Cistercian women

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cistercian Abbey of St. Marienthal in Upper Lusatia

Cistercian women are nuns who belong to the Cistercian Order (OCist). The female and male branches together form a religious community .

history

A first women's monastery, which was connected to Cîteaux and presumably adopted the Cistercian way of life, was founded in France in 1113; other convents followed. At the beginning of the 13th century there were already more than 800 women's monasteries that followed the customs of Cîteaux, but were not incorporated into the order, as Cîteaux initially refused to accept women's monasteries into the order. The official recording can only be documented by sources from 1228.

However, there were still numerous monasteries that adopted the Cistercian way of life without formally joining the order; well-known examples are the monasteries Helfta and Marienfließ . The affiliation to a Benedictine order usually meant a great loss of independence for a women's monastery, as each women's monastery was subordinated to the so-called father abbot of a men's monastery, who had to control the observance of the customs and the economic interests of the monastery and to decide on the admission of sisters . On the other hand, the women's convents were often supported by the men's monasteries both by priests and lay brothers .

The religious women's movement of the 13th century found an ideal space in the seclusion of the Cistercian convents. A lively exchange with the beguines resulted in a particularly strong expression of mysticism and Eucharistic adoration until the 14th century . One such center of mysticism at that time was the Helfta monastery , "the crown of the German women's monasteries", in which Mechthild von Hackeborn , Gertrud von Helfta and Mechthild von Magdeburg lived. After 457 years, this abbey was repopulated on August 13, 1999 by Cistercian women, especially the Seligenthal Abbey .

Basically there are two major Benedictine orders today that refer to the reform of Cîteaux: The Cistercians of general observance and the Cistercians of stricter observance , popularly also called Trappists . In 2009 there were around 900 Cistercian women in around 60 monasteries worldwide. In 2009 the Trappist women numbered around 1,800 nuns in 72 monasteries. The worldwide existing and former Cistercian and Cistercian convents are listed on the list of Cistercian monasteries .

Cistercian of the Marienthal Abbey

Existing Cistercian nunneries

Existing nunneries in Germany

Existing nunneries in Austria

Existing nunneries in Switzerland

literature

alphabetically ascending

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistics of the Cistercian Order 2009 ( Memento from June 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Statistics of the Cistercian women of strict observance for 2009 ( Memento from August 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )