Herford Minorite Monastery
The Minorite Monastery was a Franciscan monastery ( ordo fratrum minorum , "Friars Minor" or "Minorites") in Herford . It perished in the course of the Reformation .
history
The foundation of the Herford Minorite Monastery is said to go back to the Franciscan Johannes de Plano Carpini . He was custodian in Saxony from 1222 to 1224 and was appointed Provincial of the Saxon Franciscan Province of Saxonia in 1228 . A reliable source about the Franciscan settlement in Herford is only available in a document from 1286. In another document from 1286, Abbess Mathilde of Herford mentions a place that the Franciscans would have lived in for a long time. They had received a plot of land for building from the Herford city council. In addition to the branch, a monastery church was also built there. In 1291, the site was expanded. Numerous donations from Herford citizens lead to the conclusion that the monastery was in high regard. In 1463 the Paderborn Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Schulte OESA consecrated a new church and a cloister . The patronage of the church is unknown. In 1291 there was talk of expanding a chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit.
A large part of the Herford Franciscans turned to Lutheran teachings at an early stage in the beginning Reformation. One of the Herford brothers became a preacher at St. Nicolai in Lemgo in 1527 , where the Reformation had already been introduced. The Guardian and a large part of the convent followed his example and left the monastery, only a few religious refused to accept the Lutheran doctrine and were expelled from the monastery in 1532 as a result of an iconoclast by Herford citizens; The monastery cemetery was also destroyed and subsequently sold and built on.
The monastery church and parts of the convent buildings were demolished after 1800, the steeple, still recognizable on older city views, was laid down in 1825. The monastery grounds had previously been used by the city as a shelter for the poor and by the Prussian government in Minden as a penitentiary. The bell of 555 pounds that was recovered when the tower was demolished was brought to the old town hall of Herford and used as a school bell in Elverdissen from 1827 . After it got cracks, it was later exchanged for a steel bell in Bochum.
The Mönchstraße in Herford still reminds of the monastery today.
literature
- Karl Hengst : Westphalian monastery book , vol. 1: Ahlen-Mühlheim, Münster 1992.
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 48.3 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 9 ″ E