Christian de Cort

Christian de Cort , also Chrétien de Cort , (* 1608/1609 in Hilvarenbeek ( North Brabant ); † 1669 on Nordstrand ) was a Catholic priest and builder of the St. Theresa Church on Nordstrand.

Life

Christian de Cort was the son of the secretary Bartholomäus de Cort and his wife Adriana Gorop. In his training as a priest he was a. a. Strongly influenced by the reform theologian Cornelius Jansen . Even after Jansen's death, he kept in touch with Jansenist theologians and the Port Royal des Champs monastery , which was considered the center of the reform movement. In 1630 he joined the Oratorium Belgicum World Priests' Congregation in Leuven, founded in 1626 . He later became a priest at the St. John's Church in Mechelen and superior of the oratory there and finally in 1654 provost.

In 1648 de Cort's home was assigned to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in the Peace of Westphalia . Catholicism was now forbidden there. At the same time, Jansenism in absolutist France was exposed to increasing persecution.

North beach

1652 the Gottorf Duke Friedrich III. an octroy to re-dike the remains of the island of Strand, which sank in the Burchardi flood in 1634 . The Oktroy also included the right to freely practice religion for Catholics, Calvinists or Mennonites in the Evangelical Lutheran Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf in order to attract experienced and financially strong dike builders from the Netherlands . Three of the first four main participants were related to Christian de Cort and, like him, adhered to Jansenism: Deichgraf Quirinus Indervelden was married to de Cort's niece, Alewijn van der Woert was his brother-in-law and Abraham van der Wercken was his nephew.

The acquisition of the first Koog in 1654 exceeded the participants' funds. De Cort joined as the fifth main participant and bought the tithe from the other partners . To this end, de Cort was given responsibility for pastoral and educational support for the population of the new Koog, mostly dike workers from Catholic Braband, like the Octroyn takers themselves. It is possible that de Cort saw the religious freedom granted by the Duke of Gottorf as an opportunity for the Catholic dyke builders to live and expand his religion in freedom when he acquired the tithe from his own resources and those of the oratorio. In the same year, 1654, the Catholic community was founded on Nordstrand and de Cort sent a priest, his nephew Johannes Heys, to look after them. In 1655, de Cort himself went to Nordstrand as the agent for the participants and director of the island. For the oratorian fathers whom he brought to the island, he had a house built, in whose chapel the services were first celebrated. The purchase price for the tithe was used to finance the necessary repairs to the new dike, which was damaged by a storm surge in 1655.

In 1656 the fourth main participant Josef de Smit sold his share to de Cort in a dispute with his fellow participants. The entire island was then owned by de Cort's relatives. As director, de Cort was now solely responsible for the further dikes. He sold land and gained other donors, including numerous Jansenists such as Antoine Arnauld , Pierre Nicole and Johannes von Neercassel , the Apostolic Vicar of Batavia , so that in 1657 the dike of Maria-Elisabeth-Koog (today: Osterkoog) could be completed in 1657.

In 1662 the St. Theresa Church was built on the Osterdeich at the intersection of the three kings. The selection of St. Theresa of Avila and the "holy nun of Oirschot", the Carmelite Maria van Valkenisse (1605-1658), who died only five years earlier , as church patrons probably goes back to him, because his relative Anna de Cort was with them Maria van Valkenisse was the founder of the Carmel in Oirschot .

However, the cost of successful land reclamation also exceeded its means. Before the dike of the Trindermarsch-Koog was tackled in 1663, De Cort returned to his pastor in Mechelen in 1662. In 1664 he left his private shares, which were burdened with high debts, including the tithe, the main participation and the church, to the oratory, which was supposed to pay for its debts and take responsibility for the parish. As a result, he was not only completely destitute, but was still considered a debtor.

Antoinette Bourignon

In Mechelen in 1663 he met the mystic Antoinette Bourignon , found in her a like-minded person and participated in her writings as her “spiritual son”. He published her most important work La lumière du monde in Amsterdam , which was created in conversation with him. Together with her he wanted to found a community of perfect Christians on Nordstrand based on the example of the early church . She also participated financially in the Nordstrander company, for which she was awarded a share in the Osterkoog.

In 1668, de Cort returned to Nordstrand and requested the cancellation of the sales contract and reinstatement in his office. This was granted to him by Duke Christian Albrecht , but failed due to the resistance of the main participants. De Cort traveled to Amsterdam to attract new key participants, but was arrested due to his high debt. Released on the intervention of the Duke of Gottorf, he returned to Nordstrand, where he died on October 28, 1669 in front of the altar of the Theresienkirche as a good Catholic priest and "Director Nordstrandiae" according to the church book . In his will he had appointed Antoinette Bourignon as the chief heir. Although his legacy consisted only of debt, Bourignon tried to settle on Nordstrand in 1671. But although she wanted to prove her orthodoxy in 1675 with Confessio Norstrandico , her claims were not recognized.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier / Peter Schmidt-Eppendorf: Cort, Christian de; in: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexikon Volume 5 (1979); Pp. 70-74
• Old Catholic parish of Nordstrand (ed.): De Domo Nordstrandica. Festschrift for the 350th anniversary of the old Catholic parish of Nordstrand (1654–2004); North Beach 2004

Web links

• Nordstrand parish: Cathedral history from: Alt-Katholisch , accessed on April 5, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Kuenz: North beach after 1634. The re-diked North Frisian island . [Singen] 1978, pp. 61-65
2. ^ Ernst-Wilhelm Heese: The Jansenism and north beach . Nordstrand 1982 (without page numbers)
3. ↑ Angela Berlis: Maria Margaretha of the angels. The unknown second church patroness of the old Catholic church on Nordstrand , in: De Domo Nordstrandico, pp. 111-137 ( excerpt on the church website )
4. ↑ Berlis: Maria Margaretha der Engelen, p. 120, 132.
5. ↑ Maria de Baar: "Ik moet spreken". Het spiritueel Leiderschap van Antoinette Bourignon ; P. 85f [1]
6. ↑ German edition: Das Liecht der Welt: In different, truthful stories, which are well worthy of all those who still strive to promote their salience to some extent, to be properly understood and understood / 3 Which of all those who Desires to be blessed, to be read, to be understood, and to be worthy of being understood, therein are the last conversations held between Anthoinette Burignon and Christian de Cort ... , Amsterdam 1681
7. ^ Gerhard Philipp Wolf: Bourignon, Antoinette de ; in: TRE 7, pp. 93-97; P. 94
8. ^ Kuenz: Nordstrand after 1634. P. 76, 133, 157
9. ^ Kuenz: Nordstrand after 1634. p. 161