Neersen Minorite Monastery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Minorite monastery in Neersen existed as a monastery of the Minorites from 1658 until the secularization in 1802.

founding

In 1652, Baron von Neersen, Adrian Wilhelm von Viermund , and his wife, Johanna von Bongardt, decided to build a church not far from their Neersen Castle. Church foundations had a long tradition in Johanna's family. The two of them issued a binding document on March 25, 1652, and construction began around 1655. Johanna died before the construction work on the church was completed, whereupon Adrian Wilhelm decided to build a monastery in Neersen in addition to the church and to hand both over to the Order of the Minorites. In August 1657 the provincial chapter of the Minorites in Bonn gave its approval, and with a deed of 7 May 1658 the monastery and church were handed over to the Minorites. The first guardian of the monastery was Father Anton Tormöllen, the first vicar was Father Johannes Otterstadt. On December 20, 1658, the Archbishop of Cologne , Maximilian Heinrich von Bayern, gave his consent to the establishment of a monastery and also gave the monks permission to collect timber for the construction of the monastery in his secular territory. In 1679 the monastery complex had been completed for some time.

The church was consecrated on June 17, 1671 by Cologne Auxiliary Bishop Petrus von Walenburg to the Conception of Mary. Adrian Wilhelm had also designated the church as a burial place for his family and had a crypt built there for this purpose. After he died in 1681, he was the first to be buried there.

Religious activity

An average of 17 monks lived in the monastery. They looked after the church and monastery and developed worship and pastoral activities that went far beyond the local area. In the second half of the 17th century they also developed a brisk trade in cattle, wine and food. The first market in Neersen, the Halbfasten- or Schüppenmarkt, was held by the monastery. In the middle of the 18th century, an expansion of the church and monastery was considered, as the village of Neersen had grown in the meantime and many from the surrounding towns attended the services here. Between 1749 and 1766 the church and the monastery were brought up to the main street.

Guardians of the monastery

The following guardians are known by name from the last days of the monastery:

  • around 1730: Fortunatus Decker
  • 1769: Friedrich Lersch
  • 1770–1772: Athanasius Obladen
  • 1775–1778: Friedrich Lersch (again)
  • 1778–1781: Nazarius Engels
  • 1781–1784: Urban Reder
  • 1784–1787: Timotheus Jansen
  • 1787-1790: Theodoret Eisen
  • 1793–1796: Cunibert Vossen
  • 1796–1802: Leopold Eggerath

resolution

In 1794 Neersen was occupied by French revolutionary troops as part of the First Coalition War . It became known that the French occupation government operated secularization , that is, dissolved many monasteries and churches and confiscated their properties. In order to preserve the Neersen church, the last guardian of the monastery, Leopold Eggerath, obtained that Neersen was separated from the mother parish of Anrath on September 18, 1798 and raised to an independent parish. The monastery church became the new parish church and Eggerath became the first pastor of the new parish. The other members of the order could initially remain in the monastery; some of them gradually left Neersen to take on pastoral care elsewhere. The French government officially dissolved the monastery in 1802 as part of the secularization and moved the monastery building and the associated lands. The pilgrimage chapel Klein-Jerusalem bei Neersen, built between 1654 and 1661 and donated to the order by the Archbishop on December 21, 1771 , was withdrawn and closed. Of the 11 remaining monks at that time, pastor Eggerath was the only one remaining in Neersen as vicar, Father Tobias Flamme.

This ended the activity of the Minorite Order in Neersen, which had lasted for almost 150 years.

Reuse

In 1803, when the Neersen parish was to be dissolved again, Eggerath made a strange move. He placed the church previously consecrated to the Virgin Mary under the patronage of Saint Napoleon and reported about it to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte 's wife at the time, Josephine. This dedication of a church is unique in Germany and actually absurd because there was no Saint Napoleon. With this flattery, Eggerath achieved not only that the Neersen parish was allowed to continue to exist, but also that the monastery buildings and associated properties were returned. It was apparently already unclear at the time whether it was returned to the church or the civil parish at the time, but at any rate, disputes soon arose over this aspect. The attempt to raise the parish church to a canton church was unsuccessful. It was not until 1856 that the church was rededicated by St. Napoleon to St. Mary's Conception.

From then on, the former monastery buildings were used partly for ecclesiastical and partly for secular purposes. One part housed a parish and vicarage apartment as well as a Catholic school, while the other part housed the mayor's office, post office and the fire brigade's fire department .

In 1960 the dilapidated monastery buildings and the main nave of the parish church, which had become too small, were demolished. The new parish church was built in its place. The choir of the old church with the roof turret characteristic of the Minorite church was preserved and was connected to the new church.

In memory of the former Minorite monastery in Neersen, the street on which the monastery was located is now called "Minoritenplatz".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Peter Lentzen, Franz Verres: History of glory Neersen and Anrath. Lentzen, Fischeln 1883, p. 295.

literature

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 6.2 "  N , 6 ° 28 ′ 40.1"  E