Christina von Stommeln

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Statue of Christina von Stommeln by Olaf Höhnen
Christina von Stommeln, north portal, Cologne Cathedral.

Christina von Stommeln , also Christina Bruso (* 1242 in Stommeln , today in Pulheim ; † November 6, 1312 ibid) was a beguine , mystic and stigmatized of the 13th century. The transmission of her life story through the Dominican Petrus von Dacien and a miraculous healing of Count Dietrich IX. von Kleve ensured a local veneration, due to which she was beatified in 1908 .

Shrine of Christina von Stommeln in the provost church of St. Mariä Himmelfahrt, Jülich

Life

Christina was born in 1242 as the daughter of the free farmer Heinrich Bruso and his wife Hilla in Stommeln, today a district of Pulheim. She had four siblings: Hilla, Gertrud, Heinrich and Sigwin. The family was quite wealthy.

At the age of ten she had a vision of Jesus Christ in which he asked her to devote her life to Him alone and prophesied that she would live with the Beguines. At the age of 13, Christina went to Cologne without her parents' permission to join a beginner's convention. Which of the numerous convents it was concerned with is disputed. Christina was rejected by her fellow sisters in the convent because of her rigid asceticism and states of rapture during her visions.

Christ gives Christina a ring. The embroidered figures on the silk gloves from the shrine of Blessed Christina von Stommeln are the oldest depictions of Christina (Museum Zitadelle Jülich).

In 1259 she returned to Stommeln, where she stayed in changing households until the end of her life. In 1267 she met the Swedish Dominican Petrus von Dacien, who had been studying at the Dominican convent in Cologne since 1266 to study general . This encounter would shape her life as the monk became her spiritual mentor, lifelong friend and biographer. He visited her 15 more times until his death in 1289. Christina turned down invitations to go to Sweden several times.

After her father's death in 1278, she ran the parental farm together with her brother Sigwin, which had got into financial difficulties in the 1270s. After the farm was ruined in 1280, Christina was dependent on the support of her personal circle in Stommeln. Her brother was accepted into the Dominican monastery in Västerås , Sweden , after the intercession of Peter von Dacien . After 1288 there is no further information about her life, but her death on November 6, 1312 in Stommeln is certain.

Visions, ecstasies and stigmata

The fascination of contemporaries and posterity with Christina von Stommeln can be explained by her visions , her ecstatic states of rapture, and her documented stigmatization . Visions and demonic apparitions have haunted her since her youth. The sources describe that they may a. was thrown through the air, suffered burns and injuries, demons stained her and her surroundings with excrement, toads, snakes and spiders appeared in their food and the like. a. m.

In doing so, they plagued up to 200,000 devils, for example at Easter 1283. Especially from the 1270s, the reports about their demon appearances intensified drastically.

Christina von Stommeln differs from other German mystics in her mystical experience, as in her passion and bride mystical vision take a back seat to devil and demon phenomena. Since the age of 15, the stigmata of Christ on Christina von Stommeln are said to have manifested themselves, especially during Holy Week. Cross-shaped stigmata on their hands are said to have appeared outside of Easter time. This makes Christina von Stommeln one of the earliest attested female stigmatists in Christianity . From 1288, no further visions and demon appearances are attested by Christina von Stommeln.

The relationship between Christina von Stommeln and Petrus von Dacien

Christina von Stommeln had a close relationship with the Swedish monk Petrus von Dacien, who was about the same age . Peter saw in Christina a person in whom God worked directly. Christina found in him a friend who was not only interested in her experiences, but also placed them in a theological context and made them understandable to her. Despite the spatial distance, the two maintained a close relationship until Peter's death in 1289. Their correspondence has been preserved in the Codex Iuliacensis . Because of the love for one another evoked in the letters, an erotic component of the relationship was repeatedly assumed, which is now denied. Petrus von Dacien made it very important to value his love for Christina as an expression of his love for God.

Tomb of Christina von Stommeln with sarcophagus and reliquary. Copper engraving after a drawing by Peter Steinfunder from 1692. The wrought-iron structure was destroyed in 1783 by a vault in the Jülich provost church.

Afterlife

After her death on November 6, 1312, Christina von Stommeln was buried next to the tower of the Stommelner local church. The miracle work at the grave is due to the alleged healing of Count Dietrich IX. attested by the gout. In 1327 a monastery was founded in her honor . On May 1, 1342, the monastery and its remains were relocated to Nideggen , the then residence of Margrave Wilhelm V. Under Duke Wilhelm V, the monastery was relocated to the new residence city of Jülich in 1569 . The bones followed in 1592 and are now resting in the provost church of St. Mary's Assumption . The veneration was confirmed by the Catholic Church in 1908 and Christina von Stommeln was beatified by Pope Pius X.

