advocatio") of the Office. Just a few years later, on January 25, 1114 (new style), Emperor Heinrich V took over the protection of the monastery.

On September 28, 1070 Abbey by King received Henry IV. , The Imperial City , so the Dukes of Lorraine the future emperor as the "Count of Remiremont" homage had. On this basis, Remiremont minted its own coins well into the 13th century. On April 24, 1088, Pope Urban II placed the abbey directly under the Holy See , so that the abbess elected by the chapter always had to be confirmed by Rome. At around the same time, i.e. at the end of the 11th century, the conversion of the monastery into a secular women's monastery began; the reorganization was already completed in the 12th century.

In the 12th and 13th centuries the monastery struggled against the claims of the Dukes of Lorraine, although many abbesses came from the ducal family. The dispute culminated in the excommunication of Duke Friedrich I of Lorraine in 1267 by Pope Clement IV.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the dominance of the Lorraine abbesses ended in the monastery, their successors now came from the Free County of Burgundy , and then almost entirely from France. The first of them, Clémence d'Oyselet, was appointed imperial princess by King Albrecht I in 1307 . In 1415 the abbess Henriette d'Amoncourt received the title of prince from King Sigismund , her successors then also carried it, but now without being conferred by the ruler.

It was not until 1566 that Duke Charles III succeeded. von Lorraine to end the imperial immediacy of the abbey in a coup by taking advantage of a campaign by Emperor Maximilian II in Hungary.

From 1751 a new palace was built for the abbess in the style of a bishop's palace, with the result that there is no more information about the buildings from the time before 1751. The abbey did not survive the beginning of the French Revolution for long: the monastery church was closed on December 7, 1790.

organization

The members of the abbey were selected from those interested whose 64 ancestors were all noble - a test that a daughter of King Henry IV failed because her mother was Maria de 'Medici , who came from a non-noble family .

Former monastery building in the Abbatial district of Remiremont

Only the abbess took the vows in the monastery, for the canons they were only valid temporarily, they also wore secular clothing in the form of a splendid pearl-gray costume, trimmed with white fur, and a dainty bonnet. They could always decide against life in the monastery, for example giving it up to get married, and they no longer lived in the monastery but in private houses with a large number of servants. The canonesses also selected a person called a “niece” to succeed her in the monastery at the appropriate time. The number of canonesses never exceeded 72, when it was dissolved there were 32 ladies and 21 "nieces" who belonged to the abbey.

Attractions

• Former Saint-Pierre collegiate church (consecrated in 1049, rebuilt several times), hall crypt (11th century), flanked by two single-nave side crypts
• Abbesses' palace (1752), today the town hall, court and library
• Houses of noble colleges (17th and 18th centuries), near the collegiate church
• Musée Charles Friry (paintings, religious minor art) in a house of canonesses (some rooms with original 18th century furnishings)
• Musée Fondation Charles de Bruyère (prehistory and early history, paintings, sculptures) in another house of canonesses

