Walldürn's blood miracle

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Shrine with the corporal in the blood altar

The blood miracle of Walldürn gave the origin of the pilgrimage to Walldürn in Baden-Württemberg . In the pilgrimage basilica of St. George there , a corporal (altar ceiling made of linen ) from 1330 is venerated with the image of the crucified.

origin

Memorial stone

1589 reported the Walldürner pastor Hoffius of a momentous event in the year 1330: In a Eucharistic celebration of Walldürner pushed priest Heinrich Otto after the conversion already inadvertently consecrated to cup. The shed blood of Christ in the form of a wine then drew the image of the crucified Christ and eleven individual heads of Christ with a crown of thorns ( Veronica ) on the corporal . The terrified priest hid the corporal behind a stone on the altar. 50 years later he eased his conscience on his deathbed and named the hiding place of the cloth. The linen cloth was found at the place mentioned, the miracle ( blood count ) became generally known, and the cloth was greatly worshiped.

Development of the pilgrimage

In 1408, the then responsible bishop of Würzburg Johann I von Egloffstein confirmed the pilgrimage that had taken place. In 1445 the cloth - with the figures still visible at the time - was brought to Pope Eugene IV , who granted indulgence for the dilapidated church and thus promoted the pilgrimage. The indulgence could be won on the eighth day ( octave ) after Corpus Christi . This first official day of pilgrimage in Walldürn has been preserved to this day as the Great Blood Holiday and is celebrated with a procession that is larger than the Corpus Christi procession. The first major pilgrimages took place in 1456. In 1497 there were five altars in the church so that on the only day of pilgrimage of the year there were enough non-local priests to celebrate Holy Mass . 1521 and 1530 raged around Pest . In 1525 the church was looted by insurgents during the peasant wars. From the Reformation to the Council of Trent (1563) and the Counter-Reformation , the flow of pilgrims was low. Due to the residence obligation decided by the council, pastors had to live at the site of the church, which encouraged new religious life and added to the enthusiasm for pilgrimages. Pastor Jost Hoffius founded today's pilgrimage between 1580 and 1628 with the three-day pilgrimage from 1628 and in 1589 also published the first paper on the origin and development of the Walldürner pilgrimage in Würzburg. Pope Urban VIII honored the Walldürner pilgrimage in 1624 with a complete indulgence. Walldürn experienced an economic boom in the 18th century with the 14-day pilgrimage. It was not until 1887 that the railway opened up the pilgrimage site and raised the influx of pilgrims. From 1938 to 2007 the church was looked after by Augustinians , then by Minorites .

Pilgrimage today

Main pilgrimage times and foot pilgrimages

During the four-week main pilgrimage season, which begins on the feast of the Holy Trinity (around May to mid-June), around 100,000 pilgrims appear every year. Special pilgrimage days are the pilgrimage day for first communion children , the motorcyclist, the cyclist and the youth pilgrimage day.

There are also several foot pilgrimages to Walldürn . One has been moving from Cologne- Porz through the Westerwald, Taunus and Main Valley to Walldürn for almost 400 years . Another has been moving from Fulda to Walldürn for over 300 years . This pilgrimage arose from an old plague vow in Eichsfeld, Thuringia . In Fulda, other pilgrims soon joined the procession. Due to the division of Germany , many pilgrims could no longer take part in the pilgrimage. The Fulda pilgrims kept the tradition alive. In 1979 the Baunatal pastor Rudolf Atzert began a pilgrimage from Baunatal with nine pilgrims , which unites with the Eichsfeld pilgrimage in Fulda. Today pilgrims from Baunatal, Eichsfeld and Fulda make a pilgrimage together. Over a thousand pilgrims take part in this pilgrimage every year.

