List of the spiritual institutes in the Duchy of Westphalia

The list of spiritual institutes in the Duchy of Westphalia includes all monasteries and monasteries in this territory up to the end of the Holy Roman Empire . The religious communities represented included the Augustinians , Benedictines , Franciscans , Jesuits , Capuchins , Minorites , Premonstratensians , Cistercians and a commander of the Teutonic Order . In some places there was also the emergence of beguinage communities . The founding took place in the period between 826 and 1744. The dissolutions took place in the period 1803 to 1834.

Monastery landscape

Early middle ages

The first monastic communities emerged just a few decades after the areas that later belonged to the Duchy of Westphalia were incorporated into the Carolingian dominion . One of the earliest foundations is the later so-called Propstei Obermarsberg , which was founded on the formerly Saxon Eresburg . In the following centuries, the regional nobility were the main behind the founding. The Meschede canonical monastery was closely associated with the Counts of Werl . The other Geseke and Oedingen monasteries that had been established up to the turn of the millennium were also founded by the nobility. The donors made goods available for material supply. At the same time, women from the founding families were mostly in charge of the facilities, at least initially. Up until the end of the 11th century, these women’s communities, which were very wealthy at the time, were formative. The St. Patroklistift in Soest was a specialty as it was a secular collegiate monastery .

High Middle Ages

A new line of development began with the foundation of the Grafschaft monastery by Archbishop Anno II. The foundation also served to increase the secular influence of the Cologne archbishops in the region. With the monastery, however, the Benedictine order also came to the region, which until now only had the old provost's office in Marsberg.

As a result, the monastery development stagnated for almost a century. No new institution was established between 1072 and 1170. The contemporary upheavals in monastic life therefore passed the region almost completely by.

A new wave of foundations began with the emergence of the Premonstratensians and the Cistercians . The Wedinghausen Abbey was founded as the expiatory monastery of Count Heinrich I von Arnsberg. From there, with the founding of the Rumbeck and Oelinghausen monasteries , a Europe-wide remarkably dense collection of Premonstratensian communities came into being in a relatively narrow space. In the city of Soest, too, there were Premonstratensian women early on.

Archbishop Adolf von Altena provided the first impetus for the development of Cistercian monasteries . On his initiative in 1196 Cistercian came from the monastery Hardehausen the monastery Bredelar and repressed the local women community. The other foundings of Cistercian foundations in the region fell in the 13th century when the marriage of this order had actually already passed.

Because of the less urban structure of the region, the importance of the mendicant orders of the 13th century remained comparatively low. The mendicant orders were only able to gain a foothold in urban Soest. A Dominican and a Franciscan settlement were established there in the 1230s .

In the course of the religious women's movement of the 13th century, various Cistercian convents, a Dominican convent and several beguinages were built. In essence, the development of the regional monastery landscape was largely complete at the beginning of the 14th century. At the end of this century, the collegiate monastery of St. Johannes in Attendorn and the Ewig Monastery of the Augustinian Canons were added. Later, smaller, medieval foundations hardly played a role beyond their confined space.

Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

In the late Middle Ages, around 1350 and 1400, a phase in which hardly any monastic communities emerged in the region. In the 15th century a number of female communities followed, apart from the canonies of the Kreuzbrüder zu Glindfeld . Apart from the Odacker Monastery , no other monastery was founded in the region in the entire 16th century. A new founding phase occurs in the 17th and 18th centuries. The branch of the Augustinian choir women in Arnsberg only existed from 1685 to 1717.

In addition to monasteries and similar institutions of the Vita communis , there were Klausen. At the end of the old empire there were four such facilities for single monks or nuns. These were the hermitage near Meschede , a hermitage in Balve near the Balver cave, the Rodentelgen chapel in Bruchhausen and the hermitage on the Sondern near Bilstein.

