St. Clement's Church (Brunssum)
The St. Clement's church is located in the north of the town of Brunssum in the province of Limburg the Netherlands , right on the border to the district Merkelbeek the former church Onderbanken that in the community since 2019 Beekdaelen has risen. Together with the Lourdes grotto , the tomb of the Baron de Negri couple and the churchyard wall, it is on the list of imperial monuments in the Netherlands. It is now profaned and serves as a place for weddings and cultural events.
history
The church is located on an elevation on the north side of the Merkelbeekbach. Here the Roman road Aachen-Xanten ran over the creek on the section between Heerlen and Tüddern. A second Roman road crossed there, probably a connection from Gangelt to Maastricht.
The church was built around the year 1000. It is consecrated to St. Clement . In 1234 there is a report about a meeting of the Susteren deanery, in which a priest from Merkelbeek is mentioned, which is why it can be assumed that at that time it was an independent parish. St. Clemens served as the parish church until the large neo-Gothic St. Clemens Church was built and consecrated in what is now Merkelbeek in 1879, just under 2 km away.
Originally a hall church, there have been several changes over time: the tower was reworked in 1746, side aisles were added, which have now disappeared again. The municipality of Brunssum carried out the last major renovation in 2013/14.
With the relocation of the parish church to today's Merkelbeek, which was designed in 1875 by the architect J. Kayser and inaugurated in 1879, the construction of a monastery complex began right next to the old church. The Sisters of Love from the Precious Blood from Sittard founded a branch and dedicated themselves to caring for people in need of care. In 1886 they built a Lourdes grotto next to the church and a locally important place of pilgrimage developed. Since the sisters could no longer cope with this, the monastery was bought from the sisters after negotiations with the Affligem Benedictine abbey and a Benedictine branch was founded in 1893.
Prehistory of the Merkelbeek Benedictine Abbey
1851 was within the Cassinensischen Congregation of Benedictines the new province of Sublazenser Provincia Sublacensis S. scholasticae been established, the rapidly u. a. spread in Spain, France and Belgium. There were also Germans among the monks of the congregation and an expansion to Germany was considered. Then the Kulturkampf began in 1871 and, as a result of the Monastery Act of 1875, many German monks sought refuge in Belgian monasteries.
Father Godehard Heigl (1825–1907) was sent from Italy to the Dendermonde monastery in Belgium in 1859 and helped to set up the newly established branch of the Sublazenser. In 1870 the congregation had the opportunity to repopulate Affligem Abbey . In 1877 the convent elected him superior there. In 1887 Affligem was elevated to an abbey and Godehard was elected abbot. One of his long-term goals was the resettlement of the Benedictines in Prussia . With the repeal of the monastery law in 1887, all major orders were soon represented again in the Archdiocese of Cologne with the exception of the Jesuits (the Jesuit law was still in force) and the Benedictines. After a few projects had failed, Abbot Godehard immediately took action when the opportunity arose to build a monastery in Merkelbeek near the Prussian border as an interim solution for the German monks of the congregation. In a broader sense, Merkelbeek is a culture war monastery, since before 1887 a settlement in Prussia was not possible and the state authorities later rejected applications for the construction of a monastery, given that the motherhouse and the abbot general of the congregation were abroad. In contrast, the Beuron congregation was able to take over Maria Laach as early as 1892 .
The Benedictine Abbey
The priory was set up under the direction of Hermann Renzel (1846–1922), raised to an abbey at the General Chapter in 1896, and Hermann Renzel was elected the first abbot, who was also the first abbot in the Netherlands since the Reformation. While the former parish church of St. Clemens initially served as a monastery church, a large neo-Gothic abbey church was built as early as 1900 based on plans by Father Petrus Lambrecht, consecrated to St. Benedict. Since then, the abbey has been called St. Benedict and St. Clemens. Then, after further unsuccessful attempts to settle in Germany, the Kornelimünster monastery was finally founded from Merkelbeek in 1906 . In 1920 Romuald Wolters was elected the new abbot, who moved with the entire convent in 1922/23 to the newly built monastery of St. Benediktusberg in Vaals / Mamelis .
Merkelbeek was sold to the Discalced Carmelites (OCD) who ran a theologicum there until 1965 in the now renamed "Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Sacrament". In 1968 the church was demolished and the monastery complex was converted into a “Huize Tieder” old people's home. Used as an asylum center since 1992, everything will be demolished in 2009.
literature
- Jens Nürnberger: The return of the Benedictines to the Archdiocese of Cologne after secularization and the Kulturkampf. einhard, Aachen 2014 (= publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archives , Volume 51).
- Lambertus Moonen: Merkelbeek In: Jan Peter Margry, Charles Caspers, mmv Antoine Jacobs and Ottie Thiers: Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland, Deel 3: Limburg. Meertens Institut, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-6550-568-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ rijksmonument 42088. Retrieved June 6, 2019 (Dutch).
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 23.8 " N , 5 ° 57 ′ 33" E