St. Mary, Mother of the Seven Sorrows (Bethen)

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Chapel of grace for Our Lady of Sorrows
Interior of the Chapel of Mercy
Entrance to the Chapel of Mercy

St. Maria, Mother of the Seven Sorrows is a pilgrimage church in Bethen , a district of Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony , consecrated in 1929 , with a Chapel of Grace from 1669 and a complex of pilgrimage buildings.

history

A Bether pilgrimage was first mentioned on July 3, 1448. The miraculous image of Our Lady with the dead son ( Pietà ) venerated here is dated to the end of the 14th century in terms of art history. The legend tells that it was discovered floating on the Soeste by country people, recovered and loaded onto a horse-drawn vehicle. At the site of today's Chapel of Mercy, the horses bucked, and this was understood as a sign to build a sanctuary here.

In 1544 the area became Protestant and pilgrimages subsided. In the course of the Counter Reformation , Bethen became Catholic again in 1613. However, as the Thirty Years War soon raged, the pilgrimages were not resumed. In the turmoil of war even the chapel was destroyed.

It was not until 1669 that the Chapel of Grace, rebuilt by Carl Othmar von Grothaus, the Drosten of the Office of Cloppenburg, was solemnly consecrated by Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen and placed under the protection of the Mother of God and Saint Anthony . A year later, the first procession of the Birth of the Virgin Mary , introduced by Bishop Christoph Bernhard, took place.

The pilgrimage flourished from the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century. After that there was a decline in processions . Only the Cloppenburg procession on the feast of the birth of the Virgin and the Corpus Christi procession remained. With the First World War a revival of the pilgrimage began, as many women and children prayed there for their relatives at the front.

The Mother of Seven Sorrows is now a pilgrimage destination for the parishes of the Oldenburger Land , but many pilgrims from more distant parishes also come to the image of Our Lady of Sorrows.

It is the northernmost Marian pilgrimage site in Germany. In Europe, only Warfhuizen in the Netherlands, Heiligelinde in the former East Prussia and the Gate of Dawn near Vilna in Lithuania are to the north.

Anthony's Chapel

Outside altar and Antonius Chapel

The Antonius Chapel was built next to the Chapel of Mercy in 1858 . The neo-Gothic central building with a hexagonal floor plan and ribbed vault was designed by Johann Bernhard Hensen . In the chapel there is a figure of Anthony from the second half of the 18th century.

basilica

Pilgrimage basilica
Pilgrimage basilica

After the First World War, plans began to build a large neo-baroque pilgrimage church, which could be consecrated in 1929. The facade was modeled on the baroque in a simple version. It was clinkered in red and is structured by interruptions marked in white such as plastering fields and on the nave and transepts by flat buttresses. The apse shows a representation of the mercy seat . The old marble main altar was redesigned by Clemens Dierkes after the Second Vatican Council . A precious reliquary with relics of St. Venustus, Grata, Maria Goretti , Pope Pius X and Boniface is embedded in the front .

In 1977 the pilgrimage church was opened by Pope Paul VI. raised to the papal basilica minor . In the crypt there has been an artistically designed reliquary of the beatified Cardinal Clemens August Graf von Galen , who came from the Oldenburger Münsterland and, as can also be seen from the Primizkelch, was closely connected to the place.

  • Cardinal von Galen reliquary in the crypt

  • detail

The organ building company Hermann Eule (Bautzen) is currently building a new organ for the basilica. The instrument is set up on the gallery and has 36 stops (2,000 pipes) on two manual works and a pedal.

I main work C – a 3
1. Salicional 16 ′
2. Principal 08th'
3. Viola di gamba 08th'
4th Marian flute 08th'
5. teller 08th'
6th Octave 04 ′
7th Pointed flute 04 ′
8th. Fifth 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
9. Super octave 02 ′
10. Mixture IV 02 ′
11. Cornett II-IV 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
12. Trumpet 08th'
13. Physharmonica 0 16 ′
14th Physharmonica 08th'
II Swell C – a 3
15th Lovely Gedackt 16 ′
16. Violin principal 08th'
17th Unda maris (from c 0 ) 08th'
18th Flauto traverso 08th'
19th Dumped 08th'
20th Viola d'amour 08th'
21st Fugara 04 ′
22nd Flauto amabile 04 ′
23. Nassat 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
24. Forest flute 02 ′
25th third 01 3 ⁄ 5  ′
26th Fifth 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
27. Progressio III-IV 02 ′
28. Cor anglais 16 ′
29 oboe 08th'
Pedals C – f 1
30th Violon bass 16 ′
31. Sub bass 16 ′
32. Principal bass 0 08th'
33. cello 08th'
34. Drone 08th'
35. Octavbass 04 ′
36. trombone 16 ′

memorial

In the crypt of the pilgrimage church there is a memorial for the victims of the two world wars from the Catholic communities in the Oldenburg region . On the walls of the crypt, on marble plaques, there are 3,672 names of fallen and missing persons from the First World War, sorted according to parishes and peasants.

A printed memorial book for the Second World War has been on display in the crypt since 1972. This is divided into nine deaneries ( Cloppenburg , Damme , Delmenhorst , Friesoythe , Löningen , Oldenburg , Vechta , Wesermarsch and Wilhelmshaven ), to which the parishes of the time are assigned. A total of 10,244 names of fallen and missing persons are listed, usually with the year of birth and death. In addition to the soldiers, civil war victims are also mentioned.

literature

  • Georg Dehio (Ed.): Handbook of German Art Monuments , Vol. 2: Bremen / Lower Saxony, Neubearb., Munich 1992, ISBN 3-422-03022-0 , p. 218 f.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Chapel of Grace at Bethen . In: If stones could talk. From Lower Saxony's History , Volume 2, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1992, ISBN 3-7842-0479-1 , pp. 156–158.
  • Maria Anna Zumholz : "With the weapons of prayer against the destructive forces of godlessness". Demonstration of faith, protest and popular piety - pilgrimages and processions to Bethen under the conditions of National Socialist rule . In: Willi Baumann, Michael Hirschfeld (eds.): Christenkreuz or Hakenkreuz. On the relationship between the Catholic Church and National Socialism in the state of Oldenburg . Plaggenborg, Vechta 1999, ISBN 3-929358-54-9 , pp. 203-239.

Web links

Commons : St. Mary, Mother of the Seven Sorrows (Bethen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Place of pilgrimage Bethen: History of the pilgrimage
  2. ^ Dehio, p. 219.
  3. ↑ Information on disposition

Coordinates: 52 ° 51 '49.3 "  N , 8 ° 3' 46.1"  E