Admont Women's Convent

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The Admont women's monastery was a nunnery attached to the Admont Abbey in Austria from the beginning of the 12th century until the Reformation , which existed alongside the Benedictine men's abbey . At that time, the monastery formed a double monastery under the leadership of the abbot of the monks' convent with a superior named Magistra for the women's convent.

history

In the first years after the inauguration of Abbot Wolfhold between 1116 and 1120, a Benedictine convent was founded in Admont . The founding of such a double monastery was not uncommon at that time and is particularly known from the monasteries of the Benedictines , the Premonstratensians and the Augustinian Canons . For the Austrian area, Salzburg , Gurk , the Seckau Abbey , Klosterneuburg , St. Pölten , St. Florian , Melk , Göttweig , Seitenstetten , St. Peter and the Benedictine Abbey Michaelbeuern are mentioned.

Dual monastic system in early monasticism

This manifestation of the monasteries is already known in early Eastern monasticism . Double monasteries are also known in the Merovingian-Franconian times, but here they were often women's monasteries with an attached men's convent. The reason for these double monasteries of the early period were in most cases family conversions, which of course required monasteries for men and women. Especially in the Anglo-Saxon region of the 7th and 8th centuries, double monasteries were increasingly founded, some of which were also under female leadership (ductrix / mater spiritalis - leader / spiritual mother).

With the emergence of the (young) Cluniacens and the canon reform of the Augustinian Canons, women (sometimes with different monastic rules ) joined the Reformed male monasteries in many cases , as was the case in Admont after the Hirsau reform began . Hirsau Monastery itself avoided setting up a double monastery: the nuns originally attached to the convent were relocated to Kentheim before 1079 - before the Ordo Cluniacensis was taken over. Nevertheless, the "double monastery institute", as Kassius Hallinger calls it, can be described as a hallmark of the Hirsau reform. Hirsau and St. Blasien knew and promoted the affiliation of women to the men's convents from the end of the 11th century, while the imperial monasticism and the Cistercians were opposed to this institution.

The advantages of the dual monastery system are obvious: The support of the nuns with regard to spiritual accompaniment, the dispensing of the sacraments and the celebration of mass was made easier. In addition, it was priests of the same spiritual background who stood by the sisters. In addition, the monks were able to help the nuns, who were much more strictly claused, in economic matters, provision of livelihoods, administration and legal issues. (Cf. Wichner, Jakob, Nonnenkloster, p. 76. Wichner writes at this point - mind you in the year 1881 - that “there can be no talk of an independent position for women, of emancipation in today's sense”).

Early history and way of life of the nuns

Little is known about the origins of the first Admont nuns. Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg or Swabia are considered possible. It is known, however, that the monastery was dedicated to Saints Rupert and Martin and was located near the men's monastery on the other bank of the Admontbach. The business of the nunnery was run by a monk, the so-called “Frauenkämmerer”, who headed the “Camera dominarum”, the monastery administration of the nuns. The women's convention was therefore entirely subordinate to the abbot.

In order to prevent possible suspicion, strict measures were taken: There was only a single door leading to the nuns' monastery, which could only be opened with the simultaneous use of three keys, one of which was the magisterium, one of the prior of the male monastery and one of the "claviger dominarum" (" Key bearers of women ”), an elderly monk, held. This door was only opened for a sister to enter, for her profession, for accidental mistakes and for funerals. Speech contact was only possible through a barred window leading to the nuns' church, through which the sisters also made confession to the abbot or prior every Saturday. Sitting in front of this window, the spiritual father also gave lectures to the sisters and the abbot took part in important chapter meetings. The profession formula of the Admont nuns under Abbot Gottfried has been handed down to us and should be quoted here: “Obediently I bid our lord the apt Gotefride under all din who, according to my orders, sullen under staetehait dirre steten (this place) ze Admunt under disen sanctify unce (bis) to the dead umbe the eternal lib. "

In addition to their choral service, the literate sisters (“sorores literatae” in contrast to the “sorores illiteratae”) also performed activities in their scriptorium ; Evidence of this can still be found today in some Admont manuscripts. Abbot Irimbert also expressly mentions in his commentary on the judges' book the help of two sisters who had taken down his lectures.

Heyday of the monastery

The Admont nunnery quickly gained an excellent reputation. As early as 1134, Archbishop Konrad von Salzburg gave Abbot Wolfold the Carinthian women's monastery St. Georgen am Längsee for reform. He immediately sent around 20 nuns with an abbess Uta at the head and drove the "secular nuns" from St. Georgen. In 1156, at the request of Bishop Eberhard von Bamberg, Admont nuns were sent to the Bergen monastery . When Irimbert took office in Michaelsberg in 1160 , he visited the nuns in Bergen on his trip to Bamberg and reported to his brother that "the spirit of the order [...] was developing there in glorious bloom". In 1168 the nuns reformed the Neuburg Abbey near Ingolstadt on the orders of Emperor Frederick I. All these monasteries were subordinate to the Abbot of Admont, who had to confirm the election of the abbess. The new head of Interior had him in the blessing promised obedience and submission. But postulations from the circle of the Admonter women also took place: in 1203, for example, the nun Ottilia was postulated as abbess to Göß , where she died in 1231.