Depictions of the blood miracle on pilgrimage routes

  • Depictions of blood miracles on pilgrimage routes (selection)

  • Assamstadt : Holy Blood wayside shrine

  • Ballenberg : Holy Blood wayside shrine

  • Beckstein : Walldürner blood count

  • Dittwar : wayside shrine for the blood miracle

  • Eiersheim : Holy Blood wayside shrine

  • Gamburg : One of two holy blood wayside shrines in Gamburg

  • Großrinderfeld : wayside shrine inscription "God in honor and the holy blood in Walthürn"

  • Grünsfeld : wayside shrine with blood count

  • Hochhausen : Portrait of the blood miracle in the Holy Blood Chapel with the inscription "To honor God and the Holy Blood"

  • Vaccination : Depiction of blood miracles with inscription

  • Külsheim : wayside shrine with a blood miracle depiction

  • Schlierstadt : Holy Blood wayside shrine

  • Schönfeld : wayside shrine with a blood miracle depiction

  • Schweinheim : "White wayside shrine" with a symbolic representation of the blood miracle

  • Untereudorf : Holy Blood wayside shrine

Groups of pilgrims

Groups of foot pilgrims, bus pilgrims and pilgrims who reach the place of pilgrimage through processions during the four-week main pilgrimage period:

groups
  • Alzenau - Wasserlos - Hörstein (bus pilgrimage to Engelsberg monastery, followed by a 26 km pilgrimage on foot)
  • Aschaffenburg (occupied since 1618)
  • Aschaffenburg- Schweinheim (4-day pilgrimage there and back 120 km, 50 pilgrims)
  • Bad Mergentheim (occupied since 1630, 2-day pilgrimage on foot, approx. 70 km there and back, 150–200 pilgrims)
  • Bad Schönborn - Mingolsheim (since 1988, 3 days long pilgrimage 95 km to Walldürn, 25 pilgrims)
  • Bellheim (bus pilgrimage, 50-100 pilgrims)
  • Bensheim
  • Width
  • Bretten-Walzbachtal
  • Bobenheim-Roxheim
  • Boettigheim
  • Book
  • Burgstadt
  • Dammbach
  • The castle
  • Eisingen
  • Erlenbach am Main
  • Erlenbach
  • Faulbach
  • Freigericht (bus pilgrimage to Engelsberg monastery, followed by a 26 km pilgrimage on foot, celebrated as the 330th pilgrimage in 2018)
  • Fulda - Baunatal - Eichsfeld (occupied since 1683 Eichsfeld and since 1708 Fulda, 5 days long foot pilgrimage 130 km to Walldürn, return by bus, 900–1000 pilgrims)
  • Gerchsheim
  • Goetzingen
  • Großkrotzenburg
  • Großostheim
  • Large cattle field
  • Großwallstadt
  • Grünsfeld
  • Hambrücken
  • Hanau - Kesselstadt (since 1992, bus pilgrimage to Engelsberg monastery, followed by a 26 km pilgrimage on foot)
  • Hardheim
  • Hausen
  • Heidingsfeld - Höchberg (documented since 1610, 4-day pilgrimage on foot, 120 km there and back, 80-100 pilgrims)
  • Helmstadt
  • Herbstein-Ulmbach-Salmünster
  • Hettenleidelheim
  • Hettingen
  • Hettstadt
  • Hobbach
  • Holzkirchhausen
  • Höpfingen-Waldstetten
  • Hundheim-Steinbach
  • Igersheim
  • Johannesberg - Glattbach (bus pilgrimage to the monastery Engelsberg followed by a foot pilgrimage of 26 km, 100–150 pilgrims)
  • Karlsdorf-Neuthard-Büchnau
  • Kastellaun
  • Kaiserslautern
  • Kist (3-day pilgrimage on foot, 90 km there and back)
  • Small cattle field
  • Kleinwelzheim-Hausen
  • Krautheim-Ravenstein-Assamstadt
  • Cologne (documented since 1648, 7 days long foot pilgrimage of 270 km to Walldürn, return by bus, 650–700 pilgrims)
  • Koenigheim
  • Kupprichhausen
  • Külsheim -Bronnbach
  • Lauda-Königshofen (1-day pilgrimage on foot of 30 km to Walldürn, return by bus, 100–150 pilgrims)
  • Leidersbach
  • Lohr
  • Spoon stilts
  • Main blue
  • Mechenhard
  • Miltenberg
  • Mömbris (4-day pilgrimage 98 km to Walldürn, return by bus to Goldbach and then 12 km pilgrimage to Mömbris, 500-550 pilgrims)
  • Mömlingen
  • Neubrunn
  • Niedernberg
  • Nieder-Roden
  • Niedersteinbach - Brücken (3-day pilgrimage on foot of 80 km to Walldürn, return by bus to Mömbris-Hohl and then 10 km on foot pilgrimage to Niedersteinbach, 200–250 pilgrims)
  • Oberhausen-Philippsburg
  • Ober-Roden (since 1564, 3-day pilgrimage on foot from 70 km to Walldürn, return by bus, 80-100 pilgrims)
  • Oestringen
  • Plum home
  • Washing rings
  • Ransbach-Baumbach
  • Rauenberg
  • Rechtenbach
  • Reicholzheim
  • Reifenberg-Schmitten-Schloßborn
  • Rinschheim
  • Rodenbach
  • Rodgau
  • Rodgau-Jügesheim
  • Röllbach
  • Röttingen
  • Rüdenau
  • Schöllkrippen (since 1980, 4-day pilgrimage on foot, approx. 100 km to Walldürn, return by bus to Bamberger Mühle and then 10 km on foot pilgrimage to Schöllkrippen, 150-200 pilgrims)
  • Schöntal-Bieringen
  • Schwetzingen
  • Seligenstadt
  • Ubstadt pond
  • Urberach
  • Viernheim
  • Waldbüttelbrunn
  • Waldmühlbach
  • Forest lake
  • Weikersheim
  • Werbach
Parish communities
  • Parish community around the Gotthard in the Odenwald (Amorbach with Beuchen, Boxbrunn, Neudorf, Reichartshausen and Zittenfelden; Schneeberg with Hambrunn; Weilbach with Weckbach, Gönz and Reuenthal).
  • Parish community St. Antonius Erftal and heights.

