Trappist Abbey of Koningsoord

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The Trappist Abbey Koningsoord is a Dutch monastery in Johannahoeveweg in Arnhem , Archdiocese of Utrecht .

history

The Belgian Trappist Abbey of Chimay founded the Monastery of Our Lady of Koningsoord in 1937 (near the Trappist Abbey of Tilburg in Berkel-Enschot, Netherlands) , which was immediately elevated to the status of an abbey . After the Second World War , the monastery was able to found two subsidiary monasteries in 1953 and 1964 (in Germany and Uganda ) and in 1954 to send reinforcements to the French monastery Altbronn . In 2009 the abbey was relocated to Renkum, a suburb of Arnhem.

Abbesses

  • Gertrudis Demarrez (1937-1958)
  • Godelieve Hooymans (1958-1964)
  • Rafaël Hinkenkemper (1964–1982)
  • Ermelindis De Groot (1982-1994)
  • Benedict Thissen (1994-2014)
  • Julian Pieters (2014–)

Foundations

Nuns of the Koningsoord Abbey as victims of National Socialism

On August 2, 1942, two nuns from the abbey (together with Lisamaria Meirowsky, who lived in the monastery ) were arrested by the Gestapo . They were the sisters Hedwigis Löb (* 1908, entry into the Trappist Abbey of Chimay in 1928, solemn profession 1933, Koningsoord 1937) and Maria-Theresia Löb (* 1911). Together with their three brothers from the Trappist Abbey of Tilburg , they were taken to the Westerbork concentration camp . They died in Poland in 1942 or 1943. A sixth member of the Löb family, also a nun in Koningsoord, Veronica Löb (* 1911), was arrested on April 1, 1943 and died (after staying in Westerbork) on August 1, 1944 in the monastery.

The six religious were the children of Ludwig Löb (* 1881 in Euskirchen; † 1935), who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, and his Dutch wife Jenny van Gelder (1879-1938), who was also of Jewish descent. One of the motives for the children's entry into the order was the wish to contribute to the conversion of all Jews through prayer . To avoid arrest by fleeing, which would have been possible, the siblings refused to spare the monasteries the threatened reprisals. Thanks to the testimony of the surviving youngest sister, Paula van Broekhoven (1918–2004), a comprehensive documentation of the tragedy and its family history was made 70 years later.

literature

  • PWFM Hamans, Getuigen voor Christ. Rooms-kathieke bloedgetuigen uit Nederland in de twintigste eeuw. Nationale Raad voor Liturgie , Den Bosch 2008.
    • (English) Paul Hamans, Edith Stein and Companions. On the Way to Auschwitz , Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010.
  • Bernard Peugniez , Le Guide Routier de l'Europe Cistercienne , Strasbourg: Editions du Signe, 2012, p. 414.
  • Peter Steffen and Hans Evers, Scheuren in het kleed. Het joods-kathieke gezin Löb 1881–1945 , Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2009.
    • (English) Peter Steffen and Hans Evers, Can a Seamless Garment Be Truly Torn? Questions Surrounding the Jewish-Catholic Löb Family, 1881-1945 , Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 2014.

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 '7.2 "  N , 5 ° 49' 50.9"  E