Kemnath Monastery
The monastery Kemnath is a former convent of the Franciscan Reformati in Kemnath in Bavaria in the diocese of Regensburg .
history
On September 12, 1657, the city magistrate of Kemnath turned to the Episcopal Consistory or the Provincial of the Bavarian Franciscan Province , Father Ludwig Gerlspöck, with the request to give consent to the construction of a monastery for the Franciscan Order. A suitable place and funds for the construction were made available by the city. On January 21, 1658, at the request of the consistory, the elector Ferdinand Maria von Bayern and the bishop of Regensburg Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg approved this . On May 27, 1658 the entry of the first Franciscans (two Fathers and two lay brothers) took place. Since there was not enough space to build a monastery church, a contract was signed with the citizen Rupprecht Fraunholf on March 5, 1660 to purchase the adjacent garden. The foundation stone was laid on November 31, 1660. In spring, the construction of the monastery was started according to plans by Frater Hugolin Partenhauser and on July 13, 1662, the day of St. Anthony , the monks moved into the new building. After that the construction of the church began; this was inaugurated on May 3, 1665 by Bishop Adam Lorenz von Toerring-Stein . The patronage was set on St. Anton at the request of the Electress Henriette Adelheid of Bavaria .
The work of the Franciscans went beyond the village, they supported the country pastors, held missions (many of the Upper Palatinate were Lutheran at the time ) and performed an annual Passion Play. For a long time they were also entrusted with looking after the pilgrimage chapel and the hospice on the Armesberg . The St. Antonius Brotherhood, founded in Kemnath in 1693, soon numbered over 600 believers. At the height of its heyday there were 23 fathers, five clerics and eight lay brothers in the monastery. The Franciscans were so popular that due to the city pastor's complaints, the episcopal ordinariate in Regensburg in 1750 and 1785 even had to forbid simultaneous masses in the monastery church during parish services.
On July 4th, 1758, a fire broke out that cremated the monastery, the church, including the malt and brewery. Only the walls of the church and the monastery remained. Due to the willingness of the population to donate and the support of the abbots from Waldsassen , Speinshart and Michelfeld , the monastery was rebuilt after three years.
Dissolution of the monastery in 1802
The end of the monastery was already in sight in 1801. At that time, the “Special Commission for Monastery Matters” issued the order to collect all valuable ecclesiastical equipment and to submit a report about it. The district judge Max Joseph Freiherr von Gravenreuth had to carry out the secularization as a "repeal commissioner" .
On April 17, 1802 it was decided that the monks had to leave Kemnath; Fathers Guardian Hildebert Mehler, Vicar Irenäus Dobler, Beatus Greiner, Matthias Burkhard, Procopius Donhauser and Frater Xystus Kälbel left Kemnath for the central monastery Freystadt , in September 1803 they came to Neukirchen bei Hl. Blut . Fathers Menardus Merl and Salomon Kratzer as well as Fratres Hospitus Böhm (Bräu), Hortulanus Harrer (gardener) and Konrad Reiss (Bräu) were appointed to the Dietfurt convent . Frater Florentian Ziegsperger was transferred to Oberaltaich , Frater Proculus Angerer to the Charterhouse Prüll and Frater Samuel Krämer to Prüfing . On May 1, 1802, the Guardian and four priests read mass again, then they left with seven wagons and two carriages.
The parish priest Josef Johann von Clerambault was commissioned to "exsecute the church in silence and without causing a stir". The statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was solemnly transferred to the parish church of Kemnath on May 21, 1802. Parts of the church furnishings came to the churches of Erbendorf (high altar, the organ, the pavement (!) And the wooden communion grille) and Waldershof (two side altars and pulpit). The tower bell was bought by the city of Kemnath for the cemetery church.
The monastery library, which after the fire of July 4, 1758, had grown to 3,579 works, was also closed. The reason for the large book inventory is probably that Kemnath was a study monastery from 1718 to 1771, in which a scientific training for the order's offspring took place ( studium philosophicum ). In addition to various editions of the Holy Scriptures , there were also works by the scriptural interpreters Dionysius Cartusiensis , Cornelius a Lapide and Thomas Leblanc . The church fathers and teachers were also well represented (e.g. Albertus Magnus , Ambrosius of Milan , Augustine of Hippo , Basilius , John Chrysostom ). According to a message from the local chaplain Joseph von Clerambault, some of the books were taken away by the monks when they moved out. The order was then given to the local chaplains to take out the unusable and harmful books (devotional literature, pastoral theology, catechetics), which were then sent to a dealer for further use. 163 works remained as usable books , including the Bible editions, Bible commentaries and concordances as well as the works of the church fathers and teachers (especially Thomas von Aquin , Flavius Josephus , Ulisse Aldrovandi , Samuel von Pufendorf ), including a number of incunabula and early prints. At the instruction of the electoral Upper Palatinate regional directorate, the Amberg dogmatics professor Marian Dobmayer should make a recommendation for future use. According to his proposal, part of the holdings should be given to a public library and the rest used to build a dean's library. There is no information about the further fate of the book collection, at least the Kemnath Rent Office reports in 1811 that there is no longer a library in the monastery. Only a few individual items from the Kemnath monastery are still kept in public libraries today.
The church, monastery and brewery were bought by the citizens of Kemnath. Most of it was bought from master rope maker Johann Steininger and the two master butchers Paul and Simon Zizlmann. At first they wanted to convert the church into a stable, in the end they used it as a barn. The buyers also applied for a tavern , which was also approved by the Amberg regional office on October 15, 1802. The adjoining party house was acquired by the electoral district court procurator Georg Gangwolff.
With the abolition of the monastery, however, the secularization did not end. In April 1803, the order was issued that all superfluous churches and chapels should be closed and statues demolished. This destruction of the traditional cultic property caused deep suffering for the rural population; the “door closing” ordered by the minister Maximilian von Montgelas was enforced with the threat of violence and the use of force.
literature
- Manfred Knedlik: Educational resources in pastoral care, sermons and teaching. The library of the Franciscans in Kemnath. In Tobias Appl; Manfred Knedlik (ed.): Upper Palatinate monastery landscape. The monasteries, monasteries and colleges of the Upper Palatinate. Pp. 249-257. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7917-2759-2 .
- Anton Reger: From the history of the city of Kemnbath - Heimatbuch. (Ed. by the city of Kemnath), pp. 107–123. Verlag Lassleben, Kallmünz 1981, ISBN 3-7847-1134-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Knedlik, 2016, p. 250.
Coordinates: 49 ° 52 '16 " N , 11 ° 53' 33" E