German Orthodox Trinity Monastery Buchhagen

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The Holy Trinity Monastery in early summer (2009)

The German Orthodox Trinity Monastery Buchhagen is a branch of Orthodox monks in Buchhagen , a district of the small town of Bodenwerder in the Holzminden district in Lower Saxony . It is the only monastery in the Bulgarian Orthodox metropolis of Western and Central Europe and is in the tradition of the Athos monasteries . The architecture of the buildings combines the Byzantine style with that of the Saxon pre-Romanesque . There are currently (2020) six monks living in the monastery, including two priest monks , a deacon and a novice .

history

After a small Orthodox community of three men had come together in Germany, who began in 1985 in an apartment in what was then West Berlin with a shared religious life with liturgical choir prayer and prepared to found a monastery, and the necessary financial resources could be raised Foundation established and in 1990, after a long search, bought a plot of land in Buchhagen. The Trinity Monastery Buchhagen is headed by Abbot Johannes Pfeiffer (* 1955), who previously studied music and religious studies in Berlin and was ordained a monk on Mount Athos in 1984 after his conversion to Orthodoxy.

Most of the time, the monks built a convent building with a chapel and the crypt for a monastery church, which is still to be built. At Easter 1992 the community was able to move into the completed first construction phase. The Bulgarian Orthodox Metropolitan Symeon consecrated the monastery in 1994 and the crypt in 1996.

architecture

Gate of the Trinity Monastery Buchhagen with Michaelsturm .
Inner courtyard of the Trinity Monastery in Buchhagen, as it was in 2006.
Inner courtyard with holy water fountain as Monopteros .

The construction planning comes from Abbot Johannes. The designs are unique in the world and are based on the hermitages and monasteries on the Holy Mount Athos as well as on the old Saxon pre-Romanesque widespread in the Upper Weser region . The Detmold "St. Martin Order", a regional offshoot of the International Building Order , was responsible for the statics and construction organization .

All buildings are arranged according to church tradition. The Katholikon is oriented to the east . The Trinity Church is to be built over the existing crypt, the "Temple of Divine Wisdom". The holy water fountain as a monopteros on eight columns with a dome contains elements of the pre-Romanesque of the Weser region. It is consecrated to the Mother of God, the "life-giving spring", which is why her image adorns the dome. The "Michaelsturm" erected directly next to the gate acts as the "protector of the sanctuary" and will later house the bells. The Marienturm is located in the northeast corner of the courtyard.

The crypt takes on the liturgical form of early Christian churches with an ambo, along with a candlestick and a celebrant's seat . The small room is built into the slope and accessed from the south by a narthex . In the front area there are two vaults with the seats of the monks, which expand the space into a cross shape. To the west of the sacristy is a replica of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem .

The monastery is surrounded by a wall with octagonal pointed turrets. It can only be entered through a semicircular wooden gate with an icon above it. The two-story monastery building has arched windows and a pillar terrace. A stone staircase leads first to a small garden and then down to the crypt.

Relics

The monastery has an important collection of relics. Relics of Alexander of Rome and the innocent children of Bethlehem were given to the monastery as altar relics by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church when the crypt was consecrated by Metropolitan Symeon on July 30, 1996 . Later relics of the abbot bishop Vitalis of Salzburg and the doctors Cyrus and Johannes were added, as well as relics of the monk's father Columban , the martyrs Vitus , Auxentios , Charalampos and the Romanian new martyrs from the 20th century.

From the former imperial abbey of Corvey , the monastery received 2,006 relics of the Apostle Bartholomew , Justin the philosopher and martyr , the Merkurios and the abbots Liudolf and Drutmar of Corvey . The tradition of worshiping Mercury is continued in the monastery. 2012 Merkurios relic were paid one with carvings decorated shrine of oak . Some newly founded Bulgarian monasteries received particles of the Buchhager relics for their altars.

Since the monastery is located on the territory of the former tribal duchy of Saxony , the tradition of worshiping the patron saint of Saxony , St. Vitus, is continued.

Ecclesiastical status

In 1993 the monastery was canonically incorporated into the Bulgarian Orthodox Church , and in 1994 it was given its statute, which goes back to one that had already been drawn up in 1982 on Mount Athos for the German re-establishment. This laid down the German national character and the monastic autonomy of the monastery.

Theologically this foundation is justified by the fact that it corresponds to the testimony of the Slav apostles Cyril and Method , who defended the right of all peoples 1000 years ago to hold divine services in their own language and to develop independent church structures.

Liturgy and specifics

In addition to the care of the Byzantine liturgy , the care of the liturgical chant ("German chant") is a specialty. This choral song was developed by the abbot of the monastery for Orthodox worship in German. The German chant takes up the Byzantine chant, as it is practiced in the Athos monasteries and other monastic centers of the Orthodox Church. It is notated in the lined chorale notation developed in the Roman Catholic Abbey of Solesmes . Its specialty is that it is based on the natural tone series. The aim is to create a version of the melodies that is suitable for singing and that matches the prosodic and tonal character of German.

