St. Petrus Canisius (Mainz-Gonsenheim)
St. Petrus Canisius is a Roman Catholic church in Mainz-Gonsenheim . As a modern post-war building from the 1950s, the church is now a listed building .
history
In 1950 a plot of land in Mainz-Gonsenheim on the Gleisberg was bought and the architect Hugo Becker began planning a church. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on July 10, 1955, and the foundation stone was laid on September 11, 1955. On July 22, 1956, the church was consecrated by Bishop Albert Stohr .
A free-standing bell tower, covered corridors on the outer front with a glass porch and a circular cloister around the church and rectory were planned, but were never implemented for financial reasons. On the right side of the church, the parish rooms are on the right, the workshop chapel on the left and - separately - the parsonage with the office of the disabled pastoral care of the diocese of Mainz .
The church has been a listed building since 1996 as "a testimony to intellectual, artistic and technical activity, the preservation and maintenance of which is of public interest to promote historical awareness and increase the value of the environment".
The church building
The entire spatial conception of the parish church of St. Petrus Canisius in Mainz-Gonsenheim is based primarily on statements in the Apocalypse of John , which in turn has a rich symbolic language.
Layout
Even the floor plan in the form of a parabola (Greek parabola = parable) refers to the claim of the room to become a parable itself: as a holy, sacred room, the side walls of which seem to run backwards into infinity, where they rise and extend far, as they wanted to embrace the whole congregation with outstretched arms and unite them in open space.
A flat arched roof spans the church and protrudes protectively over the mighty entrance front, which was built by the Eichhorn company from Boppard. It presents itself as a huge glass wall made up of more than 3,000 individual fields with narrow concrete ribs. With their blue and gray tones, the hand-blown double-layer glasses in stereotypical ornamentation are intended to bring the "new heaven" of the apocalypse to mind. Especially in the evening sun, the large glass facade lets the "shine of the precious stones" shine.
Portals
The three entrance doors in the large glass wall were designed by Peter Paul Etz . They correspond to the “three gates” of Jerusalem. The portals are designed as concrete glazing with French special glasses and clad on the outside with a gray tombac shell and on the inside with copper and silver coverings. Roughly hewn glass stones blend in to form impressive images.
The two-winged central portal shows the fight of Satan against the Church, as it is described in the Apocalypse : “A great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed in the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of stars on her head. And another sign appeared in the sky: a great, fiery red dragon with seven heads and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept away a third of the stars. The dragon stood in front of the woman who gave birth to a child to devour her offspring ”(Apocalypse 12: 1-4 EU ).
The one-piece side doors on the right show the Pentecost event according to Chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, as it can be experienced in the Sacrament of Confirmation: the Holy Spirit dove donates the seven holy gifts in the form of tongues of fire, wisdom and understanding, advice and strength, science, piety and Fear of God.
The left side door connects two images of the Apocalypse: “When I looked around, I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the middle of the candlesticks the figure of a Son of Man. The seven candlesticks are the churches ”(1.12 EU ) and“ ... I saw a lamb standing there as if slaughtered. The Lamb deserves praise and honor! ”(5.6 EU ). Here a lamb is depicted in the midst of seven burning candlesticks: Christ as the center of his believers is a core theme of the Canisius Church.
altar
The central point inside the church is the altar . It is made of red sandstone and shows on the front and back "the 24 elders in white robes who worship God on the throne" (Apocalypse 4); the mosaic work was again designed by Peter Paul Etz. This altar stands in the geometric focus of the room, circular steps lead up to it, one can walk around it unhindered and it looks like a mighty sarcophagus on a hill: This corresponds to the holy mountain on which the memory of the sacrificial death of Christ takes place.
Peter Paul Etz, at that time lecturer at the Landeskunstschule in Mainz, who created the altar plinth and portals for St. Petrus Canisius, had already artistically implemented the idea of the “Heavenly Jerusalem” from the Revelation of John at least twice: The large altarpiece in St. Alban comes from his hand and when in 1954 the Holy Cross Church in the Silesian Quarter also oriented itself towards the Revelation of John, Etz was commissioned to design the seven doors behind the altar area.
From a high light dome over the chancel, a so-called “lantern”, which cannot be seen from the pews, brightness floods down through a round opening in the suspended ceiling: The new city of Jerusalem does not need sunlight or moonlight. “For the glory of God illuminates them” (Apocalypse 21.23 EU ).
tabernacle
The tabernacle stands in this light as the theological center of the building. The work of the Mainz goldsmith Weiland used to have its place on the altar and, since the liturgy reform, has stood behind it. According to John's vision, the tabernacle is designed as the throne of God. Multiple broken glass stones glitter on its golden doors: "Before the throne of God there was something like a glass, crystal-like sea" (Apocalypse 4.6 EU ). Four high wings in blue enamel seem to hold the tabernacle floating above the altar; they are symbols of the “four beings with wings all around full of eyes” who, according to Apocalypse 4.8 EU , sing “three times holy” in front of the throne of God.
inner space
Weiland also created the suspension of the Eternal Light , which hangs from the ceiling to the side of the altar. A ruby red, flat and large bowl is held by a symbolic Jacob's ladder, as the Patriarch saw in a dream; the top seems to reach to heaven and angels descend on it. "Verily, God is in this place and I did not know it" ( Genesis 28.12 EU ).
The twelve simple apostle candlesticks on the choir wall and on both sides of the main portal are reminiscent of the image of the new Jerusalem: "The wall of the city had 12 foundation stones on which the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb were written" (Apocalypse 21,14 EU ). The names of the twelve can be found on the communion bench covered with copper , which avoids delimiting the sanctuary from the believers, but only indicates the place where the community can gather around the “holy altar mountain” in an open semicircle to take part in the sacrificial meal.
Recognized Mainz artists who worked for the new Canisius Church also set accents in modern Mainz church buildings elsewhere. In 1960, sculptor Adam Winter from Mainz-Kastel created the impressive terracotta figure of Mary for St. Petrus Canisius, which invites you to silent prayer on the right of the high altar. The Mother of God appears here as the mediator of the graces that flow out from the divine child and pour into the community.
The number seven of the candlesticks here again builds a bridge to the numerical mysticism of the Apocalypse; like the two times seven slender columns that support the church roof, these candlesticks also remind of the seven days of the week and the seven number of planets known in ancient times, of earthly temporality and the eternity of the heavenly vault with its stars.
A Way of the Cross made of ceramic reliefs has been added to the church furnishings since 1963 . Brother Lukas Ruegenberg OSB from Maria Laach made the Lord's story of suffering clear and memorable.
Until the liturgy reform in 1968 there was a pulpit designed by Peter Paul Etz to the left of the altar, the mosaic paneling of which showed the quadruple spirit dove that carries the message of the cross in all directions (according to Matthew 3:16 EU ). It made space for a baptismal font designed by Theo Ignaz Graffé , the lid of which is surmounted by a dainty, very concentrated figure of Petrus Canisius: the little silent saint reminds us that in addition to relics of Roman martyrs, those of the patron saint are kept inside the altar .
literature
- Jürgen Nikolay (Ed.): Mainz Church Leader . Leinpfad Verlag, ISBN 3-937782-18-4 .
- Catholic parish of St. Petrus Canisius Mainz-Gonsenheim (Hrsg.): Festschrift for the church anniversary . 2006.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 15.66 ″ N , 8 ° 13 ′ 18.66 ″ E