Abbesses

• Mactefleda († around 622)
• Klara († around 652)
• Gebetrude (Gertrude, † around 673), probably a sister of Abbot Adelphius and not Abbess Klara
• Waldrada I, 17th abbess
• Teuthildis († October 26, 862/65) 18th abbess 819 / 20–26.10.862 / 65, a relative of Seneschal Adalhard , Count of Metz, from the Matfriede family
• Berscinda, abbess around 1030/40, probably daughter of Count Gerhard (von Metz, † 1021/23) (Matfriede)
• Oda, 1048/70 abbess, daughter of Count Adalbert II of Metz (Matfriede)
• Gisela II († February 21, 1114), abbess of Remiremont and Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in Metz, around 1070 , great-niece Odas, daughter of Duke Gerhard of Lorraine
• Judith von Vaudémont († March 23, 1161/64), abbess of Remiremont in spring 1114, abbess of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in Metz, daughter of Gerhard I of Vaudémont , niece of Giselas and great-niece of Pope Leo IX.
• Euphronia (Fronica) of Lorraine, daughter of Duke Dietrich II of Lorraine abbess around 1150 ( House of Châtenois )
• Mathilde, registered in 1178 by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa as "abbatissa Rumaricensis"
• Klementia, abbess 1189-1211
• NN, daughter of Duke Friedrich I of Lorraine , abbess 1209–1233 ( House of Châtenois )
• Agathe of Lorraine († July 15, 1242), her sister, 1232 abbess of Remiremont, before 1236 abbess of Bouxières, ( Châtenois house )
• Agnes von Salm († January 15, 1280), elected abbess in 1242, niece of Agathe, daughter of Count Heinrich III. and Judith of Lorraine
• Lore-Félicité de Dombasle, abbess in 1290
• Clemence d'Oyselet, elected abbess in July 1307, 1307 imperial princess
• Eleonore († August 8, 1374), 1350 abbess, daughter of Count Johann II of Auxerre ( House Chalon )
• Jeanne d'Aigremont, elected in 1404
• Catherine de Blâmont, Jeanne d'Aigremont's successor, June 18, 1412 to Pope Gregory XII. discontinued
• Henriette d'Amoncourt, successor to Catherine de Blâmont, princess in 1415
• Marguerite de Salvaine
• Isabelle de Demengeville
• Henriette de Vienne
• Jeanne de Chauviré
• Alix de Parroye († March 14, 1473), March 18, 1453 Abbess
• Catherine de Neuchâtel, elected January 28, 1474, not confirmed by the Pope because she was not yet 18 years old.
• Jeanne d'Anglure, in place of Catherine de Neuchâtel's abbess
• Agnès de Dommartin († 1508)
• Alix de Choiseul, daughter of Guillaume de Choiseul, abbess 1509–1521, appointed her niece Madeleine de Choiseul as his successor
• Madeleine de Choiseul († December 30, 1549), abbess for a few months after the death of Alix de Choiseul, was not accepted by the majority of the chapter,
• Nicole de Dommartin, sister of Agnès de Dommartin, abbess in place of Madeleine de Choiseuls; their choice was not confirmed by Rome until 1524; she appointed Marguerite de Haraucourt as her successor
• Marguerite d'Haraucourt
• Marguerite de Neuchâtel, owes her choice to the fact that Alix de Choiseul named her as the second candidate.
• Renée de Dinteville († 1580)
• Barbara Maria von Salm († May 31, 1602), 1580 abbess, daughter of Count Johann VIII.
• Catherine of Lorraine (born November 3, 1573, † March 1, 1648, Paris), Koadjutrix in 1609 and abbess in 1611, daughter of Duke Charles III. of Lorraine
• Margarete von Lothringen (* July 22, 1615, † April 13, 1672) 1625 Koadjutrix, daughter of Duke Francis II of Lorraine , niece of Catherine of Lorraine, married Gaston de Bourbon, duc d'Orléans in 1632
• Elisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans (* December 26, 1646, † March 17, 1696), 1648–1657 abbess, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans and Margaret of Lothringen, great niece of Katharina von Lothringen, married in 1667 Louis Joseph de Lorraine, duc de Guise
• Maria Anna Theresia of Lorraine (* July 30, 1648, † June 17, 1661, Paris), 1657 abbess, daughter of Duke Nicholas II , niece of Margaret of Lorraine
• Charlotte Elisabeth Gabrielle von Lorraine (* October 21, 1700, † May 3, 1711, Lunéville ), 1703 abbess of Remiremont, daughter of Duke Leopold of Lorraine , great niece of Maria Anna Theresia of Lorraine
• Béatrice Hiéronyme de Lorraine (* July 1, 1662, † February 9, 1738, Paris), elected abbess on August 4, 1711, daughter of Francois Marie de Lorraine, Prince de Lillebonne ( House of Guise )
• Anna Charlotte von Lothringen (* May 17, 1714, † November 7, 1773), elected abbess on May 10, 1738, abbess of Sainte-Waudru in Mons in 1754 , Koadjutrix from throne in 1756 , Koadjutrix von Essen in 1757 , daughter of Duke Leopold von Lorraine
• Maria Christina von Sachsen (* February 12, 1735, † November 19, 1782, Brumath ), Koadjutrix, then elected abbess in November 1773, daughter of King August III. of Poland , aunt of Louis XVI. ( Wettiner )
• Anne Charlotte de Lorraine (born November 11, 1755, † May 22, 1786), 1784 abbess, daughter of Louis Charles de Lorraine, Prince de Lambesc ( House of Guise )
• Louise-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Condé (born October 5, 1757, Chantilly † March 10, 1824, Paris), last abbess of Remiremont 1786–1790, daughter of Louis V Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé . After the restoration, founded the order of the Bénédictines de la rue Monsieur .

