Benedictine monastery
As a Benedictine monastery is a stationary monastic community of monks (priests and laity) or nuns of the Benedictine order called.
Monastery, abbey and monastery
A Benedictine monastery is usually a Benedictine abbey , a community of monasteries whose head is an abbot who is assisted by a prior .
Smaller Benedictine monasteries are called a priory . There are also the Latin names abbatiola , cella , monasteriolum and praepositura . Priories can be completely dependent on a mother abbey, but also legally autonomous and financially independent without having been elevated to an abbey.
When using the term Benedictine monastery , the focus is mostly on the building complex and the church , which, however (except in the case of earlier, destroyed or abandoned settlements) includes the existence of a monastery community ( convent ) .
The central task of a Benedictine monastery is the execution of the liturgical "Office", the hours of worship performed in community and the daily celebration of Holy Mass . An abbey or a monastery can also carry out pastoral activities in the area (care of parishes and communities, confessional pastoral care , etc.)
In its internal affairs, a Benedictine abbey is not subordinate to the bishop in whose diocese it is located, but is exempt ( exemptio partialis ). The abbot has a rank in the monastery similar to the bishop of a diocese and is the superior and spiritual father of the members of the monastery.
Building complex
The location of a monastery - and mostly also of monasteries and abbeys - includes
- the Church as the center of Benedictine piety and prayer . In many cases it is also available to the local community.
- the monastery building with the enclosure , living units for the members of the order, dining and common rooms
- Locally different additional rooms (e.g. guest house or guest room , music school , meeting and event rooms )
- the library , sometimes pharmacy , garden ( monastery garden , herb garden ), workshops, etc.
Culture and education
The prayer and culture tradition is related to the specific rules of the order and the history of the Benedictines:
- the commission Ora et labora (pray and work!)
- and the Stabilitas loci (the monk usually stays in the monastery where he took his religious vows ).
The Order of St. Benedict ( Ordo Sancti Benedicti , abbreviation OSB) was the first to be active in Europe on a larger scale, and is therefore historically associated with the settlement (even after the Great Migration , when civil settlements often emerged in monasteries), with the Mission , often with reclamation (clearing, etc.) and almost always closely linked to tasks of education and the educational mandate. In the heyday, in the Middle Ages, there were up to 37,000 monasteries that served as educational and guest houses.
Since in the Middle Ages the priests were often the only ones who could read and write, the school system of the order came about almost automatically. Several Benedictine abbeys still run a school today or offer adult education and recreation ; Temporary monastery in some abbeys you can stay in a monastery or guest house and participate in the life of the monks.
Some abbeys also cultivate special forms of printing and literary-cultural-historical sciences , such as B. Ettal Abbey (Bavaria), theological and liturgical research and editions as well as other tasks in the humanities and natural sciences . Abbeys can operate book and art publishers, bookshops, handicraft businesses or agriculture, such as the Maria Laach Abbey . Benedictine abbeys with their churches are places where Gregorian chant and other forms of church music are cultivated.
The art and music tradition is also continued at some of the abandoned monasteries , sometimes in the form of festivals or music competitions . A well-known example of this is the church of Stift Ossiach (Carinthia) and its summer concerts ( organ ).
Since their foundation, Benedictine monasteries have been equipped with a monastery garden , which is intended to ensure economic independence. By cultivating useful and ornamental plants within the monastery walls, the Benedictines are considered the founders of horticulture in the Middle Ages.
The same as for Benedictine monasteries also applies to the monasteries of the Benedictine nuns and the Cistercians , whose order arose from that of the Benedictines.
Benedictine monasteries in the German-speaking area
There are 30 Benedictine branches in Germany , 16 in Austria , seven in Switzerland and two in South Tyrol . Then there are those of the Benedictines and the Cistercians .
Web links
- Benedictines in Germany (Website of the Benedictine Abbey Ettal)
- Benedictines in Austria
- Benedictines in Switzerland
- Benedictine monasteries worldwide , on the website of the Confoederatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti , accessed on October 8, 2017
- Leo Ettlin: Benedictines. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 2, 2008 , accessed October 8, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Dominicus M. Meyer: Priorat . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 8 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999, Sp. 598 .
- ↑ Hansjürg Stückelberger: Europe's rise and betrayal - How God makes history. 2nd Edition. Edition PJI, Adelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-944764-05-4 , p. 158 ( reading sample ).
- ↑ Irmgard Müller: Medicinal plants from monastery gardens. In: The legacy of monastery medicine: Symposium at Eberbach Monastery, Eltville / Rh. on September 10, 1977, wording of the lectures. Ingelheim a. Rh. 1978, pp. 9-14, here: p. 11.
- ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 104–110 ( monastery garden ).