Holy skirt

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The Holy Rock in Trier Cathedral during the 2012 pilgrimage

The holy skirt is a relic that is kept in Trier Cathedral and is said to contain fragments of the tunic of Jesus Christ . The authenticity of the sacred skirt is disputed. Its eventful history and its sometimes unfavorable storage conditions led to a textile-archeological investigation in 1973/74 , which, however, could not precisely determine its origin and age.

Legend

According to the Gospel of John , the robes of Jesus after his crucifixion were divided into four parts and distributed among the Roman soldiers. The holy skirt is also mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew ( Mt 27.35  EU ). The undergarment or the “body skirt” ( Greek χιτών) was not divided, but was given to one of the soldiers because it was “completely woven through from above and without a seam” ( Joh 19,23-24  EU ). The Gospel of John expressly emphasizes this as an Old Testament fulfillment quote and also cites Ps 22:19  EU , which is otherwise important in the New Testament stories of the Passion .

According to tradition, St. Helena , the mother of Constantine the Great , brought the Holy Rock to Trier . This is asserted by sources from the 12th century that are related to medieval Trier church politics and the associated claims to rule and power.

history

Memory of the pilgrimages in 1844 and 1891, illustration from 1891

The sacred skirt was first mentioned on May 1st, 1196, when Archbishop Johann I consecrated the high altar in the newly built east choir of Trier Cathedral and enclosed the relic in it. With this find, the Diocese of Trier trumped the rival Prüm Abbey , which had owned the sandals of Christ since 752 in connection with the Pippin donation . An early literary mention can be found in the verse epic Orendel, written around 1190 .

In the Kaiserchronik , a rhyming chronicle from around 1140–1150 in Regensburg, it is described how Helena sent the holy skirt together with other relics to Trier.

When Emperor Maximilian I came to Trier for the Reichstag in 1512, he asked to see the Holy Rock . Archbishop Richard von Greiffenklau had the altar opened in the presence of the emperor and many bishops and prelates. After a memorial service for the late wife of Emperor Maximilian I, the citizens loudly demanded that the skirt be shown to them. As contemporary woodcuts show, the cathedral chapter had a loggia built on the west apse of the cathedral , from which several so-called “displays” took place from June 30th. Until 1517 there were annual pilgrimages to the "Holy Rock" in Trier. On the instructions of Pope Leo X , the pilgrimages should then take place in coordination with the Aachen shrine tours. The next dates were set every seven years: 1524, 1531, 1538 and 1545. Because of armed conflicts and unrest caused by the Reformation, the rhythm was initially suspended, then discontinued.

The holy rock was kept from 1628 to 1794 with a few interruptions for a total of more than 140 years at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress near Koblenz . There he presented him on May 4, 1765 Bishop Johann IX. Philipp von Walderdorff solemnly and initiated a pilgrimage. The last Elector of Trier, Clemens Wenzeslaus , took the relic with him into exile in Augsburg ; it did not return to Trier until 1810. There it was folded after the public display and placed in a metal container, which was enclosed by two other containers and placed in a cavity in the high altar of the cathedral. The opening was walled up, and the same happened after the pilgrimage in 1844.

The Trier pilgrimage of 1844 was a mass event: in the 50 days that it lasted, around half a million people flocked to Trier, an organizational masterpiece of the clergy. Eighteen healing miracles have been reported. At the same time, however, the pilgrimage also triggered strong criticism of the Catholic practice of piety, which enlightened Christians of both denominations publicly mocked. The Catholic priest Johannes Ronge was outraged publicly that the pilgrimage was a deliberate deception of uneducated and low-income people, who would be expected to suffer unjustified privations when traveling. The sacrifice money they collect is a business with people's superstition that Christ, as is well known, left believers his spirit, not his coat. For these statements Ronge was excommunicated and as a result the German-Catholic movement arose , which wanted to be independent from Rome.

Before the pilgrimage in 1891, the relic was removed from the altar and examined by experts. Because of the poor condition, the decision was made to treat the fabric on the front with vegetable glue ("gum tragacanth"), which was in line with the state of knowledge at the time, but brought about an irreversible change as the glue turned brown over time. To prevent further decay, the sacred skirt was no longer deposited in the high altar, but a neo-Gothic shrine was made in which the relic could be kept unfolded.

