Bocholt Cross
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The Bocholt Cross is a forked crucifix in the St. Georg Church in Bocholt , North Rhine-Westphalia, and dates from the beginning of the 14th century. It is the oldest and most important piece of equipment in this church and the center of what is now a regional pilgrimage.
description
The cross was made based on the model of the forked cross of St. Maria in the Capitol in Cologne. The version of the body, d. H. the manner in which the scourge wounds are depicted is almost identical. It is carved from fir wood and is 153 cm high, with the arms of the cross rising higher than the vertical trunk of the cross. The trunk protrudes only slightly beyond the head, so that the titulus is missing. The body is made of walnut and is 102 cm high, the span length of the arms is 97 cm. Arms and head are attached or put on. Due to the smooth skull, one suspects an originally existing hair (imitation) wig. The cross (its body) is covered with canvas as a primer for the frame. It is hollowed out, and inside there are four relics that can only be assigned imprecisely or not at all: a bone wrapped in silk and therefore unidentifiable, two human ribs and a light brown stone, probably from the Holy Land (Mount Golgotha?). The cavity has not been reopened since the cross was made. The original version of the cross stem was green, which alludes to the symbolism of the tree of life. A cruciform altar has been named as a place of storage through the centuries. During the neo-Gothic restoration after 1860, the Bocholt cross was integrated into the high altar as part of a mercy seat . Today it stands in a pedestal near the celebration altar.
The pilgrimage
When the cross came to Bocholt is unknown. The first documentary mention is the report of a blood miracle on Easter Monday in the year 1315. According to legend, a gambler was urged by his mother to give up the game and swore perjury that he had not won the money he owned. As a result, blood began to flow from the wounds and soaked the mother's robe. A similar version says that the player prayed for luck and when this did not happen, he cursed the coins spread out in front of the cross. The cross then began to bleed and watered the dress of a woman who happened to be there. For a long time a woman's robe was kept in a box next to the cross altar; it burned in March 1945. In the High Middle Ages, the cross was endowed with a crossed vicariate and a “light in honor of the Holy Cross”. To Exaltation one was cross costume called procession, came to the Foreign and pilgrims. Pilgrims from neighboring Gelderland in the Netherlands are documented for the 18th century . Several silver votive offerings date from this time. This type of pilgrimage ended in the Napoleonic period . In the further course of the 19th century it developed into the shape still common today. Between the exaltation of the cross and the consecration of the Georgskirche in Bocholt in October, the parishes of the surrounding villages came every Sunday. Since the 1990s, they have all come on Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross and offer a votive candle. The city of Bocholt donates another votive candle for the parish festival, the same is done by the participants in the Bocholt Kevelaer pilgrimage and the (carnivalist) city prince couple. A count of the consumption of sacrificial lights shows a number of 60,000 pieces per year, which, however, are also lit in front of other portraits in St. Georg.
Restorations and investigations
The Bocholt Cross was returned to its original 14th century condition in the 1960s. Until then, another canvas covered the body and defused the face's drastic expression of suffering and gave it a "mild appearance". Since this renovation, for example, the mouth has reopened and shows that even details such as teeth have been carved out of the wood. The back, which is less visible, shows the spinous processes of the spine. The ribs are now also more prominent again. A minor renovation was necessary after 1945, because the cross survived the fire of St. Georg during the Bocholt bombing in an above-ground bunker, but leaned against the steel door of the bunker so unfavorably that the toes of the body burned from the heat. The supplemented toes were damaged by vandalism in 2013. This damage also broke off part of the loincloth. Both were subsequently reconstructed. An endoscopic examination through the side wound revealed the aforementioned treasure trove of relics, a computer tomography revealed some (inactive) pest infestations; The CT images show places that may be necessary for later transport where the body would be irreparably damaged if touched.
Anniversaries
For the 600th anniversary of the Cross in 1915, the parish published a devotional and prayer book entitled Cross Flowers . The parish of St. Georg u. A. with a pontifical mass on Easter Monday of 2015 as well as with a historical slide show.
literature
- Elisabeth Bröker: St. Georg Church Bocholt (= Small Art Guide . Issue No. 1639). Schnell & Steiner, Munich 1988, p. 23.
- Hans-Rudolf Gehrmann: 700 years of the Bocholt Cross . Leaflet. Bocholt 2015 ( PDF ; 294 kB).
- Parish St. Georg Bocholt: The history of the Bocholt cross . Devotional notes on the Bocholt Cross ( online ).
Web links
- City history: 700 years of veneration of the cross in St. Georg , press release of the city of Bocholt from February 28, 2015