The Kirchberg convent (also the Monastery Kirchberg) is a monastery located in Sulz am Neckar in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. The monastery is considered to be one of the most historically important religious buildings in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It also ranks as one of the oldest, having been built in the early 13th century, and one of the first female church houses in central Europe. [1]
The Kirchberg monastery was a convent built in 1237, [1] on the site of a former castle. In 1245 the monastery was recognised by Pope Innocent IV. Over roughly the same period, the number of nuns entering the convent went from around ten to sixty. This rise in the population of the convent can be credited in part to the apparent surge of 'religious awareness', with more women (of every class) wanting to live the life of a nun or at least one of piety in order to ensure that they remained spiritually healthy. [1] The convent continued its religious work for the next 500 years, despite the many changes that occurred in the area. However, after a secularisation that occurred in 1806, the monastery was virtually condemned to disuse: the nuns that were there were allowed to remain for the rest of their lives, but no more were allowed to join. The last nun left the monastery in 1865.
Today, the monastery is used as any normal church house. It is the centre of the societies of the Berneuchen Movement. Every morning, at 7:45am, a service of praise is held. At noon, a prayer service is held. Another is held at 6pm, and then at 9pm. These sessions are respectively known as Lauds, Sext, Vespers and Compline. Celebration of Eucharist also takes place at the monastery every Sunday and Thursday. As of 2007, the minister of the Kirchberg monastery is pastor Peter Schwarz. [2]
The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order for men and women. Historical records about its origin remain very uncertain, but it was probably founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel in the Crusader States. Berthold of Calabria has traditionally been associated with the founding of the order, but few clear records of early Carmelite history have survived. The order of Carmelite nuns was formalised in 1452.
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary, and outlying granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable works.
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis – are members of a contemplative Order of nuns in the Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan branch of the order to be established. Founded by Saints Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order of Saint Francis for the laity. As of 2011, there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedicate their life to serving other people and serving God, or to be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live their life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy.
Kirchberg commonly refers to:
A double monastery is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of monasticism. It is considered more common in the monasticism of Eastern Christianity, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after Columbanus and sprang up in Gaul and in Anglo-Saxon England. Double monasteries were forbidden by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among Benedictines and possibly the Dominicans. The 14th-century Bridgittines were purposely founded using this form of community.
Gutenzell Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in the municipality of Gutenzell-Hürbel in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Sulz am Neckar is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar, 22 km north of Rottweil, and 19 km southeast of Freudenstadt.
Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes, famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guéranger after the French Revolution. The current abbot is the Right Reverend Dom Philippe Dupont, O.S.B.
The Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg was founded in 1991 as a publicly funded film school in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Filmakademie is one of the most internationally renowned film schools. One of its major distinguishing characteristics is the close collaboration with three other educational institutions on one campus: the Filmakademie's acclaimed Animationsinstitut ; the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris, an inter-university master-class on European film production and distribution hosted at the Filmakademie and in cooperation with notable French film school La Fémis in Paris and the National Film and Television School in London; and the neighbouring Academy of Performing Arts.
The Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist is a monastic community for both men and women, directly under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It is located in Tolleshunt Knights, near Maldon, Essex, in England, and is the oldest Orthodox religious community in the UK.
Kirchberg, the Stadt auf dem Berg, called Kerbrich in Moselle Franconian, is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs.
Berneuchen Movement is part of the Lutheran Liturgical movement in Germany. It originates from German Youth Movement.
The Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Sisters of the Annunciation or Annonciades, is an enclosed religious order of contemplative nuns founded in honor of the Annunciation in 1501 at Bourges by Joan de Valois, also known as Joan of France, daughter of King Louis XI of France, and wife of Louis, the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII of France.
The Convento de San José is a Roman Catholic cloister and monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Ávila, Spain. It is situated not far from the center of the city but outside the medieval walls. Saint Teresa of Jesus was the driving force behind the foundation of the monastery, which was built from 1562 onwards. The church was only begun in 1607 after Saint Teresa's death. The statue in the facade was commissioned by King Philip III of Spain via artist Giraldo de Merlo.
Fahr Convent, is a Benedictine convent located in the Swiss municipality of Unterengstringen in the canton of Zürich. Located in different cantons, Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Convent form a double monastery, overseen by the male Abbot of Einsiedeln, no converse arrangement appears to be available for the Abbess of Fahr. Fahr and Einsiedeln may be one of the last of such arrangements to survive.
The suppression of monasteries refers to various events at different times and places when monastic foundations were abolished and their possessions were appropriated by the state.
Former religious orders in the churches of the Anglican Communion are those communities of monks, nuns, friars, or sisters, having a common life and rule under vows, whose work has ended and whose community has been disbanded. In a very few cases this is due to the termination of the work for which the community was established, but in most cases it is due to amalgamation or the death of the final remaining member of the community.
Weesen Abbey is a monastery of Dominican nuns located in Weesen in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Dominican convent is located at the foot of a terraced hillside in the middle of the town of Weesen on the effluence of the Maag respectively Linth from Walensee. Established in 1256, Weesen is the oldest Dominican friary of nuns in Switzerland. The buildings and the library respectively archives are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance.