In 1139 the Admont nuns were even given praise from the papal mouth: The nuns had - as Tomek suspects - sent Pope Innocent II the biography of a deceased Admont Magistra, in which their saintly way of life and their compliance with the rules are described in detail. The text also shows that she was the first Magistra in Admont - Abbot Wolfhold would have called her from Nonnberg to Admont and united the Inclusive women living there into a convent. Innocent thanked the sisters, encouraged them to make progress in their striving for perfection, and praised them for their excellent way of life. (Cf. Tomek, Ernst, Geschichte, pp. 248-253; “For the news about your adherence to the rules and your honorable conduct, we say thank you to Almighty God, who awakened so steadfast virtue in the weak sex, so fastened you in his love So, so to speak, with male strength for his holy service. That is why you, daughters beloved in Christ, do not need an admonition to begin and lay your hand on the plow, but only the admonition that you should do so according to the apostles' words Forget what lies behind you and, with God's help, strive to achieve the price of heavenly election. ")

It is also worth mentioning that (around 1140) Sophia, a daughter of the Hungarian king Béla II, entered the Admont nunnery against the wishes of her relatives. Despite several attempts by her brother Géza II to get her out of the monastery, she stayed in Admont.

In 1144 Abbot Gottfried had a new monastery built for the nuns south of the men's abbey. This building was miraculously preserved during the great fire in 1152.

More Admont nuns

Decline

Towards the end of the 13th century, the monastic tradition of the nunnery began to decline. In the 15th century - as can be seen from various visitation recessions - it must have already made great progress. During the Reformation (around 1566), the women's monastery finally died out. Some of the buildings have been preserved to this day.

literature

  • Michael Buhlmann: The Admont women's monastery mainly in the 12th century. Lecture notes undated ( pdf , michael-buhlmann.de).
  • Jakob Wichner: The former OSB nunnery in Admont (in Styria, Austria). In: Maurus Kinter (ed.): Scientific studies and communications from the Benedictine order with special consideration of the order's history and statistics. As a lasting reminder of the jubilee of the order, founded and published by members, friends and patrons of the Benedictine order , 2nd year, vol. 1, Würzburg / Vienna 1881.
  • Thomas Stellwag: The importance of the Benedictine Abbey Admont for the spread of the Hirsauer Reform in the southern German-Austrian region (Admonter Reform) . Admont 1999, pp. 59-63.
  • Ernst Tomek: History of the Diocese of Seckau . Vol. 1 (History of the Church in today's diocesan area before the establishment of the diocese), Graz / Vienna 1917, pp. 243–253.

To the Admonter nunnery:

  • Alison I. Beach: Listening for the Voices of Admont's Twelfth-Century Women . In Voices in Dialogue: New Problems in Women's Cultural History , Kathryn Kerby-Fulton and Linda Olson, eds., Notre Dame / IN, 2003, pp. 187–198.
  • Alison I. Beach: Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria . Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Alison I. Beach: Voices from a Distant Land: Fragments of a Twelfth-Century Nuns' Letter Collection , in: Speculum 77,1 (2001) 34-54.
  • Alison I. Beach: The Multiform Grace of the Holy Spirit: Salvation History and the Book of Ruth at Twelfth-Century Admont. In: Manuscripts and Monastic Culture: Reform and Renewal in Twelfth-Century Germany , Brepols, Turnhout 2007, pp. 125-137.
  • Stefanie Seeberg: The illustrations in the Admonter nuns' breviary from 1180: Coronation of the Virgin and nun piety; the role of breviary illustration in the development of picture themes in the 12th century , Reichert, Wiesbaden 2002. X, 233.

proof

  • Remiremont, Chelles, Farmoutiers u. a. Compare with: Karl Suso Frank: Doppelklöster . In: Walter Kasper (ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church , Vol. 3 (Demon - Fragments Dispute) , Freiburg i. Br. 3/1995, col. 338.
  • Kassius Hallinger: Gorze-Kluny. Studies on the monastic forms of life and opposites in the High Middle Ages, Vol. 1, Graz 1971, p. 258, also: p. 353, p. 454 and 490.

Coordinates: 47 ° 34 ′ 33 ″  N , 14 ° 27 ′ 38 ″  E