Prayer fraternity

The brotherhood of prayer between monks and monasteries is not only a phenomenon of the Christian Middle Ages, but should be discussed here based on the high medieval Benedictine monasticism .

The prayer fraternity ( societas fraternitatis ), which united the monks of different monasteries , points beyond the individual monastery . The over-monastic prayer community was responsible for commemorating the dead (memoria) for the deceased monks of the connected monasteries. B. received new impulses within the framework of the reform movement emanating from the Burgundian monastery of Cluny (such as All Souls Day ). The high mediaeval reform monasteries were linked by prayer fraternities and fraternization agreements. Without claiming to be exhaustive:

• the alliance agreement between Kloster St. Blaise and the convent Reichenau (1086/88),
• the "Hirsauer" contracts between St. Blasien on the one hand, Hirsau , Allerheiligen , St. Georgen and Petershausen on the other, between Hirsau and All Saints, between All Saints and Petershausen (approx. 1090),
• the contract between St. Blasien and Einsiedeln Monastery (1080 / 1990s),
• Entries St. Georgen monks and abbots in the Alpirsbacher and Zwiefalter Nekrolog (1133, 12th century),
• the St. Gallen prayer fraternity a. a. with Ettenheimmünster , St. Georgen and St. Trudpert (13th century, 1st third).

The obligations to pray were reflected in fraternity lists and necrologies (lists of names of the deceased in calendar form).

literature

• Dieter Geuenich : Fraternization agreements as evidence of the monastic reform of the 11th century in Swabia. In: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 123 (1975), pp. 17-30.
• Wolfgang Eric Wagner : The liturgical presence of the absent king. Brotherhood of prayer and the image of rulers in the early Middle Ages. Brill, Leiden et al. 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-18923-2 .