Way of the Cross of Wienhausen Monastery
The Way of the Cross of Wienhausen Monastery is a guide to meditation on the passion story . It has come down to us in two manuscripts created on site. The strictly chartered Cistercian women imagined the stations of the cross in their monastery rooms.
swell
The manuscripts MS 85 and MS 86 of the so-called nun choir fund from the Wienhausen monastery date to the end of the 15th century. MS 85 contains more detailed descriptions of the meditations and prayers, while MS 86 is in a better state of preservation. The dating can be based on the mention of a wooden Christ tomb that was donated by the abbess Katharina von Hoya in 1448. This gives a terminus post quem .
description
Both manuscripts testify to a piety practice that combined imagination exercises and physical activities (walking, prayer postures), i.e. contemplation and action, to a spiritual journey. Since they differ in details and there is no evidence of a communal inspection of the Way of the Cross, it is likely that this exercise was practiced individually by the sisters and also left room for personal development.
The path began and ended on the nuns' choir, painted as a heavenly Jerusalem . Pilate's house was imagined here as the first stop . On the stairs that led down from the nuns' choir, the nun was supposed to imitate the humiliated Christ. The circular route led through the exam area, whereby the cemetery and the infirmary were suitable for awakening feelings of grief and pity. In the sick bay, the nun identified with Maria , as she empathically understood the suffering of her son. At the end of the path, the nun returned to the choir, which this time was imagined as a Calvary . The destination was fittingly the most sacred place in the monastery, the high altar , which contained the relic of a drop of Christ's blood.
reception
The practice of meditatively following the Way of the Cross in the monastery is well known from the late Middle Ages. Since June L. Mecham discovered and analyzed the two prayer books in the Wienhausen monastery archive, this heathen monastery has been cited as an example of the aforementioned form of piety.
literature
- June L. Mecham: A Northern Jerusalem: Transforming the Spatial Geography of the Convent of Wienhausen . In: Sarah Hamilton, Andrew Spicer: Defining the Holy: Sacred Space in Medieval and Early Modern Europe . Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005. ISBN 0-7546-5194-0 . Pp. 139-160. ( limited preview )