After the relic had been kept in a room in the cloister for a long time , it has been in the baroque healing chapel built for it at the beginning of the 18th century since the last restoration of the cathedral in the 1970s. Their original concept was to keep the holy skirt in a silver reliquary, which was placed in the reredos of the chapel altar so that it could be seen through the opening into the chapel from the nave of the cathedral. Since the sacred skirt can only be kept lying down for conservation reasons, it is now located in the 19th century shrine, which is located in an artistically designed glass cabinet. This protects it from damage and is air-conditioned to prevent further decay of the relic, which has been badly damaged by unfavorable conditions during storage in the past centuries: on the one hand, the climate must not be too humid, otherwise mold growth could occur, but on the other hand not too dry so that the adhesive applied in 1891 does not harden any further.

The shrine is opened at longer intervals and the condition of the relic is checked; These checks take place in a small group with the participation of the cathedral chapter, the Trier bishop and experts in textile preservation. After each examination, the shrine is closed again and sealed with the seals of the Trier bishop and the cathedral chapter. Because of the poor condition of the fabric, the old tradition of hanging the sacred skirt (and thus visible to the faithful from afar) could last be followed in 1959, when the fabric was clamped between two glass plates. In 1996 and 2012 (the year of the last pilgrimage to the “holy rock”) the relic was therefore placed in a display case, which the pilgrims passed by. In the past it was also customary for believers to gain contact relics or to touch the sacred skirt, which is no longer possible today. During the annual Heilig-Rock-Days, the normally closed healing chapel is opened so that visitors can get to the showcase with the closed shrine.

Protestant criticism

The Reformation exercised massive criticism of the veneration of relics and pilgrimages, especially the pilgrimages to the Holy Rock in Trier. Martin Luther expressed himself in his work “Warning to the Dear Germans” from 1546, looking back on the pilgrimage of 1545: “How did one run to the pilgrimages! […] What is the new shitting at Trier doing with Christ's Rock? What has the devil held here in the whole world, and sold so many false miracles? [...] And that is the most annoying thing that they have seduced the people and drawn them from Christ to trust and build on such lies [...]. "The Geneva reformer Johannes Calvin called the worship of relics" idolatry ".

material

The condition of the relic is difficult to determine today. The actual fabric has been surrounded with different layers of fabric, as one was forced to carry out repairs and protective measures on the occasion of demonstrations. The fabrics are of different ages and are partially damaged, fragmented or stuck together. The core is a patchy fiber material, the shape and composition of which is unclear.

In 1890, a church commission of inquiry, in which the clerics Alexander Schnütgen and Stephan Beissel participated as experts , considered the brownish material to be "linen or cotton".

The diocese of Trier describes the condition of the relic, referring to the expertise of Mechthild Flury-Lemberg , textile historian from Bern, on its 2012 website as follows:

“The continuous layers of fabric on the front part of the tunic today, viewed from the inside out, consist of red-brown silk satin, brownish tulle and greenish taffeta. This taffeta has an overlay of old fabric fragments that are connected by rubber straps. The back consists of red-brown silk satin, brownish tulle, fine silk gauze, a layer of felt, greenish taffeta silk, another layer of felt and silk gauze. It can be assumed that the wool fibers, which today form a partly coherent, partly crumbling felt, represent the core fabric. Its age can no longer be precisely determined. Overall, the robe has completely lost its textile surface. "

Pilgrimages

Pilgrimage to the Holy Rock in 1844, painting by August Gustav Lasinsky , 1847, Trier City History Museum in the Simeonstift, inventory number III, 67
Logo of the Holy Rock Pilgrimage 2012
20 Pfennig special stamp issued by the Deutsche Bundespost (1959) for the 1959 exhibition

So far, pilgrimages to the exhibited Holy Rock have taken place in the years 1512, 1513, 1514, 1515, 1516, 1517, 1524, 1531, 1538, 1545, 1655, 1765 ( Electoral Residence Ehrenbreitstein ), 1810, 1844, 1891, 1933, 1959, 1996 and 2012. In the beginning the shows took place regularly and at shorter intervals, later longer and irregular intervals became common.

