Extinction Monastery

Extinction Monastery (or Central Monastery ) is the name of a monastery that, due to state regulation, is no longer allowed to accept novices . The monastery only lasts as long as religious are still alive.

Central monastery means a monastery that accepted religious from other, closed monasteries if they could not or did not want to live outside a monastic community due to illness or for other reasons. Entry to the central monastery was voluntary, but the authorities could also impose compulsory admission in the event of “improper behavior”. Occasionally there were also disciplinary problems in the central monasteries.

Extinct monasteries were established both during the Reformation in the 16th century and during the secularization in the early 19th century to house the remaining monks of the disbanded monastery facilities. A Bavarian commissioner Schilcher spoke of "Crepieranstalt for the stubborn monastery loyal individuals".

For example, Elector Maximilian Joseph von Bayern ordered the dissolution of all mendicant orders in his domain in 1803 and issued the regulations for the central monasteries of the individual religious orders in the duchies of Jülich and Berg on June 30, 1804 :

“In these central monasteries, the members are under the direction of a superior from among their number, who takes turns every three years. Here, as everywhere, they wear their habit of the order and live in the monastery according to a disciplinary constitution proposed by their superiors themselves, approved by the Electoral Separate Commission and in accordance with the statutes of their order as much as possible. In the church of their monastery they finally do their church activities at the altar, in the choir, in the confessional and on the sermon chair, as they did in their monasteries. "

- Düsseldorf State Archives, Duchy of Berg, Provincial Directorate, I 55a

Those who did not want to go to the central monastery had to give up their religious habit and received annual support or compensation, but could also apply for a regular pastor's position or teaching.

In the 19th century in particular, the central monasteries were often the source of new and re-established monasteries.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ for example in the Kapuziner central monastery in Kaiserswerth at the beginning of the 19th century; see: Mater Ursula Klein: The secularization in Düsseldorf. In: Annals of the historical association for the Lower Rhine , Issue 109 (1926), pp. 1-67, here pp. 46f.
2. ↑ Norbert Backmund: The smaller orders in Bavaria and their monasteries up to secularization. Windberg 1974, p. 103.
3. ↑ also printed in: Rhenania Franciscana 10 (1939), pp. 161ff.