For the final phase of the old empire Mathias Pape paints an extremely negative picture of the regional monastic system. Some monasteries, like Grafschaft, had ruined themselves financially with new buildings, in others monastery breeding was poor, the quality of the monastery schools was sometimes poor, there were conflicts in the communities and sometimes the abbess herself pleaded for the abolition of the monasteries, as in Drolshagen. Landdrost Franz Wilhelm von Spiegel also planned the dissolution of the monasteries.

directory

monastery	Religious orders	place	founding	Repeal	image
Propstei Obermarsberg	Benedictine	Obermarsberg	from 826	1805
Meschede Abbey	Canon pin, then canon	Meschede	around 870	1310
Geseke women's monastery	Cannon pin	Geseke	946	1823
Patrol pen	Canon pen	Soest	965	1811
Oedingen women's monastery	Canonesses	Lennestadt	around 1000	1533
Monastery county	Benedictine	Schmallenberg	1072	1804
St. Walburgis	Premonstratensian women, Augustinian women since 1218	Soest	1164	1812
Bredelar Monastery	Premonstratensian women, from 1196 Cistercians	Marsberg	1170	1804
Wedinghausen Monastery	Premonstratensians	Arnsberg	1173	1803
Oelinghausen Monastery	first Premonstratensian double monastery, then Premonstratensian women	Arnsberg	1174	1804
Augustinian convent Küstelberg	Augustinian women	Medebach	around 1177	1297
Rumbeck Abbey	Premonstratensian women	Arnsberg	1191	1804
Dominican monastery Soest	Dominican	Soest	1228/32	1812
Franciscan monastery Soest	Franciscan	Soest	1233	1814
Drolshagen Monastery	Cistercian women	Drolshagen	1235	1803
Benninghausen Monastery	Cistercian women	Benninghausen	1240	1804
Welver Monastery	Cistercian women	Welver	1240	1809
Belecke Benedictine Provosty	Benedictine	Licking	before 1240	1804
Himmelpforten Monastery	Cistercian women	Ense	1246	1804
Paradiese monastery	Dominicans	Paradises	1251	1808
Marsberg Beguinage	begin	Marsberg	1259
German order coming Mülheim	German medal	Mülheim	1266	1809
Sister house		Soest	1279/1300
Beguinages		Soest	Late 13th century
Augustinian monastery in Glindfeld	Augustinian women	Medebach	1297	1499
Meschede Abbey	Canons	Meschede	1310	1805
Beguinage	begin	Attendorn	from 1317
Annenborn Monastery	Augustinian women	Anröchte	1322	1408
Collegiate monastery St. Johannes Baptista Attendorn		Attendorn	1396	1825
Augustinian branch in Rüthen	Augustinian women	Rüthen	1480	1734 (or 1772)
Augustinian Canon Canon Eternal	Augustinians	Attendorn	1420	1803
Beguinage		Werl	1429
Galilee Monastery	Dominicans	Meschede	1430	1810
Sisters house Rüthen	Sisters of life together	Rüthen	1480
Störmede Monastery	Augustinian women	Geseke	1483	1804
Canon of the Kreuzbrüder zu Glindfeld	Lords of the Cross	Medebach	1499	1804
Benedictine monastery Odacker	Augustinians, Benedictines	Hirschberg	13th century / 1513	1804
Jesuit Mission Arnsberg	Jesuit	Arnsberg	1622	1773
Franciscan monastery Attendorn	Franciscan	Attendorn	1637	1822
Franciscan monastery Geseke	Franciscan	Geseke	1637	1834
German order coming forest exercise	German medal	Attendorn	1638	1692
Propstei Eikeloh	Premonstratensian women	Erwitte	1639	1803
Werl Monastery	Capuchin	Werl	1645	1834
Brilon Minorite Monastery	Minorites	Brilon	1653	1806
Capuchin monastery Rüthen	Capuchin	Rüthen	1657	1806
Monastery fountain	Capuchin	Sundern	1722	1834
Marsberg Capuchin Monastery	Capuchin	Marsberg	1744	1812

Time after secularization

After the duchy fell to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , most of the monasteries were secularized .

