Image of grace Our Lady of Engelport
The miraculous image of Our Lady of Engelport is a statue of the Virgin Mary created around 1420, which was transferred to the Maria Engelport monastery on the edge of the Hunsrück in the Flaumbachtal near Treis-Karden in 1913 .
prehistory
Maria has always been part of the monastery name and in the oldest convent seal from 1279 it says in German translation "Convent of Saint Mary in Engelport". On the seal, the motifs of the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel and the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven by an angel are shown.
The veneration of Mary in Engelport Monastery did not play a prominent role during the first centuries, but there are various references to it. For example, a citizen of Cologne named Florian donated a picture of the Virgin Mary before 1406 and in 1603 Lucia von Piesport bequeathed money to the Premonstratensian women for the purchase of a picture of Mary. Between 1890 and 1903, two statues of the Virgin Mary were found in the rubble of the demolished monastery, one of which was made around 1600 and is now in private ownership and one made around 1750/1760 is in the church at Laudert on the Hunsrück.
There is documentary evidence of a Marien altar for Engelport for 1452 and in 1818 there was still an old German altarpiece with scenes from the life of Mary. This altarpiece is said to come from the Cologne artist Vinzenz Huber, who lived around 1541.
With the takeover of the monastery ruins and the building of a mission house by the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary OMI in 1903, an intensive devotion to Mary began in Engelport.
Transfer of the image of grace
Engelport's greatest sponsor at the time, Pastor Peter Haubrich (1843–1923) from Pomerania (Moselle) , was the driving force behind this. He had discovered a statue of the Virgin Mary in the collection of the Trier cathedral vicar Josef Hulley (1852-1913), which supposedly came from Alt-Engelport. Even if doubts arose at that time, Haubrich organized a pompous transfer on July 27, 1913, in which 3,000 people are said to have participated.
After the blessing by Archbishop Augustin Dontenwill OMI, the then Superior General of the Oblates, the statue was first placed on the Gospel side or on the left in front of the choir. It was later given its own side chapel built for it.
On June 23, 2013, the centenary of the transfer of the Engelport image of grace was celebrated with a pontifical ministry led by Diocesan Bishop Stephan Ackermann . Subsequently, Dr. Norbert J. Pies on the historical background of Engelport's veneration of the Virgin Mary, before the wafers invited to a reception in the Wendelinushof.
Art historical aspects
The miraculous image is a 88 cm high crescent moon Madonna with the child. It is carved out of wood and colored. In 1928 it was partially gilded and newly painted by the altar builder and sculptor Henricus Josefus Hubertus Helwegen (1883–1956). The image of the Virgin presumably comes from a workshop in Cologne or Mainz.
Transmission error
What is striking is the attribute of consecrated bread in Mary's left hand, which points to Jesus as the bread of life (John 6:35). It has been misinterpreted in the past and linked to the legend of the former master Margaretha Kratz von Scharfenstein in 1530. At that time, however, the figure had existed for about 100 years.
It is also wrong to assume that the last master took the Madonna with her in 1794 on her flight from the French.
literature
- Norbert J. Pies: Two old Engelporter Madonnas - the result of an exciting search for traces. In: Hunsrücker Heimatblätter 144th year 50: December 2010: 233–237.
- Norbert J. Pies: Maria in Engelport. 100 years of Engelport's miraculous image 1913-2013. Erftstadt-Lechenich 2013 ISBN 978-3-927049-54-3 .
- Norbert J. Pies: The Engelporter Marian veneration. Backgrounds, insights & views . Erftstadt-Lechenich 2013 ISBN 978-3-927049-55-0 .