In 1810 the holy skirt was exhibited for 18 days on the occasion of its repatriation from Augsburg and venerated by over 220,000 pilgrims. For Trier Pilgrimage of 1844 came in the seven weeks over a million pilgrims. This show sparked heated public debates. It was the trigger for Otto von Corvin's anticlerical book Pfaffenspiegel and Rudolf Löwenstein's ridiculous poem Freifrau von Droste-Vischering zum Heil'gen Rock nach Trier went in Kladderadatsch . The priest Johannes Ronge wrote in a protest letter to the Bishop of Trier, Wilhelm Arnoldi , that most pilgrims were just simple people, "from the lower classes, in any case in great poverty, depressed, ignorant, dull, superstitious and in part degenerate". He described the pilgrimage to the relic as "idolatry". This led to his excommunication and to the German Catholic movement .

In 1891 press reports in Rome, Paris, London and Cairo wrote about the Holy Rock pilgrimage to Trier, which Bishop Michael Felix Korum proclaimed. The pilgrimage had become an ecclesiastical event of international importance. Almost two million pilgrims came.

In 1933, on the occasion of the Holy Year, the exhibition of the Holy Skirt took place from July 23rd to September 8th immediately after the conclusion of the Reich Concordat , which was under the construction supervision of the cathedral builder Julius Wirtz . Over two million pilgrims saw the relic. When the sacred skirt was exhibited from July 19 to September 20, 1959, 1.8 million pilgrims saw it. In 1996 the pilgrimage under the motto “On the way with Jesus Christ” brought around 700,000 pilgrims to Trier.

Since 1996, the diocese of Trier has also organized "Holy Rock Days", ten-day events in the style of a regional Catholic day . The holy rock is not exhibited, but visitors to the Trier cathedral can visit the sanctuary chamber during the holy rock days, in the middle of which is the shrine with the relic secured by several layers of glass and wood. In 2011 the Holy Rock Days were canceled. Instead, the year of spiritual preparation for the pilgrimage in 2012 began on May 6, 2011.

On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the first display of the Holy Skirt at the Reichstag in Trier in 1512, the Holy Skirt Pilgrimage 2012 took place from April 13th to May 13th, 2012, under the motto “And bring together what is separate” Invited pilgrims to Trier. The motto of the pilgrimage was taken from the “little pilgrim prayer”, which has been an integral part of the prayer goods of the Trier church since 1959.

On the afternoon of April 13th, during a pontifical mass in the High Cathedral in Trier, under the direction of the papal envoy, Curia Cardinal Marc Ouellet , who received a message from Pope Benedict XVI. the Shrine of the Sacred Rock, which was open to the public until the evening of May 13th. By the end of the pilgrimage, around 550,000 pilgrims found their way to Trier. When the next holy rock pilgrimage will take place is uncertain. One can speculate about 2033, the 2000th year of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ecumenical aspects since 1996

Because of the motto of the pilgrimage, the then Bishop of Trier, Hermann Josef Spital , invited the then President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , Peter Beier , to set off together. Praeses Beier accepted the invitation and even composed a pilgrimage song for the Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage.

For the show in 2012, the Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann , refrained from asking Rome for the approval of an indulgence to make it easier for Protestant Christians to take part in the Heilig-Rock pilgrimage. The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland also participated in the Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage 2012 in a variety of ways.

reception

Similar relics elsewhere

Also in Mtskheta, a place near Tbilisi, Georgia, a relic is venerated in the Orthodox Svetitskhoveli Cathedral , which is considered to be the robe of Christ.

