Alexians

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms

The Congregation of Alexian Brothers, shortly Alexian ( Latin Congregatio Fratrum Alexianorum , religious symbol : CFA ), also: Congregation of Celliten , Alexian Brothers are a Catholic fraternity that in the nursing operates. In 2016 they counted around 70 friars in two provinces and two regions in seven countries (USA, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Philippines), in June 2020 there were only 53 brothers, 10 of them in Germany. One of the two provinces is the St. Alexius Province of Germany with three convents in Aachen, Neuss and Münster. The Provincialate is based in Münster, the Generalate in Signal Mountain / Tennessee, USA.

The Alexians are named after their patron saint Alexius von Edessa .

history

middle Ages

The Alexians emerged from the Begarden movement, which spread across the Netherlands and the Rhineland from the beginning of the 13th century. Around 1480 the name "Alexians" became common. It was named after St. Alexius von Edessa , a Roman patrician son who, according to legend, spent his life in poverty and in service to the needy and the sick and who enjoyed great veneration in the Middle Ages. In the middle of the 15th century there were already over 30 houses (monasteries). In 1468, the first general chapter of the Alexians took place in Liège, at which the houses adopted the rule of St. Augustine. Under Pope Julius II , the Alexians were confirmed as an exempted order and gave themselves the motto caritas Christi urget nos - "We are driven by the love of Christ" ( 2 Cor 5:14  EU ). The distribution area during the Middle Ages included Flanders, the Lower Rhine, Strasbourg, Hamburg and Braunschweig . In connection with the founding of the order, the convents in Cologne , Aachen and Neuss merged to form the province of Overland.

Modern times

The political and social changes of the 17th century also affected the Alexian monasteries. After the Thirty Years' War and the decline of the plague, the Alexians took on new tasks with the care of the mentally ill. This is how the first psychiatric clinics came into being. In 1717 the long-standing tensions between the convents of the Overland province led to the separation of the Aachen and Neuss Alexians from the Cologne monastery.

19th and 20th centuries

Since the Alexians mainly devoted themselves to nursing, they were spared the dissolution of the monasteries during the secularization . In the second half of the 19th century, Alexians in Aachen founded branches in England, Ireland and the USA. The Aachen religious order developed into a worldwide congregation of the Alexians with four provinces, two of them in Germany and one each in Great Britain and the USA. There were other monasteries founded in Münster ( Haus Kannen ) and Krefeld. As in the early days of the religious order, the provinces were subject to papal jurisdiction. It was not until 1990 that the Alexians from Neuss and Cologne, who until then had the status of independent congregations under episcopal law, joined the worldwide congregation.

During the years of the Nazi dictatorship , the Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases of July 14, 1933, also put the Alexians in distress. They tried to protect the residents of their homes entrusted to them from the "euthanasia" murders , among other things by moving their wards to the Belgian houses of the order - but often in vain. Brother Gereon Wittkamp, ​​the rector of Haus Kannen near Münster, reported to the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen , of a murder campaign of 106 residents of Haus Kannen. His famous sermon on August 3, 1941 and his criminal charges against the murderers contributed decisively to the fact that the murder was suspended.

present

In 2008 the two German provinces merged with the headquarters in Aachen and Neuss to form the St. Alexius Province of Germany. In January 2013, the order of the Alexian Brothers founded a church foundation with legal capacity under civil law. The Alexianerbrüder Foundation is a partner in the Alexianer GmbH , under whose roof all the facilities and services of the Alexians in Germany are brought together. Alexianer GmbH currently operates hospitals, medical supply facilities as well as facilities for senior, integration and youth welfare in five federal states.

Clinics and facilities

In Germany, the Alexianer GmbH, supported by the Alexianerbrüder Foundation, operates a large number of facilities with over 16,000 employees:

  • Hospitals : the Alexianer Hospital Aachen , as well as hospitals in Münster, Krefeld, Cologne, Berlin, Potsdam, Hörstel, Dessau, Lutherstadt-Wittenberg and Tönisvorst.
  • Retirement homes : In Aachen, Krefeld, Siegburg, Cologne, Münster, Dülmen, Berlin, Potsdam and Tönisvorst.
  • Integration support facilities : In Aachen, Krefeld, Cologne and Münster. In Münster and Cologne there are various workshops from bakery to floristry , media design, industrial assembly and carpentry .
  • Inclusive businesses: in Cologne and Münster.

In addition, the Alexians operate facilities in the USA, Belgium, England, Philippines, India, etc.

Since 11 May 2011, the Alexian Brothers operate on behalf of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , a forensics for offenders with low intelligence .

See also

literature

  • Günther Binding : Alexians . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 384.
  • Christopher J. Kauffman: Story of the Alexian Brothers :
    • Vol. 1: From 1300 to 1789: They made death familiar . Community of the Alexian Brothers , Aachen 1980. (English-language edition: Tamers of death. The history of the Alexian Brothers from 1300 to 1789. Seabury Press, New York 1976. ISBN 0-8164-0314-7 )
    • Vol. 2: From 1789 to the present: Service to the sick . Community of the Alexian Brothers , Aachen 1980. (English-language edition: The Ministry of healing. The history of the Alexian brothers from 1789 to the present . Seabury Press, New York 1978. ISBN 0-8164-0387-2 )
  • Margery Frisbie: The Story of the Alexian Brothers . Editions Sadifa Media, Kehl 1984. ISBN 3-88786-008-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the Alexians
  2. ↑ Günther Binding: Alexians . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 384.
  3. ↑ Alexianer Münster GmbH (ed.): The time of National Socialism (1935 to 1945) .
  4. ^ Facilities of the Alexians ( Memento from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )