Dormition Abbey

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Seen from the old city wall of Jerusalem
The abbey on Mount Zion
Bell tower of the Dormition Abbey

The Dormition Abbey is a German-speaking Benedictine abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem . The name is derived from the patronage of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Abbey church is the Dormition Basilica .

From 1998 to 2006 the Dormition Abbey was named Hagia Maria Sion, based on the Byzantine church Hagia Sion, which was built on this site in 415 . On the occasion of the centenary, the community returned in 2006 to the Patronage Dormition .

History of the building

During his visit to Palestine in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II took over the property on Mount Zion from Sultan Abdülhamid II, acquired for 120,000 Reichsmarks, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, and handed it over to the German Association of the Holy Land . Wilhelm II describes the history and destiny of the dormition in his work "Veranstaltungen und Gestalten". According to the Jerusalem local tradition, the Mother of God Mary is said to have fallen asleep at this point in the vicinity of the Upper Room (from Latin dormition , "asleep").

The architect and diocesan master builder of the Diocese of Cologne Heinrich Renard (1868–1928) arrived in Jerusalem as early as 1899 . First he explored the area and found remains of the Byzantine Hagia Sion and other churches. The local architect Theodor Sandel, who belongs to the Pietist temple society, took over the construction management . The foundation stone for the abbey and basilica was laid on October 7, 1900. The construction of the basilica and the abbey was completed in just ten years . On April 10, 1910, the basilica was consecrated by the Latin Patriarch. The church and the monastery buildings are owned by the German Association of the Holy Land, which maintains the buildings.

History of the Benedictines

As early as 1906, the first monks of the Beuron Archabbey were sent to Jerusalem. From 1918 to 1921 the monks were interned on the Sion for the first time in their history .

By decree of Pope Pius XI. on August 15, 1926, the monastery, which belonged to the Beuron congregation , was elevated to the status of an abbey . From 1939 to 1945 the German monks were interned for the second time. As a result of Israel's war of independence, there was a third internment. The abbey is located in the no man's land between Israel and Jordan.

In 1951 the Abbey was replaced by the Beuron Congregation and placed under the direct administration of the Abbot Primate based in Rome. In 1967, during the Six Day War , the abbey was caught in the fire of the warring factions. Since 1973 there has been a German-language and ecumenical study program, the Jerusalem Theological Study Year , in conjunction with the abbey. In 1979 the community on the Sion elected for the first time their abbot , the prior of Chevetogne in Belgium, Nikolaus Egender .

Since May 1, 2011, the Jerusalem Institute of the Görres Society (JIGG) has also been located at the Dormition .

Tabgha Priory

The abbey has had a branch in Tabgha on the Sea of ​​Galilee since 1939 ; this has been a dependent priory since 2003 and looks after the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha , which also belongs to the German Association of the Holy Land .

Another small branch, the "House of Jerusalem", existed between Advent 2003 and May 2013 in Hildesheim .

Congregation

Since September 2012 the abbey has been part of the Congregation of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Congregatio Annuntiationis BMV) of the Benedictine order, as well as the St. Matthias Abbey in Trier, the priory on the Huysburg, the Belgian abbeys Maredsous , Keizersberg (Leuven) and Sint Andries (Zevenkerken, Bruges) as well as Glenstal Abbey in Ireland.

Abbots

Since the elevation to the abbey in 1926 the following abbots have presided over the dormition:

View over the Christian cemetery to the abbey and church

architecture

The complex was designed according to the local Jerusalem building tradition. A wide variety of stylistic influences can be found, including elements from the Romanesque, Renaissance and oriental architecture. The painting was done by Jan Verkade and Hermann Huber . The Dormition Church is a round building with several niches in which there are side altars and a choir extension with a two-manual choir organ from the German workshop Oberlinger in Windesheim. The crypt , the Maria Heimgang site, the organ loft with a large three-manual Oberlinger organ and the gallery can be reached via two spiral staircases . Two more of the church's four diagonal towers can be reached from here. Out of consideration for the then Muslim shrine of David Grabs ( Nebi Da'ud ), the floor in the Cenacle is, the bell tower was receding so much that his shadow does not touch the grave. The bell tower is not directly accessible from the church.

The crypt has been renovated since September 2018. The intended financial support for the project by the federal government was included in the coalition agreement of 2018 . This fact received widespread attention.

Web links

Commons : Dormition Abbey and Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Word of the abbot. In: Under the sign of the rainbow. 15. Newsletter. January 6, 1999, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  2. ^ Wilhelm II .: " Events and Figures 1878-1918", Verlag KF Koehler, Leipzig / Berlin, 1922, p. 181
  3. ^ Congregation of the Annunciation , entry on orden-online.de , accessed on August 29, 2016
  4. ↑ Congregation of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary , entry on benediktiner.de , accessed on August 29, 2016
  5. ↑ Entry in the order lexicon list: Abbots of the Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem von Orden online , as of Nov. 13, 2008
  6. ^ Jerusalem Dormition Abbey receives Prior Administrator. Father Nicodemus takes over. August 26, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Benedictines elect hermits as new abbot , kathisch.de, February 20, 2018.
  8. ^ Tapan Bhattacharya: Huber, Hermann. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Accessed on April 11, 2017.
  9. ↑ Crypt Renovation , September 28, 2018, accessed January 4, 2019.
  10. ↑ Coalition Agreement 2018, chapter foreign trade policy and foreign cultural and educational policy , p. 155, lines 7349-7351: “We want to provide funds u. a. ... for the urgently needed renovation of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. ”(p. 154, lines 7324–7326 in the PDF version on the CDU website).
  11. ↑ Fabian Klask: This is how religion came into the coalition agreement. How a shrewd monk and outgoing foreign minister managed to smuggle a monastery in Jerusalem into the coalition agreement. In: Christ & Welt , March 5, 2018.

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 20 ″  N , 35 ° 13 ′ 44 ″  E