Gottfried von Beselich

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Gottfried von Beselich in the church of Bubenheim, 1163

Gottfried von Beselich († November 9th around 1180 ) was a priest and founder and builder of monasteries, churches and other buildings.

biography

Little is known about the dates of life and its origin. The exact day of his death (without a year) is handed down by a building inscription in Bubenheim (Pfalz) . Since the clergyman built a church in Beselich and gave it a tithing-free court, it is assumed that the area was aristocratic. In the founding history of the Beselich monastery he is referred to as a cleric of the St. Lubentius monastery in Dietkirchen , but appears more often in the context of the Premonstratensian order ; whether he later belonged to this remains unclear.

Gottfried von Beselich is documented between 1156 and 1179. He appears for the first time in 1156 as the founder of the Walsdorf monastery . The charter of the Archbishop of Mainz Arnold von Selenhofen reports,

“That Gottfried, a pious and zealous priest, through his holy, incessant sermon, won the population of the place Walsdorf and raised it to the supernatural that they transferred a desolate place near the village, which belonged to them together, to the priest with the determination that he consecrates it to worship. "

With the consent of the archbishop, he called Benedictines there and founded the monastery in question. Because of this work in Walsdorf and the surrounding area, the clergyman sometimes also bears the nickname "Apostle of the Golden Ground ".

In 1163 Gottfried appears as the initiator of the Beselich women's choir monastery . He had previously built a church there and paid for it with a tithe-free farm. He gave this property to the Arnstein Monastery , whose founder Count Ludwig III. von Arnstein , for this foundation immediately obtained a letter of protection from Archbishop Hillin von Trier . Around 1170 the Arnstein Premonstratensians founded a branch convent there.

A building inscription in the Peterskirche Bubenheim also dates from 1163 . In 1140 it belonged to the estate of Count Ludwig III. for his newly founded Arnstein Monastery and was rebuilt by Gottfried von Beselich on his behalf. The stone slab with a Latin majuscule inscription and Gottfried's depiction in the gesture of sacrifice and liturgical clothing is set into the northern choir arch pillar. The picture is considered to be the oldest portrait of a pastor from the Palatinate ; November 9th, the date of death, has been added without specifying the year. The inscription reads:

“In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1163, for the 11th indiction , on Easter Sunday , March 24th, I, Gottfried, unworthy priest, had this house completely renewed in honor of the Lord and his holy mother and Saint Peter . I ask everyone who offers the sacrifice in the same house to remember me and to note the day of my death, November 9th. "

- Historical website about the Bubenheim church
Monument to Gottfried von Beselich, in front of the parish church of St. Giles in Beselich-Obertiefenbach

The Altenberg monastery, first confirmed in a document in 1179, goes back to a Michaels chapel that Gottfried von Beselich had built on this site around 1167. The Premonstratensian convent there was established around 1170. The building site on the Michelsberg, above the Lahn, was given to the priest at his request to build a place of prayer there. Tradition assigns him the name Gottfried "Clamator" (the caller) "because he cheerfully awakened believers' hearts and minds with his cry of sermons about the vices of the body, to the confession of God and to repent of their sins".

According to the history of the founding of the Altenberg Monastery, Gottfried von Beselich was also the builder of the wooden Lahn bridges from Wetzlar and Limburg . Both bridges go back in their origins to the 12th century.

Commemoration

Gottfried von Beselich is the famous son of his home community, which is why a fountain with his sculpture was dedicated to him in the Obertiefenbach district in 1999. It comes from the artist Jörg Großhaus and, according to his own statements, is based on the stylized representation in Bubenheim's St. Peter's Church.

literature

  • Christoph W. Martin: Gottfried von Beselich: life and work. In: Beselicher Schriften, No. 11, 1999, ISSN  0934-036X .
  • Markus Hoffman: The Göllheim Association: A cultural and historical travel guide. Verbandsgemeinde Göllheim, 1997, pp. 63–69.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Endowment certificate of the Walsdorf Monastery, 1156, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, Dept. 93, U 1.
  2. ↑ Website on the community of Walsdorf, mentioning Gottfried von Beselich
  3. ^ Website on the history of the Beselich monastery
  4. ↑ Historical website about the Bubenheim church, with a quote from the building inscription
  5. ↑ Hellmuth Gensicke: Gottfried von Beselich, in: Nassauer Annalen, 1957, page 35.
  6. ^ Website on the history of the Altenberg monastery
  7. ↑ Website of the Diocese of Limburg, with mention of Gottfried as the builder of the Lahn bridges (Chapter 2) ( Memento from December 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Website on the history of Limburg an der Lahn, mentioning Gottfried von Beselich as the builder of the Lahn bridge there
  9. ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : 250 years pilgrimage chapel Maria Hilf Beselich . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 2017 . The district committee of the district of Limburg-Weilburg, Limburg 2016, ISBN 3-927006-54-8 , p. 137-141 .
personal data
SURNAME Gottfried von Beselich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Godefried from Beselich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Premonstratensian, monastery founder and builder
DATE OF BIRTH before 1156
DATE OF DEATH November 9 at 1180