See also

literature

  • Jakob Marx : History of the holy coat in the Trier cathedral. Edited at the instigation of the Bishop of Trier as the introduction to the public exhibition of this holy relic in the autumn of 1844 . Second edition increased with 2 appendices. Lintz, Trier 1844.
  • The holy skirt in Trier and the twenty other holy unsewn skirts. A historical study by J. Gildemeister et al. H (furnished) by Sybel . Julius Buddeus 1844. Digitized version (3rd edition 1845) Digitized version .
  • Valentin Hansen: Record-based representation of wonderful healings which were shown at the exhibition of the h. Rockes zu Trier in 1844. According to authentic documents, some of which the author himself took up on the spot, some of which were sent to him directly by pastors, doctors, etc., but mostly to the Rev. Bishops Dr. Arnoldi, and handed over to the author for use for the purpose of editing, arranged and compiled, also accompanied by medical remarks . Gall, Trier 1845. Digitized MDZ reader
  • Heinrich von Zimmermann: words of a doctor against Dr. V. Hansen; or reflections and remarks on the work of Dr. V. Hansen… Record-based representation of wonderful healings, which at the exhibition of the h. Rockes zu Trier in 1844 . Arnold'sche Buchhandlung, Saarbrücken 1845. Digitized MDZ reader
  • Erich Aretz, Michael Embach, Martin Persch , Franz Ronig (eds.): The holy rock in Trier. Studies in the history and worship of the tunic of Christ. Paulinus, Trier 1996, ISBN 3-7902-0173-1 .
  • Wolfgang Schieder : Religion and Revolution. The Trier pilgrimage from 1844. SH-Verlag, Vierow 1996. ISBN 3-89498-026-5
  • Klaus-Peter Dannecker (Ed.): The garment of Christ. On the road with God as a person. Theological considerations on the Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage 2012. Paulinus, Trier 2011, ISBN 978-3-7902-0232-8 .
  • Jens Fachbach; Mario Simmer: A courtly pilgrimage - The exhibition of the Holy Rock on the Ehrenbreitstein in 1765 . In: Archive for Middle Rhine Church History 65, 2013, pp. 235–280.

Web links

Commons : Sacred Rock  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Holy Rock  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Bartmann: Small travel guide to the Holy Rock. Pp. 69-75.
  2. ^ HJ Wetzer, B. Welte Kirchenlexikon. Volume 9, Herder, 1852, p. 333. (On the Trier tradition of the holy skirt)
  3. ↑ Trier: Small story of the tunic of Christ
  4. ↑ The holy skirt in Trier and the twenty other holy unsewn skirts. A historical study by J. Gildemeister et al. H (furnished) by Sybel. Julius Buddeus 1844, p. 38 ff. § 7: “The h. Rock is not discovered in 1196 ".-
  5. ↑ Gottfried Wolmeringer: Jesuslatschen, three doctors and an emperor without a kingdom. The history of the abbot principality of Prüm. A contribution to the church history of south-west Germany. (PDF; 376 kB)
  6. ↑ Kaiserchronik, V. 10385-10400. Ed. V. Edward Schröder. Hanover 1892 (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1.1)
  7. ↑ To the Holy Rock exhibition and pilgrimage of 1765
  8. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte, Vol. 2. From the reform era to the industrial and political German double revolution 1815–1845 / 49. CH Beck, Munich 1987, p. 473 f.
  9. ↑ Jörg Lauster : The enchantment of the world. A cultural history of Christianity. CH Beck, Munich 2014, p. 509 f.
  10. ↑ Johannes Ronge's first speech, given in the assembly of the free Christian (German-Catholic) community in Vienna on September 17, 1848. Kaulfuß Witwe / Prandel & Comp., Vienna 1848.
  11. ↑ Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 242 f.
  12. ↑ Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 242 f. with note 56.
  13. ^ Investigation report from 1891
  14. ↑ Brief history of the tunic of Christ, website of the Diocese of Trier, accessed on April 14, 2012
  15. ↑ Published in: Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter. (Leipzig), October 15, 1844, reprinted under the title Open letter to Bishop Arnoldi in Trier , Offenbach 1845.
  16. ↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon 1905 on: zeno.org
  17. ↑ Special envoy instead of Pope
  18. ↑ Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage in Trier has opened
  19. ↑ Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage: A festival of faith comes to an end
  20. ↑ Strong Protestant participation in the Heilig-Rock-Pilgrimage 2012
  21. ↑ Roland Daniels with the participation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels : Valentin Hansen: Record-based representation of wonderful healings which at the exhibition of the h. Rockes zu Trier in 1844. According to authentic documents, some of which were recorded by the author himself on the spot, some were sent to him directly by the pastors, doctors, etc., but mostly to the Rev. Bishops Dr. Arnoldi, and handed over to the author for use for the purpose of editing, arranged and compiled, also accompanied by medical remarks . Trier 1845. ( Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe . Department I. Volume 5. Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels: German Ideology. Manuscripts and prints. Edited by Ulrich Pagel, Gerald Hubmann and Christine Weckwerth . Published by the International Marx-Engels Foundation ( IMES) Amsterdam. De Gruyter Academy Research, Berlin / Boston 2017. ISBN 978-3-11-048577-6 , pp. 671–709.)