New foundations began in the second half of the 19th century. In 1913 there were 59 branches of orders or congregations. Apart from the Franciscan monasteries in Attendorn and Werl , as well as the Oeventrop monastery , which was founded in 1902 as a theological training center and mission house, the majority of these were facilities for women. In addition to monasteries in the true sense of the word, this also included branches of parent houses, for example in hospitals. The number of members of the Order was 960 in 1913. In 1931 there were 1585 members of orders or congregations in 96 institutions. The largest group was made up of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Olpe . This congregation was founded in Olpe in 1863 and has spread from the region to the rest of Germany and North America, the Philippines and Brazil .

The Benedictine monastery Königsmünster in Meschede was established in 1928. The Grafschaft monastery has been the motherhouse of the Borromean sisters since 1948. The Bergkloster Bestwig was the mother house of the sisters of St. Maria Magdalena Postel in Germany. Today Bestwig is the seat of the European Province.

In 1983 there were eight male monastery-like institutions. The number of female institutes was 66.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klueting, Klosterlandschaft, p. 55
2. ↑ Klueting, Klosterlandschaft, p. 56
3. ↑ Klueting, Klosterlandschaft, p. 57f.
4. ↑ Klueting, Klosterlandschaft, p. 58f.
5. ↑ Klueting, Klosterlandschaft, p. 99f.
6. ↑ Michael Schmitt: “There was a time when they were useful where they were necessary; this is no longer ... “The monastery landscape in the Duchy of Westphalia up to secularization. In: From the Kurkölnischer Krummstab over the Hessian lion to the Prussian eagle. Secularization and its consequences in the Duchy of Westphalia 1803–2003 Arnsberg 2003 p. 88
7. ↑ Th. Hundt: The hermitages in the Duchy of Westphalia in the period of secularization. In: Sauerlandruf 3/4 1964 pp. 17-20
8. ^ Mathias Pape: The secularization in the Duchy of Westphalia - gate for ultramontanism. In: Sauerland 2/2003 p. 63
9. ^ Harm Klueting: Franz Wilhelm von Spiegel and his plan of secularization for the Duchy of Westphalia. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift Vol. 131/132 1981/82 pp. 47-68

literature

• Klaus Baulmann: Jesuits - Minorites - Franciscans - Capuchins: Monasteries and religious orders in the early modern period. In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Vol. 1: The Duchy of Westphalia: The Electoral Cologne Westphalia from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia up to secularization in 1803. Münster, 2009 ISBN 978-3-402-12827-5 , pp. 519-543
• Géza Jászai (Ed.): Monastic Westphalia. Monasteries and monasteries 800–1800 . Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1982, ISBN 3-88789-054-X .
• Karl Hengst (Ed.): Westphalian monastery book. Lexicon of the monasteries and monasteries established before 1815 from their foundation to their abolition. Part 1, Münster 1992.
• Edeltraud Klueting : The monastery landscape of the Duchy of Westphalia in the High Middle Ages . In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Vol. 1: The Electorate of Cologne Westphalia from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia to secularization in 1803. Münster, 2009 ISBN 978-3-402-12827-5 , pp. 55-101
• Harm Klueting : Monasteries - monks and nuns - orders and congregations. In the S. (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Vol. 2.2 Münster, 2012 pp. 949-1008
• Michael Schmitt: “It was a time when they were useful where they were necessary; this is no longer ... “The monastery landscape in the Duchy of Westphalia up to secularization. In: From the Kurkölnischer Krummstab over the Hessian lion to the Prussian eagle. Secularization and its consequences in the Duchy of Westphalia 1803-2003, published on behalf of the Sauerländer Heimatbund eV and the Sauerland Museum of the Hochsauerlandkreis, Arnsberg 2003. ISBN 3-930264-46-3

Web links

• Westphalia regional: Medieval monasteries in Westphalia

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