Blood altar

Retable of the blood altar

Since the church was enlarged in 1497, the so-called blood altar with the miracle corporal, the destination of pilgrims and the center of the celebration of indulgence, has stood in the north tower of the church building, which was elevated to the papal minor basilica in 1962 . In 1626 the retable (altar structure) was made from alabaster and sandstone by the local artist Zacharias Juncker . The cloth is kept in a silver shrine from 1683, which received a high baroque border from the plasterer Georg Hennicke in 1726/30 . Hennicke carried out further stucco work in the church and donated the St. Francis altar to the church at his own expense. The outer wings of the blood shrine case date from the 17th century. In 1956 a staircase was placed behind the altar to make it easier for the faithful to touch the corporal. In the choir and the side chapels, six large wall paintings depict the story of the discovery of the cloth.

Blood count

Around 1920 a linen protective cloth was attached behind the corporal. During an examination in 1950, no image could be seen on the original cloth. Irradiation of the protective cloth with ultraviolet light (quartz lamp) showed, to everyone's surprise, the image of the crucified. The eleven Veronica heads were not recognizable. The image on the protective cloth was explained by the different light transmittance of the corporal's linen fibers, which were chemically modified by the wine.

See also

literature

  • Max Domarus : Walldürner pilgrimage in six centuries . Domarus, Wiesentheid 1952.
  • Wolfgang Brückner : The adoration of the Holy Blood in Walldürn . Aschaffenburg 1958, also dissertation Frankfurt am Main 1956
  • Albert Bissinger: 650 years of pilgrimage to the Holy Blood in Walldürn . In: Badische Heimat vol. 61, 1981
  • Wallfahrt- und Pfarrkirche Walldürn , Schnell Art Guide No. 774, 8th revised edition 2002, Verlag Schnell & Steiner Regensburg, ISBN 3-7954-4500-0
  • Catholic Parish Office St. Georg (Ed.): Pilgrimage to the Holy Blood in Walldürn
  • Sylvia Montag: Pilgrimages as an expression of popular piety - Walldürn and the pilgrimage of the Eichsfelder , thesis, University of Erfurt, 2002 website for the book ( Memento from March 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  • Susanne Hansen (ed.): The German places of pilgrimage. An art and culture guide to over 1000 places of worship . Augsburg 1991, ISBN 978-3-629-00005-7

Web links

Commons : St. Georg Walldürn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Over 100 pilgrims on their way to Walldürn . In: www.gnz.de . ( gnz.de [accessed on July 17, 2018]).
  2. ^ Community of Röllbach: Calendar of events 2014 . Online at www.roellbach.de. Retrieved August 6, 2018.