Sources and literature

Source editions

  • Acta Sanctorum Iunii. T.4: Complexus diem mensis vigesimum et quatuor sequente s, Antwerp 1707 (Ndr. Brussels 1969).
  • Monika Asztalos (Ed.): Petrus de Dacia. De gratia naturam ditante sive de virtutibus Christinae Stumbelensis (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis 28), Stockholm 1982.
  • Isak Collijn (ed.): Vita B. Christinae Stumbelensis ex manuscriptis Petri de Dacia et Johannis capellani in Stumbel. Efter Cod. Einsidlensis 470 med understöd av Humanistica Fonden , (= Samlingar utg. Av Svenska Fornskriftsällskapet; 2,2), Uppsala 1936.
  • Digital copy of the Codex Iuliacensis
  • Johannes Paulson: Petri de Dacia Vita Christinae Stumbelensis. Fasc. II secundum de vita Christinae librum contines , (= Scriptores latini medii aevi suecani; 1), Gothenburg 1896 (Ndr. Frankfurt a. M. 1985).
  • Theodor Wollersheim: Life of the ecstatic and stigmatic virgin Christina von Stommeln, as described by the eyewitness Petrus von Dacien and others, based on authentic sources , Cologne 1859.

literature

  • Günther Bers: The adoration of the blessed Christina von Stommeln in Jülich from the 16th to the 20th century. On the cultural history of a folk saint , (= publications of the Jülich history association; Volume 9), Jülich 1986, ISBN 3-9800914-8-1 .
  • John Coakley: A marriage and its observer: Christine of Stommeln, the Heavenly Bridegroom, and Friar Peter of Dacia. In: Mooney, Catherine M. (Eds.), Gendered voices, Medieval saints and their interpreters, Philadelphia 1999, pp. 99–117; 229-235
  • Peter Dinzelbacher : Christina (the Cologne) v. Stomping. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 2, Munich 1983, pp. 1919f.
  • Seeing God & love of God. The mystic Christina von Stommeln 1242-1312 , exhibition catalog Jülich, Museum Zitadelle, October 24, 2012 - January 13, 2013, (= Guide of the Museum Zitadelle Jülich; Volume 24), Regensburg 2012.
  • Aviad M. Kleinberg: Prophets in their own country. Living saints and the making of sainthood in the later Middle Ages , Chicago 1992.
  • Johannes Madey :  Christina von Stommeln. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 412  ( article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Anna J. Martin: Christina von Stommeln. In: Mediävistik 4/1991, pp. 179–263.
  • Peter Nieveler: Codex Iuliacensis. Christina von Stommeln and Petrus von Dacien. Your life and afterlife in history, art and literature (= publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archives Aachen . No. 34). Cooling, Mönchengladbach 1975, ISBN 3-87448-079-8 .
  • Christine Ruhrberg: The literary body of the saints. Life and Vitae of Christina von Stommeln (1242–1312) , (= Bibliotheca Germanica . No. 35). Francke, Tübingen and Basel 1995, ISBN 3-7720-2026-7 .
  • Arnold Steffens: The blessed Christina von Stommeln , Fulda 1912.
  • Alois Wachtel:  Christina von Stommeln. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 241 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Christina von Stommeln  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christine Ruhrberg: The literary body of the saints. Life and Vitae of Christina von Stommeln (1242-1312) (= Bibliotheca Germanica 35). Tübingen / Basel 1995, ISBN 3-7720-2026-7 , p. 55.
  2. ↑ Johannes Paulson: Vita Christinae Stumbelensis / Petrus de Dacia, reprint of the Göteborg edition 1896, ed. V. Alf Önnerfors (Latin Language and Literature of the Middle Ages 20), Frankfurt a. M. 1985, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Peter Nieveler: Codex Iuliacensis. Christina von Stommeln and Petrus von Dacien. Your life and afterlife in history, art and literature, (Publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archive Aachen 34), Mönchengladbach 1975, p. 60. ISBN 3-87448-079-8
  4. ↑ Wollersheim, Theodor, The life of the ecstatic and stigmatic virgin Christina von Stommeln as described by the eyewitness Petrus von Dacien and others. Written from authentic sources, Cologne 1859, p. 498.
  5. ↑ Andreas Fasel: Christina von Stommeln: The enigmatic mystic from the Rhineland . January 27, 2013 ( welt.de [accessed May 10, 2019]).
  6. ^ Anna J. Martin: Christina von Stommeln, in Mediävistik 4, 1991, p. 228
  7. ↑ Peter Dinzelbacher: Personal and time-typical in the religious experience of Christina Bruso, in: Gottesschau & Gottesliebe, p. 142.
  8. ↑ Günther Bers: The adoration of the blessed Christina von Stommeln in Jülich from the 16th to the 20th century. On the cultural history of a folk saint, (publications by the Jülich history association 9), Jülich 1986, ISBN 3-9800914-8-1

See also: List of Mystics

personal data
SURNAME Christina von Stommeln
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Christina Bruso
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Beguine, mystic and stigmatized
DATE OF BIRTH 1242
PLACE OF BIRTH Stomping
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1312
Place of death Stomping