Bernardas Recoletas
Bernardas Recoletas is the name of a reform branch of the Spanish Cistercian women that existed from 1593 to the 19th century.
history
The Recolección
The Recolección ("collection", cf. Latin recollectio and French récollection ) is a reform movement in Spanish monasteries that emerged in the wake of the Council of Trent . In 1589 the Augustinian Alfonso von Orozco founded the Moniales Ordinis Augustinianorum Recollectorum (Spanish: Orden de Monjas Agustinas Recoletas ) in Madrid , which still exists today. This was preceded by the reform of the Franciscans in southern France in 1583 by François Doziech, who called the reformed brothers "Récollets". From 1593 onwards, the Recolección also received a special form among the Spanish Cistercian Sisters , whose reform-willing part constituted itself as the order or congregation of the Bernardas Recolectas (later: Recoletas ; also: Recoletas Bernardas , "stricter Saint Bernard women ").
From Gradefes via Perales to Valladolid
The initial spark came from Gradefes Monastery in 1593 , which, with the help of the reform-minded and influential nun Catalina of Castile, who moved from Gradefes (where she was abbess) to Las Huelgas , obtained the approval of the oversight of the Las Huelgas monastery, so that the abbess position that happened to become vacant in the Cistercian convent Perales occupied by Catalina de la Santísima Trinidad and Perales could become the cradle of the Recolección. In the cooperation of Catalina, Las Huelgas, representatives of the male monasteries, the king and the papal nuncio, two further measures were decisive for the success of the reform. First of all, following the recommendations of the council, the transfer of the Perales monastery to the city of Valladolid, including the renaming of the Santa Ana monastery , and the concentration of reform-willing nuns from several monasteries in Valladolid with simultaneous distribution of the reform-unwilling nuns from Perales to other monasteries.
Consolidation of the movement
After the reform had already begun in Perales on November 21, 1594, the entry into Valladolid finally cleared the way on December 18, 1595, as a homogeneous convent was now established, which soon settled other new foundations. Under the new abbess Ursula de Christo, the nuns made a second profession on February 16, 1597, who vowed: "Yo Soror N. ratifica la profesión que hice en el Monasterio de N. y prometo de guardar la Regla de NPS Benito a la letra, como en ella se contiene, sin dispensación, y lo firmo de mi nombre en presencia de ... »(... and promise to follow the Rule of St. Benedict verbatim, as it stands and without dispensation ...). The rule approved by Pope Clement VIII (through his nuncio ) was printed in 1604 and has the title: Constituciones de las Monjas Recolectas Bernardas conforme à los sagrados Concilios, y Regla del Santissimo Patriarca San Benito ("Constitutions of the Saint Bernard Sisters from the" Collection " in accordance with the Holy Councils and the Rule of Most Holy Father of the Church, Benedict ”). In the opening credits of the text reference is expressly made to the Santa Ana monastery. In 1606 the text was approved again by Pope Paul V. Catalina, the original driving force behind the reform, died on May 20, 1600.
Further development
The reform movement also affected other existing convents, and more than once the convents were divided into reformed Bernardas Recoletas on the one hand and traditional Cistercian women on the other. Ultimately, the majority of the reform movement culminated in today's Cistercian Congregation of San Bernardo (CCSB) , even if individual monasteries made their way into the General or Strict Observance of the Cistercian Order .
literature
- Jesús Aguilar Díaz: El Terno conmemorativo del convento de San Joaquín y Santa Ana de Valladolid. Universidad de Sevilla 2010, p.
- Damián Yáñez Neira : "El Monasterio de San Joaquín y Santa Ana de Valladolid, Cabeza de las Religiosas Recoletas de España. Extensión de la reforma. Frutos de Santidad ». In: Cistercium 8, 1956, pp. 104-115; 9, 1957, pp. 21-35; 10, 1958, pp. 219-230.
- María Damián Yáñez Neira: “El Monasterio cisterciense de Perales, cuna de la Recolección”. In: Publicación de la Institución Tello Téllez de Meneses (PITTM). Palencia 1988, pp. 387-413. (on-line)
- Text of the Constitutions, Spanish
- Charles Rapine (1593–1648): Histoire generale de l'origine et progrez des freres mineurs de S. Francois vulgairement apelles ... recollects, reformez ou deschauz. Claude Sonnius, Paris 1631.