Bardel Monastery
The Bardel Monastery is a branch of the Franciscans in the Bardel peasantry near Bad Bentheim and was founded in 1922 as a mission monastery by the north-eastern Brazilian Franciscan Province of St. Anthony. In the monastery five Franciscan life. Since the 2000s that's Diocese of Osnabrück carrier of the former Mission High School with about 800 students.
history
In Brazil, due to the suppression of the Catholic Church by the imperial family, there have been hardly any priests and religious since the 18th century. The trigger for this persecution was the public invitation by the Bishop of Rio de Janeiro to a Catholic priest to resign from a Masonic lodge. This was equivalent to a rebellion against the Brazilian emperor, Dom Pedro II , who was himself a Freemason and now acted consistently against the Catholic Church. No new religious could be accepted and trained, which led to the gradual extinction of the religious communities . On November 15, 1889, this suppression came to an end with the proclamation of the republic and the abdication of the emperor. But there were only nine Franciscans left in all of Brazil; eight in the northeast and one in the south.
The last Franciscan Provincial, Frei Antônio de Lellis, appealed many times to the Minister General to send Franciscans from Europe to Brazil to save the provinces. The German Franciscans of Saxonia (Westphalian Franciscan Province) sent members around the turn of the 19th century to restore the northeast and southern provinces. On September 27, 1892, the first German Franciscans reached Brazil. Many brothers, young and old, followed to fill the orphaned monasteries with new life. Over 40 died of yellow fever immediately upon arrival.
After the staff had stabilized, the end of the restoration was announced on September 14, 1901. Now a boys' college was planned in Lagoa Seca ( Paraíba ) as well as several schools that prepared for the religious and priestly profession. In addition, the northern Brazilian Franciscan Province of St. Anthony tried from 1910 under the direction of Father Cornelius Neises to set up its own college in Germany. For example, boys should receive a school education in order to be trained as religious and clerical offspring in Brazil. Another branch was founded in Mettingen in 1960 .
The First World War and the difficult post-war years delayed the implementation of the project. In 1921, Saxonia in Bardel allowed a college to be established exclusively for the Brazilian province of St. Anthony and only dependent on the Brazilian provincial leadership .
The first construction period begins with the construction of the small “monastery” in spring 1922. Despite the theft of building materials and considerable financial difficulties due to the devaluation , the church, the school with the boarding school and the monastery started that same year. In the summer of 1923 the college opened with 21 students from all over Germany. The construction was financed exclusively from Brazilian sources.
The time of National Socialism was a difficult test for the monastery and its school. On May 17, 1935, the so-called “Children's Crusade” took place. A number of older students and several Franciscan friars evaded military service and the reprisals of the National Socialist party and state power by emigrating to Brazil . Four years later, at the urging of the Nazis, the school had to be closed on April 1, 1939. The then headmaster, Father Vitalis Boklage, refused, for reasons of conscience, to make the monastery buildings available for party purposes. On October 5, around 70 Gestapo people occupied the house and drove all the brothers into the dining room, where a few hours later they were told that they would have to leave the Grafschaft Bentheim in the middle of the day . So the remaining seven fathers and 25 brothers were expelled from Bardel and the monastery was used for party and state purposes.
The church was converted into a warehouse and later a movie theater. The altar should be demolished because it was suspected that the marble was valuable. However, after taking a sample, the marble turned out to be a dummy.
Between 1940 and 1945 the Nazis set up a teacher training institute in the buildings of the mission college. From autumn 1944 the Volkssturm and finally hundreds of Dutch slave laborers were billeted. The training at the LBA lasted five years and ended with the first teacher examination. In addition, the students were prepared for battle at the front. In 1989 the author and graduate of the LBA, Rudolf Braunburg , published the novel Behind Walls about life at that time.
In the post-war years 1945/46 the monastery was occupied by the English military. After its departure, the interior of the now vacant monastery was looted. In 1946, East German refugees and expellees finally came to Bardel. The former monastery became a camp with a school for more than 100 children. During this time almost all of the wood in the house was burned, including some pews.
