Miraculous image of Mary, mother of beautiful love

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Image of grace Mary, mother of beautiful love in Wessobrunn

The miraculous image of Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love is the work of the Benedictine brother Innozenz Metz OSB (around 1640–1724) and is located on the left side altar of the parish church of St. Johann Baptist in Wessobrunn . The motif was widely used in Bavaria, Austria, South Tyrol, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Belgium and France due to the veneration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

description

The picture shows Maria in portrait in front of a dark background with her head tilted to the left. Her lowered gaze refers to the quiet reflection on God's plans, who called her through the angel's message to be the mother of the Savior. This praying posture inspires the viewer to approach God in the same way. In her hair, instead of a crown or a halo, she wears a magnificent wreath of pink roses, white lilies, small green leaves and white flowers. She wears a veil that falls over her left shoulder, and under her blue cloak a white silk robe with a border set with precious stones.

The picture is framed by a gold frame with silver fittings from which numerous rays emanate. Above the picture is a crown with a cross at the end. On the frame is the Latin inscription Mater Dilectionis Pulchrae - ora pro nobis ("Mother of beautiful love - please for us"). Above the halo is an angel holding another inscription: Santa (!) Maria gratia dei sine labe concepta opn (ora pro nobis) (“Holy Mary, received by the grace of God without sin - pray for us”) . The Holy Spirit hovers above it in the form of a dove.

The picture shows similarities to the picture "Maria with the inclined head" in the Carmelite monastery Döbling (Vienna).

The “miraculous image of Mary, mother of beautiful love” by Innocent Metz was created around 1704. The model for this miraculous image is the statue of Mary by Simon Fries (around 1680/82) in Maria Plain near Salzburg. The inclined head and the halo as well as the colored flowers on the head are so similar that one cannot assume a coincidence. The Madonna in Maria Plain is traditionally referred to as the "Wessobrunn Madonna" because it is said to have been made according to the Wessobrunn image of grace. According to the dating of the Wessobrunn painting (1704) and the statue of the Virgin Mary (1680/82) in Maria Plain, it can be assumed that the Wessobrunn miraculous image was painted after the figure. Since Innocent Metz was born in Braunau and later was in Säben in the monastery before he came to Wessobrunn, a presence in Salzburg and a pilgrimage to Maria Plain is conceivable. A so-called “Wessobrunner Madonna” is also located on the altar of St. Ivo in the University Church in Salzburg. This painting, dated 1722, was the model for numerous copies in the southern German-Austrian region. The dependence of a copy either on the simple Wessobrunner or on the Salzburg version, decorated with rich jewelry and an IHS medallion, is easy to see. The Salzburg painting also became the model for the face of the Marian column on Salzburg Cathedral Square .

Origin of name

The term "Mother of Beautiful Love" is taken from the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. In Jesus Sirach 24,23–31 (Vulgate) or Sirach 24,17–22  EU the wisdom of God comes to the word.

Latin German
ego mater pulchrae dilectionis et timoris et agnitionis et sanctae spei. in me gratia omnis viae et veritatis, in me omnis spes vitae et virtutis. (Sir 24:24 f. Vulgate) I am the mother of beautiful love , fear of God, knowledge and pious hope. In me is all the loveliness of the way and the truth, in me all the hope of life and virtue. (Sir 24:18; see EU, where 18b is noted as a variant)

In the personified wisdom of God one saw a hint in the Old Testament for the third person in God, the Holy Spirit. Such texts were often recited at Marian feasts . Since Mary is also venerated as the “bride of the Holy Spirit”, it made sense to apply such statements to her. Adoration of the Mother of Beautiful Love is associated with the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. In the Baroque era, the invocation of the Virgin Mary, Mater pulchrae dilectionis, was familiar to many prayers from the Lauretan litany .

history

Around 1700 the picture of Innocent Metz came to the Wessobrunn monastery at the instigation of Pater Plazidus Angermayr OSB (1674–1740). Traditionally, there was a strong devotion to Mary in the Wessobrunn monastery. The first church from the Carolingian era was consecrated to Mary, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated in 1165. A Romanesque statue of Mary in stone with the name "Mother of Holy Hope" ( Mater Sanctae Spei ) is considered to be the "oldest Marian miraculous image still preserved in Bavaria" (today in the Bavarian National Museum , Munich).

According to this Marian tradition, the painting was installed on the main altar of the monastery church by Abbot Thassilo Boelzl OSB around 1706 . Plazidus Angermayr then founded a brotherhood for the veneration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which was led by Clemens XI. (1700–1721) was approved on October 25, 1710 and still exists today in a smaller form. When looking at a copy of the picture, the Pope is said to have exclaimed:

"There is something heavenly in this picture. It deserves a brotherhood."