Other personalities

• Germanus von Granfelden (* around 612, † 675) spent his first years as a monk in Remiremont.
• Modesta von Oeren († before 697/698), first known abbess of Oeren, probably entered Remiremont as a young woman.
• Gerhard († 1070), Duke of Lorraine, died in Remiremont and was buried in the abbey.
• Hugo Candidus (* around 1020, † after 1098), priest in the Remiremont convent, cardinal priest of San Clemente, bishop of Palestrina

literature

• Eduard Hlawitschka : Studies on the abbess series of Remiremont (7th – 13th centuries) , publications of the Institute for Regional Studies, Volume 9, Saarbrücken 1963, ISBN 3-923877-09-9 .
• Eduard Hlawitschka, Karl Schmid , Gerd Tellenbach : Liber memorialis von Remiremont , MGH Antiquitates , Librimemoriales I , 1970
• JJ Bammert: Les Nobles Dames de Remiremont. 620–1791, L'histoire du Chapitre des Nobles Dames de Remiremont, Remiremont 1971
• Remiremont, l'abbaye et la ville , actes des journées d'études vosgiennes, Nancy 1980
• Abel Mathieu (Ed.): Histoire de Remiremont. 1984
• Remiremont, histoire de la Ville et de son abbaye , complete works of the Society for the History of Remiremont and the Surrounding Area ( Société d'histoire locale de Remiremont et de sa région ), Vagnes 1985
• Michel Parisse: Remiremont . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 708 f.
• Chartes de l'abbaye de Remiremont, des origines à 1231 , revised and expanded edition by Jean Bridot, Turnhout 1997
• Françoise Boquillon: Les chanoinesses de Remiremont, 1566–1790: contribution à l'histoire de la noblesse dans l'Eglise , History of Remiremont and the surrounding area ( Société d'histoire locale de Remiremont et de sa région ), 2000
• Michel Parisse : Remiremont. In: Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire. A dynastic-topographical handbook (Residency Research, Volume 15.1, 2003) ISBN 3-7995-4515-8 , pp. 722/723
• Eva-Maria Butz: Liturgical Memoria and Written Form in the Remiremont Nunnery. In: Ruth Albrecht, Annette Bühler-Dietrich, Florentine Strelczyk (Eds.): Faith and Gender: Pious Women - Spiritual Experiences - Religious Traditions , 2008

Web links

Commons : Abbatiale Saint-Pierre (Remiremont)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Ministère de la Culture, base Mérimée, Notice No. PA00107253
2. ↑ Ekkart Sauser :  Romarich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 1225.
3. ↑ cf. Eugen Ewig :  Arnulf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 607 f. ( Digitized version ). and Ludwig Oelsner:  Arnulf, Bishop of Metz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 607 f.
4. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller: Waldrada . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 8, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9 , Sp. 1958 f.
5. ↑ Gerhard Müller, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Volume 35, p. 185.
6. ^ MGH The documents of Henry V and Queen Mathilde 119
7. ^ A corresponding document from King Rudolf I from 1290 for Abbess Lore-Félicité de Dombasle is a forgery
8. ↑ Petite histoire religieuse de nos Vosges, L. Lévêque, Mirecourt 1949
9. ↑ Monumenta Germaniae Historica : The documents of the German kings and emperors , Vol. 10: The documents of Frederick I , Part III: 1168–1180 , No. 762, pp. 314–315.
10. ^ Rudolf Schieffer : Pope Gregory VII. - Church reform and investiture dispute , p. 15.

Coordinates: 48 ° 0 ′ 56 "  N , 6 ° 35 ′ 29"  E