Anna Maria Plönies
Anna Maria Plönies (* 1592 in Münster ; † April 25, 1677 in Vinnenberg) was abbess of the Vinnenberg monastery . She led the monastery through the second half of the Thirty Years War and founded the Vinnenberg pilgrimage .
Life
Anna Marie Plönies came from an influential Münster patrician family. She was the daughter of the wealthy businessman and long-distance trader Werner Plönies (1560–1639) and his wife Kristina Kleinsorgen (1565–1626). In her early years she entered the Benedictine Abbey of Vinnenberg. But the economic situation during the Thirty Years' War was devastating, so that monastery was often the prey of the marauding Soldateska.
Looting of the Vinnenberg monastery during the Thirty Years War
On November 11, 1621, eleven soldiers refrained from looting only after paying 35 Reichstalers and adding some of the best horses. On April 12, 1622, 300 soldiers robbed the monastery. A fire could be prevented by paying 400 Reichstalers. In August 1622, 35 thalers and linen were stolen in an attack. In 1623 the monastery lost another 100 Reichstaler during raids. In 1629 the miraculous image was brought to a safe place in Warendorf before the Soldateska of the war. In 1633, Swedish troops looted the monastery completely. The nuns fled to the better protected Warendorf . In 1635 the plague broke out, to which many members of the monastery also fell victim:
“1635: Gertrudt Pepperhove, honor moder and all the children died in de peste; 1637: Robke died with all his children in de peste, one son is left "
In 1636 the imperial army requisitioned 61 pigs and smashed the inventory and in October of the same year Swedish troops confiscated 11 cows, 3 young horses and 65 Reichstaler. In 1638 the convent returned to the destroyed monastery after five years in Warendorf.
Abbess of the monastery
In 1639 Anna Maria Plönies was elected abbess of the monastery at the age of only 47 . In 1641 she had the Vinnenberg image returned after it had spent twelve years in Warendorf. This wood-carved, approx. 17 cm image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus on her lap, which had been placed since the existence of the monastery, which was built around 1256, had so far only played an internal role in monastery life. Recognizing the signs of the times, Plönies used the growing popular and Marian piety to strengthen their own monastery. The long-standing distress of the monastery had placed a debt burden of 20,000 Reichstalers on the convent. The enormous sum this represented at this time can be gauged when one of the Koster's best horses was valued at 45 Reichstalers. So the convention decided to sell properties and
"With manual labor, little need to be gained and dragged on and entertained"
After the mass, bread and beer from their own production were sold in order to get the monastery out of debt. She also had all miraculous healings carefully notarized.
Miraculous healings and answers to prayer
In 1641, a woman Nagelsche from the parish in Überwasser in Münster, who had been bedridden for a long time, was advised by a captain Hollenhorst to make a sacrifice to the Virgin Mary in Vinnenberg and then recovered every hour. Confirmed by Mr. Degner, Notary and Judex in Ostbevern . In the same way, from 1643 to 1650 all answers to prayer and healing of the sick were carefully recorded. So did the convalescence of Father Bernhardus Ludolphi professus from the Liesborn Monastery or of Father Rudolphus Wernekingh Sacellanus from the Vinnenberg Monastery. In 1648, Sidonia von Quernheim, a maid of the choir from the collegiate church of St. Aegidii in Münster, had a serious illness and had been bedridden for six months. After she had sent a victim to the miraculous image and had mass read there, she was healthy for the hour, which mother Everard von Quernheim also confirmed in a letter:
"Our Sidonia Quernheim is, God be praise, healthy again, she goes and runs where she wants."
This miracle happened “sub Domina Abbatissa S. Aegidij Agnete de Merveldt ”. Sidonia von Quernheim only died on June 13, 1654.
