Aasebakken Monastery
The Convent of Our Lady ( Danish Vor Frue Kloster ) in Åsebakken is a Benedictine convent near Copenhagen . The monastery and church are dedicated to the patronage of Our Lady .
history
After the nunneries in Denmark were closed as a result of the Reformation , the constitution of 1849 allowed religious freedom again , so that new monasteries could be founded. In 1898 the Bishop of Copenhagen , Johannes von Euch, turned to the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Innsbruck with the request to found a monastery in Denmark. At the beginning of the 20th century the Order bought land in Copenhagen for this purpose, construction began in 1912, and in 1914 the first sisters came to Denmark. The resistance in the non-Catholic population to a contemplative monastery, a lack of young people and financial difficulties led to the consideration of closing the monastery. Inspired by a Benedictine retreat, the sisters decided in 1935 to convert the community into a Benedictine monastery, which was carried out with the help of sisters from the Frauenwörth Abbey . The sisters put on the habit of the Benedictine nuns, and in 1936 solemn choral prayer was introduced.
In 1942 the sisters moved to the Convent of Our Lady on Åsebakken, a former country estate about 25 km north of Copenhagen. The chapel was inaugurated in 1942. After long efforts to join the Beuron congregation , the full incorporation was completed in 1988. In earlier decades a large part of the convent's offspring came from Germany, in the 1930s in particular from the Bavarian Benedictine abbeys of Frauenchiemsee and Tettenweis . Numerous converts also entered.
present
Since 1949 there has been a traditional pilgrimage for Danish Catholics to Åsebakken. In the monastery there is a wood-carved figure of Mary from the Lübeck school around 1500, which was previously venerated for a long time in the St. Ansgar Church in Copenhagen. The monastery has two guest houses, the “Subiaco” house for guests with full board and “Pax-Emmaus” for groups and individuals with self-catering. The convent has about eight sisters. In 2006 the convent elected Sr. Anna-Maria Kjellegaard Jensen OSB as the prioress administrator for three years. She is the successor to M. Tyra Antonia Andersson, who, as Prioress of Mariavall in Sweden, also presided over the Danish priory of Aasebakken for three years.
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 51 '24.4 " N , 12 ° 28' 8.7" E