Brilon Minorite Monastery
The minorite settlement at Brilon was one of the numerous new foundations of the 17th and 18th centuries by Franciscan conventuals in the Cologne order province .
History and Development
On October 29, 1652, the Minorites offered the magistrate of Brilon to perform spiritual services on site. The focus should be on teaching high school in the lower four grades. They asked for the Nikolai chapel and permission to buy an adjoining house with a garden. On September 11, 1653, the Archbishop of Cologne, Max Heinrich von Bayern, gave his approval for the establishment of a new Minorite settlement in Brilon. The first two Minorites from Dortmund and Soest arrived just two days later .
The grammar school or the Latin school "Ambrosio-Antonium" can be identified since 1655 . From 1658 lessons took place in the house of Henning Rammen, which was bought by the city . Between 1708 and 1712 the city built a school building near the monastery. At times, up to 80 students studied at the school. In 1795 there were only 13 left.
In 1756 the Minorites took over the administration of the parishes in Obermarsberg and in 1786 in Brilon in addition to school service .
From 1655 the religious were housed in the house of a former mayor. The foundation stone for the new monastery building was laid on June 16, 1663, but it was not completed until 1703. During the Seven Years' War , the French moved into Brilon in 1757 and used the monastery as a hospital. A new monastery church was built from 1772 and completed in 1782. The mayor of Brilon, Johann Melchior Wichartz , contributed to the financing with a sum of 14,000 Reichstalers. After completion of the construction, the old Nikolai chapel was demolished.
In the sources, the settlement “Conventus Brilonensis” (1653) and the Minorites there “Fratres Minorum Ordinis Sancti Francisci Conventualium Cologne Province” (1752) are mentioned. The “ Guardian ” with his deputy, as “Vicarius”, “Jubilarius”, “Senior Lector”, “Procurator”, “Concionator”, “Stationarius” and “Terminarius” belonged to the monastery offices . In addition, professors from the grammar school are mentioned.
Most of the Minorites came from Westphalian middle-class and farming families. The convention was up to 18 people. In 1786 there were 14 fathers and 4 lay brothers , when it was abolished there were 7 fathers and 4 lay brothers.
With the takeover of the Nikolai chapel, the monastery received the so-called "Nikolai profit", which included the income from 9 fields. This also included the mill on Eselskamp. Later, 10 fields, 4 meadows, 2 gardens and 5 fish ponds were added. The existence of a brewery is recorded for the year 1757.
For the first time in 1783 as part of the school reform by Franz Wilhelm von Spiegel , the abolition of the monastery school was ordered and confirmed again in 1784. A year later, the Archbishop of Cologne allowed the city of Brilon to set up a public high school with three professors. The Minorites ran the archbishop's abolition of this educational institution, which was no longer under their direct control and had only 13 students in 1795, but without success. On November 1, 1803, the Minorites received the repeal decree of the new sovereign Ludwig X of Hesse-Darmstadt , for school and monastery. On April 6, 1804, they temporarily moved to the dissolved Minorite monastery of Rüthen until 1806 .
By order of the Hessians, an inventory of the monastery library had to be made on June 1, 1803. Some of the books (86 works) have been preserved in the library of the Petrinum Brilon grammar school . The archive materials are in the State Archives in Münster and in the Paderborn Heritage Archives .
List of Guardians
- 1653 Fridericus Stemmer
- 1657 Jodocus Vehoff
- 1666 Theodorus Storck
- 1667 Jodocus Vehoff
- 1670 Georg Caspari
- 1671 Martinus Riphan
- 1676 Otto Koch
- 1679 Georg Caspari
- 1685 Bertram Kleinschmidt
- 1688 Georg Caspari
- 1690 Leo Letmate
- 1691 Otto Koch
- 1697 Sigefridus Becker
- 1700 Bonaventure Thuman
- 1705 Johannes Baptista Harbert
- 1707 Samuel Kesterinck
- 1709 Johannes Baptista Harbert
- 1712 Jodocus Cramer
- 1713 Rudolphus Dempfer
- 1715 Agricola Betting
- 1716 Johannes Baptista Harbert
- 1718 Lucas Jansingh
- 1721 Marcus Bonstrupp
- 1724 Melchiades Gördes
- 1727 Agapitus Seiling
- 1730 Honorius de Westrem
- 1731 Everhardus Hillen
- 1734 Martinus Naber
- 1736 Conradus Fuisting
- 1737 Victorinus Crux
- 1740 Bonaventure Oberess
- 1743 Fridericus Weyer
- 1745 Crescentius Gescher
- 1748 Georgius Gerdes
- 1751 Bernardinus Benning
- 1754 Paulus Koch
- 1757 Floridus Ludolph
- 1758 Damianus Flören
- 1761 Bonaventure Oberess
- 1762 Juvenalis Oldenkott
- 1765 Paulus Koch
- 1769 Juvenalis Oldenkott
- 1772 Georgius Weyer
- 1773 Ludovicus Niemberg (acting)
- 1773 Hyacinthus Surmann
- 1776 Sabinus Reckers
- 1779 Hyginus La Paix
- 1782 Bonus Willer
- 1783 Felix Kligge
- 1785 Sabinus Reckers
- 1788 Aemilianus Bannenberg
- 1790 Josephus Becker
- 1793 Bartholomaeus Brüning
- 1796 Paulus Osterbrock
- 1797 Bellinus Lohmann
- 1800 Gedeon Lescher
- 1803 Bellinus Lohmann
Literature and Sources
- Karl Hengst (Ed.): Westphalian monastery book. Part 1: Ahlen - Mülheim. Aschendorff, Münster 1992, ISBN 3-402-06886-9 , pp. 151–155, ( sources and research on church and religious history 2, publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia 44).
- Johann Suibert Seibertz : Chronicle of the Minorite Monastery in Brilon . Brilon, 1890 digitized
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 50 ″ N , 8 ° 34 ′ 9.1 ″ E