Beuron Congregation

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Archabbey of Beuron in the upper Danube valley

The Beuron Benedictine Congregation is an association of mostly German or German-speaking female or male Benedictine monasteries . The congregation is under the patronage of St. Martin of Tours .

history

The origin of the Beuron Congregation is the Beuron Abbey founded in 1863 by Maurus Wolter OSB and Placidus Wolter OSB as today's archabbey of the association. The first declarations of 1866 already had an expansion to include a congregation in view. After the further founding of Maredsous ( Belgium ), the first constitutions of the Beuron congregation were confirmed by Rome in 1873. Further foundations abroad took place during the Kulturkampf , when the community was driven out of Beuron. In 1868 the congregation took over the Emmaus monastery in Prague . After the end of the Kulturkampf, further monasteries were founded in Germany in the following decades, such as Maria Laach in 1893 , Gerleve in 1904 , Grüssau in Silesia in 1919 , Neresheim in 1920 , Weingarten in 1922 , Neuburg in 1926 and others. The last foundations were the repopulation of Tholey Abbey in 1949 and the re-establishment of Nütschau Monastery by Gerleve in 1951.

The Congregation continued to be active abroad, including in Belgium, Austria , Portugal , Brazil and Japan ; In 1906 the Dormition Abbey was founded in Jerusalem . The foundations outside Germany and Austria later separated from the Beuron Congregation, often for political reasons.

St. Gabriel's Abbey in Prague was founded in 1889 as the first convent of the congregation, and in 1920 it was moved to Bertholdstein in Styria ; Maredret in Belgium followed in 1893 and St. Hildegard Abbey in Eibingen in 1904 and St. Erentraud Abbey in Kellenried in 1924 . More recent establishments are Engelthal Monastery (founded in 1962) and Marienrode Monastery (founded in 1988). Further women's monasteries were accepted as already existing communities in the Beuron Congregation.

In the beginning the congregation was under the direction of the abbot of Beuron, who acted as archabbot of the congregation. The general chapter, for which the incumbent abbots met at longer intervals, served to coordinate with one another and to settle pending questions. This system was strongly centralized; so all monasteries of the congregation had to adopt monastery customs, daily routine, times and forms of worship as specified by Beuron. The Erzabt system was replaced by the Abbot System in 1936 ; the general chapter, which meets every six years, elects one of the incumbent abbots of the congregation as abbot praeses for the period up to the next general chapter. This made the congregation more federalist, and the individual monasteries were able to develop their own profile.

In 1984 the statutes of the Congregation, revised in accordance with the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1983, and the declarations for the male and female monasteries were approved . The statutes name the tasks of the congregation to promote the observance of the rule in the monasteries, mutual help and joint management of tasks and problems, as well as the exchange between male and female monasteries. The general chapter, consisting of the superiors and elected representatives from all member monasteries, meets every six years. Since 2003 the representatives of the women's monasteries have full voting rights at the General Chapter.

The Beuron Congregation has nine male and nine female monasteries in Denmark, Germany, Austria and South Tyrol. It has around 250 monks and 270 nuns.

Male monasteries

Existing monasteries
  1. Archabbey of St. Martin , Beuron
  2. Abbey of Our Lady, Seckau , Styria
  3. Maria Laach Abbey , Glees
  4. St. Joseph Abbey , Gerleve
  5. Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra , Neresheim
  6. Abbey of St. Bartholomew , Heidelberg
  7. St. Mauritius Abbey , Tholey
  8. St. Ansgar Priory , Nütschau
Abolished monasteries

Convents

Existing monasteries
  1. St. Hildegard Abbey , Eibingen
  2. Abbey of the Holy Cross , Manufacture
  3. St. Erentraud Abbey , Kellenried
  4. Abbey of St. Mary , Engelthal, Hesse
  5. Abbey of the Holy Cross , Säben, South Tyrol
  6. Abbey of Our Lady , Varensell
  7. Abbey of St. Mary , Fulda
  8. Marienrode Priory , Hildesheim
  9. Vor Frue Monastery Priory , Aasebakken, Denmark
Abolished monasteries

Archabbots or Presides of the Beuron Congregation

  1. Maurus (Rudolf) Wolter , 1873–1890 (Beuron)
  2. Placidus (Ernst) Wolter , 1890–1908 (Beuron)
  3. Ildefons (Friedrich) Schober , 1908–1917 (Beuron)
  4. Raphael (Josef) Waltz , 1918–1936 (Beuron)
  5. Raphael Molitor , 1936–1948 (Gerleve)
  6. Bernhard Durst , 1948–1960 (Neresheim)
  7. Benedikt Reetz , 1960–1964 (Beuron)
  8. Petrus Borne , 1965–1976 ( Tholey )
  9. Laurentius Hoheisel , 1976–1995 (Grüssau-Wimpfen)
  10. Anno Schoenen , 1995–2008 (Maria Laach)
  11. Albert Schmidt , since 2008 (Beuron)

literature

  • Spiritual guidance. Spiritual Directory for the Beuron Congregation. Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 1984, ISBN 3-87071-043-8 .
  • Benedikt Schwank : Benedictines in general and Beuron Benedictines in particular. A lecture to Jesuits. In: Heritage and Mission . Vol. 72, 1996, pp. 482-490.
  • Basilius Senger (ed.): The Beuron Benedictine Congregation and its monasteries. 2nd Edition. Beuron Benedictine Congregation, Beuron 1997.
  • Stephan Petzolt, Bernhard Givens: The Beuron Benedictine Congregation. In: Ulrich Faust , Franz Quarthal : The reform associations and congregations of the Benedictines in the German-speaking area (= Germania Benedictina. Vol. 1). EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 1999, ISBN 3-8306-6994-1 , pp. 705-729.

proof

  1. ^ Members of the Beuron Benedictine Congregation. www.benediktiner.de, accessed on February 18, 2014 .
  2. ↑ (KAP): New Archabbot of Beuron elected . In: KATHweb.at an electronic information service of the Austrian Catholic Press Agency KATHPRESS from September 8, 2011

Web links

Commons : Beuron Congregation  - Collection of images, videos and audio files