Benedicta Waurick

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Benedicta Waurick OCist , actually Gertrud Waurick , ( Upper Sorbian Benedikta Wawrikec ; born March 16, 1938 in Neu-Jeßnitz ) is emeritus abbess of the Cistercian abbey of St. Marienstern .

Life

Gertrud Waurick was born in 1938 as the oldest child of a Sorbian family in Neu-Jeßnitz in Upper Lusatia . After attending school in Puschwitz , Crostwitz and Bautzen , she worked in her parents' farm. In 1959 she entered the Abbey of St. Marienstern and received the religious name Benedicta the following year when she was dressed . In 1964 she made her solemn profession . At first she worked in the church and greenhouse and did field work. Before the Maria Martha Home for disabled girls was opened in 1973 , she trained as a nurse and henceforth looked after some of the disabled as a ward nurse. On November 3, 1986 she was elected 42nd abbess of the monastery. Their motto is Fiat voluntas tua (“Thy will be done”).

Her term of office is characterized by extensive construction and renovation projects on churches, convent and farm buildings. Thus, within a few years, the already very dilapidated stables on the west side of the monastery grounds could be rebuilt and made available as residential buildings for the constantly growing handicapped facilities. To mark the 750th anniversary of St. Mary Star 1998, was the first Saxon State Exhibition in partial enclosure area instead of the sisters. I.a. Benedicta Waurick received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon in 2001 for this opening of the monastery “to the people”.

In the order she was a long member of the Commissio pro Monialibus , which campaigned for the equality of abbesses with the abbots of the Cistercian order. As a result of this work, in 2000 she was allowed to take part in the General Chapter in Rome on an equal footing with all abbesses of the order for the first time .

After almost 25 years in office, she resigned on August 9, 2011. Philippa Kraft was elected her successor .

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Prime Minister Biedenkopf awards Federal Merit Crosses
predecessor Office Successor
Anna Meier Abbess of the Cistercian Abbey of St. Marienstern
1986–2011 		Philippa Kraft
personal data
SURNAME Waurick, Benedicta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waurick, Gertrud (baptismal name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sorbian-German religious sister; Cistercian; Abbess of the St. Marienstern Monastery
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Neu-Jeßnitz