Fork cross Darfeld
The forked cross in Darfeld in the municipality of Rosendahl , Coesfeld district, North Rhine-Westphalia, is a forked crucifix from the 14th century. It is in the choir of the St. Nicholas Church .
description
The body of the Darfeld forked crucifix is 1.29 m high with an arm span of 1.13 m, the trunk clearly towers above it. The arms rest on the bar of the cross, although the angle does not match. The cross and body are uniformly almost glossy black, the former is provided with geometrically arranged, clearly worked out knots. The expression of suffering is shown in moderation, there are no scourge wounds. The side wound shows small drops of blood, but the wounds on the feet and hands do not. The head is wrapped around an accurately plaited crown of thorns. The posture is not distorted, but still relatively majestic. Against this background, it was assumed that it was classified in the 13th century.
Worship history
The Darfeld forked crucifix was probably part of the furnishings of the first church in the town. In the chest, behind a silver shield, is a cross relic with a document from 1620 that is understood as a deed of foundation. This says that the cross - probably on the occasion of the acquisition of the relic - “in September” ( exaltation of the cross ?) “At the expense of Bernard Schulte Rockloe called Everding “was festively decorated”.
Silver votive offerings from the time after the First World War still exist today with depictions of various types of weapon (steel helmets, ships, cannons) of surviving war participants. In the 1930s, the veneration of the cross in Darfeld was promoted by the pastor at the time, he had baroque assistance figures (Maria and Johannes) set up for it and distributed a cross song originally from the Paderborn diocesan hymn book (The one on the cross is my love) in the community. As late as 1983 it is mentioned that the fork cross on Good Friday “makes its way through the community on the shoulders of its porters”.
Web links
- Color photography of the fork cross on the LWL homepage
- Postcard depicting the interior of the St. Nicholas Church in Darfeld. The fork cross is hung there with the votive offerings on Picclick.de
literature
- Chronicle of the Darfeld community by Bernhard Gerhard Garwers . Edited from the estate of Carl Homering (Ortsheimatpfleger in Darfeld), printed and published by J. Fleißig Coesfeld, 1982 (In the foreword it is mentioned that Bernhard Gerhard Garwers died in 1966, so the manuscripts used must be dated to a time before that.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The discrepancy between the transferring of the cross in 1983 and the publication of the underlying literature as early as 1982 could be due to a printing error. With the two consecutive years, it can still be proven that the cross was carried in a Good Friday procession in the 1980s.