Dorothea of Montau
Dorothea von Montau (actually Dorothea Swartze ) (born February 6, 1347 in Groß Montau ; † June 25, 1394 in Marienwerder ) was a hermit and mystic . She is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and is considered the patroness of the Teutonic Order and Prussia.
Live and act
Dorothea von Montau came from a wealthy farming family. When she was seven, she was scalded with boiling water in an accident and almost died. As a child, Dorothea began to impose mortifications and ascetic exercises . She kneeled in front of the cross ( Venien ) under the guidance of her mother and did not want to eat dairy foods during Lent , even though she was not yet obliged to fast according to her age. In addition, her biographer reports on self-scalding, extreme fasting, wounding of the feet, sleeping in the cold and other practices.
At the urging of her family, she married a gunsmith from Gdansk . The marriage had nine children, of which only one daughter (who later became a nun in Kulm ) survived. Shortly after the wedding, Dorothea von Montau had her first visions . In their accounts of these mystical experiences it says
"[...] body and soul flowed with great lust, and the soul flowed with great heated love and lust just like an ore that had melted and became one in spirit with our dear Lord."
After the death of her husband in 1389 or 1390 Dorothea moved to Marienwerder. There she met the dean of the cathedral and Teutonic order priest Johannes Marienwerder , her future confessor and biographer.
In 1391 she was threatened with being burned as a witch in Danzig because she was allegedly wrong in her belief. The visions reported in their confessional talks were held before her. Her confessor Johannes von Marienwerder was just able to prevent an impending burn.
Dorothea gave away her fortune and until the end of her life retired as a recluse in a cell that had been attached to the building complex of the Marienwerder cathedral .
Adoration
Pope Paul VI canonized Dorothea von Montau in 1976; the canonization process, which was exerted shortly after her death and supported by the Teutonic Order, had not continued since 1404 and was only resumed in 1955. Dorothea's life was described by Johannes Marienwerder and the book was printed in Marienburg by Jakob Karweyse in 1492 .
literature
- Günter Grass describes the life of Dorothea von Montau from the perspective of her embittered husband in his novel Der Flounder .
- Hilde Firtel : Dorothea von Montau. A German mystic. Kanisius Verlag, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1968.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Dorothea von Montau. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1362-1364.
- Peter Dinzelbacher : Christian Mysticism in the Occident. Your story from the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages. Schöning, Paderborn et al. 1994.
- Ralph Frenken: Childhood and Mysticism in the Middle Ages . (= Supplements to Mediaevistics; Volume 2). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2002
- Richard Stachnik : Dorothea von Montau. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 84 ( digitized version ).
- Johannes Marienwerder (Author), Anneliese Triller (Ed.): Liber de festis. Revelations of Dorothea von Montau (= research and sources on the church and cultural history of East Germany . Vol. 25). Böhlau, Cologne 1992, ISBN 978-3-412-04891-4 .
- Max Toeppen (ed.): The life of St. Dorothea by Johannes Marienwerder. In: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum ( The historical sources of Prussian prehistoric times ). Volume 2. Hirzel, Leipzig 1863, pp. 179–374. ( Digitized version )
- Franz Hipler : Master Johannes Marienwerder, professor of theology in Prague, and Dorothea von Montau from Klausner. A life picture from the church history of the 14th century . Ed. Peter, Braunsberg 1865 ( e-copy ).
Web links
- Dorothea von Montau in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
- Iohannes de Marienwerder in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages" with references to his writings on Dorothea
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Dinzelbacher (1994), p. 349.
- ↑ "When the blessed Dorothea reached the age of 7, it happened through a failure that she was doused so much with boiling water that her mother, tormented so much with great pity, had to resuscitate her in a cradle." Dorothea v. M. (1863), p. 209; New High German transmission from Frenken (2002), p. 232.
- ^ According to Marienwerder in: Max Toeppen (Ed.): The life of St. Dorothea by Johannes Marienwerder. In: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum (The historical sources of Prussian prehistoric times). Volume 2. Hirzel, Leipzig 1863, p. 204.
- ↑ See Frenken (2002), p. 232.
- ↑ See Frenken (2002), p. 231 ff.
- ↑ Dorothea v. M. (1863), p. 238, New High German transmission from Frenken (2002), p. 20.
- ↑ Experience God's closeness directly: Mysticism in the Middle Ages and with Martin Luther , edited by Berndt Hamm, Volker Leppin and Heidrun Munzert, 2007, Tübingen, ISBN 978-3-16-149211-2 , p. 335.
- ↑ Peter Dinzelbacher: Christian Mysticism in the Occident. Your story from the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages. Schöning, Paderborn et al. 1994. p. 351.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Dorothea of Montau |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | catholic saints |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1347 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Great Montau |
DATE OF DEATH | June 25, 1394 |
Place of death | Marienwerder |