With regard to the appropriate linguistic form, the monastery is in contact with language nurturing societies such as the Neue Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft or the Verein für Sprachpflege e. V. (VfS), who publishes the magazine Deutsche Sprachwelt . Abbot Johannes (Pfeiffer) is a member of this association.

Buchhäger Psalter

The basis for the chanting of the psalms in the monastery is a translation made by Abbot Johannes and published in 2008, the Buchhäger Psalter , in order to be able to hold the Liturgy of the Hours in German. In contrast to other translations from the Hebrew original text, the Buchhäger Psalter offers a German translation based on the Septuagint , the translation of the original text into the ancient Greek language . The Psalter adopts the numbering of the Psalms and the psalm headings from the Septuagint , which also contains Psalm 151 , which is not included in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh . According to the Orthodox tradition, the psalms are divided into 20 cathisms , each of which is divided into three subsections. In brackets, each psalm is also given which service it belongs to.

Reception, awards

The publishing bookstore "Manuscriptum", whose publishing program has a right-wing conservative and new right-wing orientation and publishes authors such as Björn Höcke , Rolf Peter Sieferle and Akif Pirinçci , names the monastery with a photo on the front page of its website and dedicates its own subpage to it which the publications are advertised and which is forwarded to the monastery homepage. The Buchhäger Psalter was initially marketed by Manufactum through goods from monasteries . The originally green-alternative Manufactum founder Thomas Hoof took over the marketing of the Buchhäger Psalter for his publishing company Manuscriptum , the tendency of which is increasingly determined by new right-wing positions.

For the graphic design of its publications and the use of broken fonts , the monastery received the sponsorship award of the German Writing Foundation of the Federation for German writing and language in 2012 , with the preservation, promotion and dissemination of broken fonts and German cursive as well as the corresponding artistic design of the typographic work should be awarded. As the television magazine Panorama reported on March 28, 2019, critics locate the Bund for German writing and language in the extremely right-wing milieu with appropriate contacts; the federal government protests against the accusation of legal burden.

In 2018, as a result of the publication of the Buchhäger Divine Liturgy, the monastery was nominated in the Sprachwahrer des Jahres competition of the German Language World magazine of the Association for Language Maintenance .

Way of life

The monks live in privacy and prayer . The foundation statute says: "The monastery serves to renew the Christian spirit and the Christian culture of Germany from the legacy of the old, undivided church, as it is alive in the Orthodox churches to this day." Staying for several days as a guest in the monastery is for men and women male adolescents (from 14 years) possible.

Buchhagen Abbey is a stop on the Loccum-Volkenroda pilgrimage route. It is on stage 07 from Bodenwerder to Kirchbrak . As a men's monastery, it only offers overnight accommodation for men.

circle of friends

The Familiar are a group of Orthodox Christians who are connected to the monastery in several ways. Membership in Familiaritas, a non-profit association of persons, requires membership in the Orthodox Church. The familiars are not monks, but consciously live in the world as Orthodox Christians. They have their spiritual father in the monastery and find spiritual support and orientation there. There are also supporters of the monastery who are not organized and do not have to belong to the Orthodox Church. A non-profit "Foundation of the German Orthodox Trinity Monastery" was set up to financially support the monastery, which is financially on its own.

Publications of the Klosterverlag (selection)

  • Archimandrite Johannes: That you worship in spirit and truth, morphology and mystagogy of the orthodox daily prayer. Verlag des Klosters Buchhagen, 1999, ISBN 978-3-926236-06-7 (268 pages).
  • Ritual Book of the Holy Mountain. Athos Typikon. Edition of the holy monastery Buchhagen, 2005, ISBN 3-926236-12-4 (252 pages).
  • The German Psalms from the Septuagint. Buchhäger Psalter. Verlag des Klosters Buchhagen, 2008, ISBN 978-3-926236-07-4 (284 pages).
  • Archimandrite Johannes: From the mystery of monasticism. Verlag des Klosters Buchhagen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-926236-16-6 (64 pages).
  • Archimandrite Johannes: The way to natural cult chant, the musical system of the German orthodox church chant, its spiritual and historical requirements, its symbolism and the harmonic structure of the overtones. Musical-philosophical textbook. Verlag des Klosters Buchhagen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-926236-09-8 (280 pages).
  • The Divine Liturgy. Dreifaltigkeitskloster publishing house, 2017, ISBN 978-3-926236-19-7 , (reading sample, books.google.de ).

literature

  • Hans Hölscher: Buchhagen. The story of a village in Vogler. Part 2: From the history of three courtyards and the monastery. Self-published by the author, Kirchbrak July 1996.
  • Holy night of the monks. In: Welt am Sonntag . December 21, 2003 ( welt.de ).
  • Armin Simon: The abbot and his monk. In: The daily newspaper . December 23, 2003 ( taz.de ).
  • Jens Gundlach: Between Loccum and Volkenroda. Lutherisches Verlagshaus GmbH, Hanover 2005, ISBN 3-7859-0914-4 .
  • Like from another world. The only German Orthodox monastery in the Federal Republic. In: Catholic Sunday newspaper for Germany . 16./17. December 2006.
  • Sniff monastery life. The somewhat different time out - a weekend among Orthodox monks in the Weser Uplands near Hameln. In: Dresdner Latest News . January 6, 2008.
  • Monastery celebrates Easter. Time measurement according to the Julian calendar. In: Deister and Weser newspaper . April 17, 2008.
  • Harald Lachmann: How out of this world ... 30-year-old ex-Leipzig citizen now lives as father Lazarus in the Trinity Monastery in Buchhagen. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung . September 21, 2009.
  • Hans-Dieter Döpmann : The Orthodox Churches in Past and Present (= Trier Treatises on Slavic Studies. Volume 9), 2nd edition, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt, Berlin, Bern et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60449-6 , P. 98 f.
  • Abbot Johannes: German as a holy language. Orthodox liturgy and language culture. In: Deutsche Sprachwelt . Edition 74, Winter 2018/2019, p. 3 f.

