Boniface monastery Hünfeld

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St. Boniface Monastery
BonifatiusklosterHuenfeld.jpg
location Germany
Hesse
Hünfeld
Lies in the diocese Fulda
Coordinates: 50 ° 40 '27.5 "  N , 9 ° 46' 8.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 40 '27.5 "  N , 9 ° 46' 8.8"  E
Patronage St. Boniface
founding year 1895 by Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary
Year of dissolution /
annulment
1941
Year of repopulation 1946

The Bonifatiuskloster Hünfeld is a Roman Catholic monastery of the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in the East Hessian town of Hünfeld , which is why they are also called Hünfeld Oblates . It was founded in 1895 and housed a philosophical and theological college until 1971 . Since then it has also been used as a conference center and is the motherhouse of the Central European Order Province established in 2007 .

history

In Hünfeld the first branch of the German Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary was founded in 1895, so they are also in the German-speaking Hünfelder wafers called. The church and the monastery complex were designed by the Paderborn cathedral and diocesan master builder Arnold Güldenpfennig . Construction began in 1896 and was completed in 1900. Until the completion of the monastery building in 1899, the community was housed in the town hall of Hünfeld.

The monastery developed steadily and housed a philosophical-theological college and a training center for the next generation of the order. At times over 140 scholastics (religious students) and 50 fathers and brothers lived in Hünfeld.

During the First World War , the monastery served as a reserve hospital from 1914 to 1919 .

30 years after the new building was completed, an extension was built in 1930.

In the Third Reich , the monastery was expropriated in 1941 and the Oblate Missionaries expelled. The resettlement took place in September 1946 after the end of the Second World War . The monastery library had been brought to Berlin in the meantime and came back to the Boniface monastery with the help of American soldiers. Sacred objects had been preserved by residents of the city.

A brother school was set up in 1950 for training in the monastery's craft businesses.

After a merger with the theological faculty in Fulda came about in 1968 , the religious college was closed in 1971 and the training relocated to Mainz. This upheaval resulted in a reorientation as a retreat and conference center for the monastery . The Boniface Monastery has housed the novitiate of the Oblates since the mid-1970s . In 1981 a care ward was opened in which wafers in need of care live. The Oblates' youth office has been located in the monastery since 2003 and coordinates youth work in the Central European Order Province.

On May 21, 2007 the Central European Province of the Oblates was founded and the Boniface Monastery its mother house.

Monastery church

Monastery church in Hünfeld

The monastery church is a cruciform, three-aisled basilica and is under the patronage of St. Boniface . The neo-Romanesque building was from 1897 to 1900, designed by Arnold Güldenpfennig built and on April 6, 1900 by Bishop Adalbert Endert ordained .

architecture

The model for the monastery church is a Romanesque church in Brittany . The main portal is on the south side, with a rose window above it . The facade is richly structured with arched windows , pilaster strips and friezes and is flanked by double towers with diamond helmets .

The monastery church has a separate confessional room, which invites to confession and auricular confession.

Furnishing

The monastery has a precious cross relic , which is embedded in a massive silver cross reliquary and was given to the monastery by the Landgravine and Prussian Princess Anna of Hesse . Some valuable liturgical vestments from this donor are still in the sacristy.

Choir room

The altar area was redesigned with the renewal of the liturgy . Today the 20-ton stone altar is the dominant center of the choir room.

The ambo is designed in the shape of a scroll with two seals. One seal depicts an angel with glowing coals, which he presses on the lips of the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 6,4  EU ). This should exhort the preacher to preach the word of God with clean lips. The second seal represents the founder of the order Eugen von Mazenod with his companions who are sent out to preach the good news of the gospel of Christ.

The tabernacle has twelve crystal stones that symbolize the Heavenly Jerusalem and the presence of God. Eternal light has the shape of a climbing plant, the vetch , which is often found in the Rhön . It is a sign of invincible life.

window

In the apse are three glass windows by the artist Agnes Mann. They represent the four evangelists on the right and left in the images of the Apocalypse (Revelation 4,3): lion, bull, man, eagle. In the middle window you can see the Lamb of God, who represents Christ, on a book with the seven seals. A six-part window cycle by Agnes Mann depicts the life of St. Boniface .

Altars

The church has four side altars, which are consecrated to Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia , Saint Anthony of Padua , Saint Joseph and Saint Theresa of Ávila . The saints are placed in a neo-Romanesque sandstone sculpture on the altar hall .

Bells

In the towers hang three bells with the chimes b (1441), c sharp and g sharp (both 1967).

organ

In the monastery church there is an organ made by the Fulda organ builder Fritz Clewing . The two-manual instrument was built in 1903 and had a cone chests with mechanical action . The organ was restored and rebuilt several times (including electrification of the action, installation of combinations) and its disposition changed. In the years 2012/2013 the organ was extensively restored, reorganized and partially returned by the company Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden and has since then had 32 registers .

I main work C – f 3
1. Bourdon 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Hollow flute 8th'
4th Dolce 8th'
5. Viol 8th'
6th octave 4 ′
7th flute 4 ′
8th. Fifth 2 23
9. octave 2 ′
10. Cornett III
11. Mixture IV 1 13
12. Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
II Swell C – f 3
13. Dumped 16 ′
14th viola 8th'
15th Darling Dumped 8th'
16. Aeoline 8th'
17th Vox Coelestis 8th'
18th Principal 4 ′
19th Covered 4 ′
20th Pointed flute 4 ′
21st Open flute 2 ′
22nd Sesquialter II 2 23
23. Mixture IV 2 ′
24. Dulcian 8th'
25th oboe 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – d 1
27. Principal bass 16 ′
28. Sub bass 16 ′
29 Covered bass 8th'
30th cello 8th'
31. Octave bass 8th'
32. trombone 16 ′
  • Glockenspiel, Zimbelstern, cuckoo (in the console)
  • Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P, Sub II / I, Sup II / II, Sup II / P
  • Roller with 4 different levels A, B, C, D
  • 6 fixed combinations
  • Modern typesetting system (as a touchscreen) with 1 free and 10 lockable levels of 10,000 combinations, transposition device, free coupling, interval coupling, song management, recording and playback function, speed controller for the tremulants and USB connection

Monastery life

Over 40 oblates live in the monastery, including scholastics , postulants and novices . The fathers are active in the parish, hospital, prison and exercise pastoral care in the diocese of Fulda . The brothers work in the workshops and in the conference center.

The monastery houses the novitiate of the Central European Province, the youth office and a care station for older oblates.

The monastery is considered a spiritual center and has around 15,000 conference guests annually. Around 100 beds are available in the main building and another 50 beds in the St. Josef building.

House chapel

The monastery has a modern house chapel that can seat around 80 people. It serves the monastery community for the hour prayer . The cross sculpture by the artist Agnes Mann has the medieval motif of the wine press. This is Christ, who is ground in the wine press and whose blood saves the world. It is at the same time a reference to the blood of Christ, i.e. the Eucharistic wine of the celebration of mass. A separate chapel houses a collection of icons .

Web links

Commons : Bonifatiuskloster (Hünfeld)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Brochure in the Bonifatiuskloster, 2011
  2. a b c Ralf Jehmlich: The monastery. In: bonifatiuskloster.de. St. Bonifatiuskloster Hünfeld, accessed on February 3, 2015 .
  3. a b c d Chronicle. In: bonifatiuskloster.de. St. Bonifatiuskloster Hünfeld, accessed on February 3, 2015 .