Various restructurings took place in Bardel in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1961 the first state high school diploma was recognized. The two later bishops Martin Lammers and Josef Haring were among the high school graduates of that year . In 1967, Father Rembert Koepchen replaced his brother, Father Vitalis Boklage, and became the new headmaster in Bardel. In 1972 the monastery and the school administration decided to open the school to external and, for the first time, to Protestant students and children of Portuguese workers. They lived in the adjoining boarding school until the early 1980s. The first Portuguese teacher was Henrique José Catarro, who taught there until 2001. Girls have been accepted since 1972 and the school has steadily grown into one of the largest high schools in the area. In 1975 the reformed upper school was introduced. In the period from 1964 to 1977 a second construction period began in Bardel . The monastery church was renovated and redesigned according to the new liturgy . Any necessary extensions were also implemented. The design of the church and the new gate was done by the artist Werner-Jakob Korsmeier from Münster . His work can still be seen in the monastery today. Due to decreasing demand, the school was forced to close the boarding school in 1989. In 1994 there was a small but very important change in Bardel: With Ulrich Oettel, a layman took over the school management for the first time.
Today five Franciscans live in the Bardel Monastery . The St. Antonius Missionary School today has around 800 students and 50 teachers and has been sponsored by the Diocese of Osnabrück since 2002 . In 2008 the high school was awarded the title International College of Cambridge for Science and the Arts . For the students this means: From grade 5 onwards, English lessons are intensified and with this grade, bilingual geography lessons begin for all students . In the following years the subjects history , politics , biology , physics and chemistry are also taught bilingually. There are also theme days (lecture days, drama days, etc.) . The lessons rely on a variety of methods of teaching and independent learning. There is also the use of modern media. In addition to the Abitur , the lessons lead to internationally recognized and certified educational qualifications from the Anglo-Saxon area, which are comparable to the Abitur. International study ability is guaranteed. This is done in close cooperation with schools from the Dutch carmelcollege foundation . International guests often stay at the school, for example through student exchanges or class trips.
Action group Father Beda
The action group of Father Beda OFM , who died in 2015, is located in Bardel Monastery . From here numerous campaigns in Brazil and Germany are organized and carried out. One of the goals of the action group is to be a bridge between Germany and Brazil through personal encounters, visits from Brazil and project visits.
useful information
The former youth farm with 28 beds offered school classes and other youth work groups the opportunity to hold days of reflection and other get-togethers. Today the youth farm is used as a convent by Indian Carmelites who are involved in the school.
For younger male adults, the Franciscans of Bardel offer "Temporary Monastery". Addressed are people who are interested in religious life. Those interested can spend these days within the monastery community. The guests take part in the daily mass, the common prayers and the meals of the community.
For years, the so-called Whitsun Festival has been held in Bardel Monastery on every Whit Monday . This is an event with a specially designed youth fair in the monastery church, a religious musical and a "colorful afternoon" with live music, sacro-pop songs sung together and various role-plays on the respective motto of the Whitsun Festival .
The most famous melodies from the rock musical " Jesus Christ Superstar " by Andrew Lloyd Webber are sung every year during Holy Week in the monastery church. The focus is on the suffering and death of Christ. The performers are 50 singers from “ Studio 65 ” in Enschede . The persons Judas Iscariot , Peter , Herod , Pilate and Maria Magdalena are particularly emphasized along with Jesus . The singing is in the original English language. However, all visitors will receive the text in German before the performance. A meditation that is redesigned every year introduces the topic. Between the individual scenes, newly worked out prayers summarize the songs again and a text indicates the content of the next scene. The costs of this event are covered by donations from visitors.
Every year on Good Friday, young adults who are interested in religious life are invited to get information and to talk to the Franciscans. Then the Good Friday liturgy is celebrated together.
Two events during the year are solely intended to use the proceeds to support aid projects in Brazil. This is the hunger march and cycling for Brazil .
For Advent - and Lent meditation books are published by the monastery. They contain meditative texts or stories for each day of the respective time.
On August 17, 2011 the barn of the monastery was burned down by arson. Most of the agricultural equipment could be saved; the damage is more than 600,000 euros. On August 23, 2011, two alleged arsonists were found.
The Wacholderhain Kloster Bardel nature reserve is located northwest of the monastery . Students from the Missionsgymnasium St. Antonius carry out maintenance work there.
literature
- Frank Schmitz: Franciscans in Bardel , Bardel 2005
- Bardel Monastery: Monastery Guide and Monastery Tour , Bardel 2005
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roland Spliesgart. Brazilianization and Acculturation: German Protestants in the Brazilian Empire . Otto Harrassowitz GmbH, Wiesbaden 2006
- ↑ Frei José Milton de Azevedo Coelho, OFM: February 6, 2011 ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Bardel Monastery, St. Antonius Bardel Missionary School
- Action group Pater Beda for development work e. V.
- Photo gallery of the monastery
Coordinates: 52 ° 15 '57.9 " N , 7 ° 2' 37.8" E