Chain Church

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Leonhard's Church in Gellmersbach

The chain church is a church design that can still be found here and there in Bavaria and Austria . The chain as facade decoration refers to Saint Leonhard of Limoges . The churches are either permanently or ceremonially spanned with iron chains on November 6th, the feast day of St. Leonhard .

Leonhard von Limoges is one of the fourteen helpers in need in some places . The saint was a hermit and founded the Noblac Monastery near Limoges , as its abbot he died in 559 AD. According to legend, he helped a Merovingian queen in childbirth and in return asked for the release of prisoners, which made him the patron saint of all those in chains. In the 11th century his veneration spread in the circumalpine region. Since the chain was also seen as a cattle chain, Leonhard was venerated as the patron saint of peasant concerns such as cattle and weather. Folk customs such as the Leonhardi rides or Leonardi rides with blessing of horses and iron votive offerings in the form of animals refer to this .

The iron votive offerings used to be worked into chains and stretched around the churches. Folklorists assume that this cultic bondage is based on an age-old idea: the chains are supposed to prevent demonic influence.

Leonhardskirche in Tholbath
Leonhardskirche in Ganacker, detailed view of the northern wall of the country house

Chain churches with the patronage of St. Leonhard are located in:

literature

  • Günther Kapfhammer: In honor of St. Leonhard. From the patron saint of horses. Of miracles and adoration. From Leonhardi trips and chain churches. Rosenheimer Verlag, Rosenheim 1977, ISBN 3-475-52196-2 .
  • Leopold Kretzenbacher : Chain churches in Bavaria and Austria. Comparative folklore studies on the devotional form of the cintura on sacred objects as cultic cherishing and magical binding (= Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Treatises NF 76). Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences u. a., Munich 1973, ISBN 3-7696-0071-1 .