When the picture was brought to the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, donated by Elector Max Emanuel in 1723, in the monastery church of Wessobrunn, the worship of the picture and the Immaculate Mother of God increased by the rapidly growing brotherhood in the middle of the 18th century with over 600,000 members experienced its heyday.

Since September 11, 1803, the picture has been above the left side altar of the parish church of St. Johann Baptist in Wessobrunn .

Distribution and Copies

As early as 1753 there are said to have been over 200 copies with the motif of the "mother of beautiful love". You have been blessed with the original through touch. The Wessobrunn plasterers made a significant contribution to the dissemination of the pictures by making them known at their places of work. So many new pilgrimage sites were created where the "mother of beautiful love" was venerated.

A copy is available in the following churches:

Bavaria

Miraculous image of Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love in the pilgrimage church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Vilgertshofen

Austria

South-Tirol

Others

In the Marienkapelle of the Augsburg Cathedral of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary there is a picture by Johann Georg Bergmüller (1714), which shows the Archangel Gabriel, with the subject of the Annunciation, the angel's head posture and the wreath of three roses in the angel's hair on the Wessobrunner Image could suggest.

Another motif takes up the fresco in the chapel To the Mother of Beautiful Love (Arzheim, Koblenz) . There is a full figure Mother of God who stands on a crescent moon and hovers over a view of Ehrenbreitstein . The connection to the miraculous image of Wessobrunn consists in the caption from Jesus Sirach under the fresco “I am the mother of beautiful love” and the motif of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , which can be seen in the form of a golden heart on Mary's breast.

See also

literature

  • Adalbert Mayer : Maria, mother of beautiful love in Wessobrunn . Wessobrunn 1995
  • Adalbert Mayer: Brotherhoods at the former Wessobrunn monastery . In: Festschrift 1250 years of Wessobrunn . Wessobrunn municipality (ed.), Red. Lothar Altmann, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2003
  • Karl Pörnbacher: The "mother of beautiful love" at Wessobrunn. On the history of the most important Bavarian Marian brotherhood of the 18th century . In: Lech-Isar-Land, Weilheim 1978, pp. 77-92
  • Ders .: The mother of beautiful love for Wessobrunn. A widespread image of grace and the most important Bavarian brotherhood of Mary in the 18th century . In: Schönere Heimat 78 (1989) 1, pp. 17-24
  • Hugo Schnell : The Patrona Boiariae and the Wessobrunn miraculous image. A contribution to the deepening of the art-historical methodology by paying attention to the shape and the iconography, which are shaped in the change of time . In: Das Münster 15 (1962) 5/6, pp. 169–232
  • Irmtraud Baroness von Andrian-Werburg : The Diocese of Augsburg 2: The Benedictine Abbey of Wessobrunn . In: Germania Sacra - Historical-Statistical Description of the Church of the Old Kingdom, Berlin, New York 2001, p. 210 ff.
  • Gerhard P. Woeckel: Wessobrunn . In: Ders., Pietas Bavarica. Pilgrimage, procession and ex voto offering in the Wittelsbach house in Ettal, Wessobrunn, Altötting and the state capital Munich from the Counter Reformation to secularization and the “Renovatio Ecclesiae” , Weißenhorn 1992, pp. 266–335

Web links

Commons : Miraculous image of Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dr. Adalbert Mayer: Maria - mother of beautiful love in Wessobrunn (leaflet) . Ed .: Catholic Parish Office Wessobrunn. 2nd Edition. 1997.
  2. ↑ The Benedictine Abbey of Wessobrunn. On behalf of the Max Planck Institute for History. Edited by Irmtraud Freifrau von Andrian-Werburg, Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter 2001, p. 212.
  3. ↑ Jesus Sirach (24: 23-31) . bibelwissenschaft.de. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  4. ↑ Dr. Adalbert Mayer: Brotherhood of the Mother of Beautiful Love . Ed .: Catholic Parish Office St. Johannes Baptist. Wessobrunn, S. 7 .
  5. ^ Adalbert Mayer: Brotherhoods at the former Wessobrunn monastery . In: Gemeinde Wessobrunn, Red. Lothar Altmann (Ed.): Festschrift 1250 years Wessobrunn . Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2003, p. 225-230 .
  6. ↑ a b c Irmtraud Freifrau von Andrian-Werburg: The diocese Augsburg 2: The Benedictine abbey Wessobrunn . In: Germania Sacra - Historical-Statistical Description of the Church of the Old Kingdom . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, p. 210 ff . ( germania-sacra.de ).
  7. ↑ Brief description of the community of Frasdorf with chronicle ( Memento from September 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) . In: derchiemgauer.de . Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  8. ↑ Wessobrunn miraculous image in the center . In: augsburger-allgemeine.de , December 5, 2015. Accessed April 9, 2017.
  9. ↑ Adalbert Mayer: Maria, mother of beautiful love in Wessobrunn . Wessobrunn 1995, p. 42 .