Pilgrimage and miraculous image
A valuable crown and cloak were made for the now “miraculous” image of grace; as well as the convention stopped to produce textile handicrafts. A carrying altar was also purchased, which was carried by several "angels", ie girls from Milte , during the procession . Yet it was repeatedly thrown back by the events of the war. When a regiment from Sachsen-Waimar with 3,000 men quartered in the monastery on October 13, 1642, the convent again had to flee to Warendorf. Doors, windows, cupboards, chairs, benches, boxes and boxes were set on fire, supplies plundered, copper brewing pans smashed and carried away, a barn burned down. In 1647 the Swedes took quarters under Hans Christoph von Königsmarck . This in turn meant fleeing to Warendorf and Münster. 28 ducks, 100 chickens, 38 pigs, and 10 sheep were their prey. The remainder of the decimated inventory was lost. In 1645 the creditors of the monastery filed for bankruptcy and thus its dissolution. Plönies himself tore the summons from the church doors of the monastery and faced the legal proceedings with her prioress in Münster. She took the administration of the monastery into her own hands, sold and exchanged further lands and saved. In spite of everything, she never let her goal of the pilgrimage out of sight: For example, a Marian pilgrimage in Telgte was initiated by the bishop in 1651 and the foundation stone for the Marienkapelle was laid on June 1, 1654 . But in this case the initiative did not come from the diocese, but from the convent and its abbess. On August 26, 1654, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, she had Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen's permission to hold a procession on the birth of Mary (September 8). He had his vicar general announce the following to the abbess:
“After the Reverend Prince and Lord, Mr. Christoff Bernhard, elected and confirmed Bishop of Munster, at the most humble request of Mrs. Abbattissin zu Vinnenbergh, graciously allowed that there on St. Birthdays of the very same Virgin Mary a procession with the carrying of the most venerable holy sacraments, as well as the image of the highly praised Mother of God should and may be employed. So Domini Pastores and Concionatores are hereby requested to exhort and invite their people and listeners to the most diligent at a certain time and place for the promotion of such devotion than to the greater glory of God and his most honored mother.
In fidem praesentum sedulam manu mea suscriptam sigillo proprio feci communiri. "
With her commitment she made Vinnenberg a place of pilgrimage of the diocese of Münster that is still popular today . She had devotional notes printed by copper engraving, so that the pilgrimage site became known nationwide, which slowly filled the sacrificial and monastery coffers again. As early as 1658 she was able to found and maintain a poor house for Milte. She died on April 25, 1677 in Vinnenberg. On July 16, 1677, Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen confirmed her successor Anna Maria Brakel as abbess of Vinnenberg.
literature
- Antonie Jüngst : Our Dear Lady von Vinnenberg , Münster 1906 (self-published by the monastery with the imprimatur of Felix von Hartmann as Vic. Genlis).
- J. Hobbeling: Description of the Münster monastery. printed by Wittib Raeßfeldt zu Munster 1689, p. 24: "Brief but thorough report of the origin and miacules of the miraculous image of the Mother of God ... in Vinnenberg."
- P. Bahlman: Miracle report from Vinnenberg 1629-1636. Warendorfer Blätter 11, 1912, p. 33 f.
- Wilhelm Kohl : The Cistercian and later Bededigkinerinnenkloster St. Aegidii in Münster, Berlin 2009, ISBN 9783110212549 .
- Christa Paschert-Engelke, In the garden of the Roswindis: 63 portraits of women from the Warendorf district, Münster 2008, ISBN 3870233257 , pp. 36–37
Individual evidence
- ^ Antonie Jüngst : Our Lady of Vinnenberg. Münster 1906, p. 23
- ↑ Christa Paschert-Engelke, In the garden of the Roswindis: 63 portraits of women from the Warendorf district, Münster 2008, ISBN 3870233257 , pp. 36–37
- ^ Antonie Jüngst : Our Lady of Vinnenberg. Münster 1906, p. 24
- ↑ Johannes Hückelheim: Abbesses of the Vinnenberg Monastery. In: Warendorfer Blätter 9 (1910), p. 43f.
- ↑ P. Bahlman: Miracle report from Vinnenberg 1629-1636. Warendorfer Blätter 11, 1912, p. 33 f.
- ^ Antonie Jüngst : Our Lady of Vinnenberg. Münster 1906, p. 16.
- ^ Wilhelm Kohl : The Cistercian and later Bededigkinerinnenkloster St. Aegidii in Münster, Berlin 2009, ISBN 9783110212549 , p. 347.
- ↑ Johannes Hückelheim: Abbesses of the Vinnenberg Monastery. In: Warendorfer Blätter 9 (1910), p. 43f.
- ^ Antonie Jüngst: Our Lady of Vinnenberg. Münster 1906, p. 18
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Plönies, Anna Maria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Abbess in Vinnenberg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1592 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Muenster |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1677 |
| Place of death | Vinnenberg Monastery |