Birgittenkloster Bremen
The Birgittenkloster Bremen is a Roman Catholic women's monastery of the Order of the Redeemer (Birgittenorder) founded in 2002 in the medieval Schnoor district of the Hanseatic city of Bremen . It belongs to the branch of the Order of St. Birgit founded by the Swedish convert Elisabeth Hesselblad in 1911 with its seat in the Piazza Farnese in Rome.
history
The Birgittenkloster in Bremen is the first monastery to be founded in Bremen since the Middle Ages . In 1998, a closed meeting of the Roman Catholic pastors of the Dean's Office in Bremen gave the impetus for the foundation of the monastery, which the Bremen provost Ansgar Lüttel took up. He contacted Thekla Famiglietti, the Abbess General of the Order of St. Birgit in Rome, who immediately agreed to build a Monastery of St. Birgit in Bremen's old town. She received the support of Pope John Paul II for this. The Bremen architect Ulrich Tilgner was commissioned to design the new monastery. The project was realized in 2001 on the site of a former bakery in the Schnoorviertel near the Weser . The monastery was built in just twelve months. The first four sisters came to Bremen to give the necessary suggestions for the construction and to learn German. They were Sister Henryka from Scotland, Sister Gloria from Mexico, Sister Daniela from Italy and Mother Superior Walburga Hornig. First Prioress was the only native German among the now more than 600 Birgittian Sisters worldwide. Three more women religious came later.
On October 19, 2002, the Osnabrück bishop Franz-Josef Bode inaugurated the monastery. It has become an integral part of church life in Bremen and is visited not only by Catholics, but also by many Protestants and tourists.
Monastery building
The simple monastery complex, the terracotta colored paint of which stands out clearly from the surrounding buildings, consists of three parts. The Birgitten live in the two-storey convent. The most striking part is the four-story building, which looks like a tower. Up to seventeen guests can stay overnight in eleven rooms. The kitchen, dining room and library are on the first floor. A bridge-like transition connects the tower with the enclosure . For the third component, the chapel, Günter Grohs from Wernigerode created a leaded glass window in the form of a book page, the text of which reproduces the prayer of the founder of the order Birgitta of Sweden : O Lord, come soon and make the night bright I look after you Fulfill my longing and show me the way. I come to you like the injured person to the doctor. O Lord, give rest to my heart. Amen . The altar, altar cross, ambo and tabernacle were made by the sculptor Günter Lang from Eichstätt. The organ is a positive cabinet made by the organ builder Werner Bosch from Sangerhausen.
literature
- Wilhelm Tacke : Monasteries in Bremen. Over 800 years of denominational history in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. 2nd corrected edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-545-3 .
- Rudolf Matzner : The Bremen monastery ox train. Bremen monastery and church stories. Interesting, unknown and curious. Druckerpresse-Verlag , Lilienthal 2011, pp. 29–31.
Web links
- Web presence of the monastery
- radiobremen.de: The monastery in Bremen turns one year old ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 24 ″ N , 8 ° 48 ′ 35 ″ E