Web links

Commons : Dreifaltigkeitskloster (Buchhagen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ orthodox.de: history .
  2. ↑ The border station between heaven and earth. 15 years of Buchhagen Abbey. A look behind the scenes / Great interest in the open day. In: Deister and Weser newspaper from October 6, 2005.
  3. ↑ The Holy Trinity Monastery in Buchhagen. on the website of Orthodoxographia ( Maico-Mannesmann Academy for Science and Education eV ).
  4. ^ Archimandrite John: That you worship in spirit and truth, morphology and mystagogy of the orthodox daily prayer. Verlag des Klosters Buchhagen, 1999, ISBN 978-3-926236-06-7 , p. 62.
  5. ↑ Harald Lachmann: How out of this world ... 30-year-old ex-Leipzig resident now lives as father Lazarus in the Trinity Monastery Buchhagen In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from September 21, 2009.
  6. ↑ Klosterbrief 2012 , p. 16.
  7. ↑ Father Lazarus: From the history of the monastery. Part 1, 1985-1995 . In: monastery letter . 2015, p. 43-44 .
  8. ↑ German Orthodox Chant Overwhelmed by Beauty
  9. ↑ Martin Erdmann: The divine liturgy of our holy father Johannes Chrysostom, sung in German Choral in (music) publishing house Kultgesang Buchhagen In: Der Christliche Osten. Issue 1, 2011.
  10. ^ Norbert Pietsch: German as "holy language". Language-loving monks created a new psalm translation. In: Deutsche Sprachwelt , issue 36, summer 2009, p. 8.
  11. ↑ With fracture in the sky . Abbot Johannes is referred to as a "fellow campaigner in our league".
  12. ^ Bernhard Lang (Ed.): International Review of Biblical Studies. (= International magazine show for biblical studies and border areas ). Volume 55 (2008-2009), Brill, Leiden 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-18150-2 , p. 4 ( books.google.de ).
  13. ↑ manuscriptum.de: The orthodox monastery Buchhagen. A portrait , accessed April 24, 2020.
  14. ↑ manuscriptum.de: A truly spiritual place. The orthodox monastery Buchhagen. , accessed on April 24, 2020.
  15. ↑ Buchhäger Psalter in the Manufactum catalog : Good things from monasteries 2010/2011, section Meditation and Silence , page books (documented by Yumpu ).
  16. ↑ Akif Pirinçci - Manufactum distances itself from the company founder because of the Pirinçci book. In: Zeit Online. April 8, 2014, accessed May 23, 2019 .
  17. ^ Right publishers - Björn Höcke comes to the book fair . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 6, 2018. Accessed on May 23, 2019.
  18. ↑ deutscheschrift.de: Prize winners.
  19. ↑ Address and praise God in clear words. What the Buchhäger monastery community values ​​so much about German writing and language / sponsorship award. In: Daily Anzeiger Holzminden . December 8, 2012.
  20. ↑ daserste.ndr.de: Panorama , March 28, 2019: Tax: Benefits for right-wing extremist associations , accessed on April 22, 2020.
  21. ↑ Sprachwahrer of the year 2018 on the website of the magazine Deutsche Sprachwelt .
  22. ↑ Horst Nierzwicki, Thomas Matthis Radius, Ingelore Wuttrich: With fracture in the sky. New: Orthodox liturgical book now entirely in German and printed. In: Die deutsche Schrift , quarterly issue for the promotion of the German language and writing, 85th year (2018), 208th episode (4/2018), pp. 12-15.
  23. ↑ German Orthodox Trinity Monastery Buchhagen on the website pilgerweg-navigator.de.
  24. ↑ A piece of self-reflection in hectic times. Large crowds at the open day in Buchhagen Abbey as a stop on the pilgrimage route . In: Deister and Weser newspaper from October 5, 2006.
  25. ↑ Stage 07 of the Loccum-Volkenroda pilgrimage route on the pilgerweg-navigator.de website.
  26. ^ Website of the Loccum-Volkenroda pilgrimage route .
  27. ↑ As a guest in the monastery .
  28. ↑ В. В. Каширина: Схиархимандрит Иоанн. "О таинстве монашества" , published in the magazine Монастырский вестник (German: 'Klosterbote'), issue 2 (February) 2017


Coordinates: 51 ° 58 ′ 28.3 "  N , 9 ° 32 ′ 33.8"  E