Leandra Ulsamer

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Sister Leandra Ulsamer with Johannes Gottfried Mayer in her garden (July 2014).

Leandra Ulsamer (born September 20, 1932 in Würzburg ) is a German Franciscan from the order of the servants of St. Childhood of jesus . She gained fame as the manager of the Oberzell herb garden in the Oberzell monastery near Würzburg.

Life

Leandra Ulsamer was born in 1932 as the third of nine children into a religious, non-political Würzburg merchant family. According to her own statements, she was disadvantaged during her school days due to her religiousness. At the age of 18, she entered the Oberzell monastery in 1951. As an educator she worked on behalf of the order with children, adolescents and young women, u. a. 14 years in the Antonia-Werr-Center St. Ludwig (Wipfeld) . At the end of the 1980s she returned to the mother house of the order in Oberzell, where she took over the monastery library and a little later laid out a herb garden. Initially only intended for the cultivation of herbs for the preparation of teas, the garden quickly grew into one of the largest and most beautiful herb gardens in Germany.

Through the pharmacist Katharina Mantel, who regularly helped with gardening, a contact developed with the Würzburg medical historian Johannes Gottfried Mayer , who led to a close collaboration with the monastery medicine research group founded in 1999 . Sister Leandra and her garden were then at the center of reports on research into the epoch of monastery medicine by the University of Würzburg , which made the garden and its director well-known across the region . The Frankfurter Rundschau , Die Welt , Deutschlandfunk , in many cases the Bayerischer Rundfunk , the women's magazine Bild der Frau , the internet portal Katholisch.de and Kirche in Bayern reported on Sister Leandra and her garden, which Brigitte Woman magazine became one of the ten most beautiful herb and monastery gardens in Germany .

The herb garden

In contrast to historical models, Sister Leandra's garden completely dispenses with beds. The individual plants, especially lavender, marigold, lemon balm and mint, are not strictly separated from one another, but are often found all over the garden. In addition to medicinal herbs, there are also ornamental plants such as various roses, sun stars and marigolds.

Irregular, roofed slate paths lead through the garden. Towards the Main, a stone wall borders the garden, which is overgrown with nasturtiums in summer. Slates are also used to describe individual plants and their healing properties. This is loosened up by large stones, tree stumps and other panels on which verses from the Canticle of St. Francis are quoted.

Katharina Mantel has now taken over the management of the garden.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Sister Leandra - the soul of the herb garden in the Oberzell monastery. ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Detailed interview in the Würzburger Anzeiger , October 2013 (p. 8ff.)
  2. a b She knows a lot about medicinal herbs. Portrait in the Main-Post , August 1, 2004
  3. a b Healing from God's herb garden. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , August 13, 2010
  4. a b monastery gardens in Germany. In: Brigitte Woman , May 2012
  5. "Herbs are up to date again" Interview with Johannes Gottfried Mayer on kathisch.de
  6. The power of herbs. In: Die Welt , November 10, 2001
  7. The plants of a monastery garden. Report on Deutschlandfunk , April 10, 2012
  8. u. a. The fascination of knowledge : healing like in the Middle Ages - the secrets of monastery medicine. First broadcast on December 11, 2011
  9. The 25 best medicinal plants for colds. In: picture of woman , September 17, 2010
  10. What herbs do good. Report on kathisch.de
  11. ^ Monastery medicine rediscovered. ( Memento from July 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Report from the Church in Bavaria , July 2013
  12. Czygan et al. 2009, p. 96ff.
  13. Mayer 2013, p. 8ff.
  14. Medicinal plants are looking for talent. ( Memento from April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  15. Angelika Kleinhenz: The secret of medicinal herbs. In: Main-Post , April 30, 2018.