St. Clare's Priory in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a short-lived community of nuns of the Order of Poor Clares, which lasted from 1497 to 1536. The monastic buildings then came into use as a mint, which after its decommissioning became known as the Old Mint, giving rise to the present day street name Gammel Mønt at the site.
The Poor Clares first arrived in Denmark in 1249. An important monastery was established at Roskilde, the capital of Denmark at the time.
In 1497 King John I and Queen Christina founded the monastery in Copenhagen with a gift of the former royal vegetable gardens, located in the north part of the city near the city wall, in an area known as Rosengård after an earlier estate. [1] In 1498 the Queen made a donation of 40 Rhenish Guilders for construction of the monastery. It was completed and consecrated on 11 August 1505, the Feast day of St. Clare, with great ceremony. The monastery consisted of a dormitory, refectory, church, infirmary, cellars and places for lay sisters and a priest to stay.
The monastery prospered in the early years, but as the Protestant Reformation gained influence, the daily search for food and alms for the poor began to dry up. Many Danes felt that the mendicant orders, nicknamed the 'beggar monks and nuns' were an additional burden over and above the regular tithes and fees paid to sustain the church. In 1527 a priest formerly assigned to the monastery wrote to King Christian II, describing a chest which the abbess of the monastery had given him to distribute to the Poor Clares in Odense, who were suffering dire poverty. The abbess had asked him to convey the money in secret because she was afraid if the amount became known the Order would be held up to scorn and ridicule. He encouraged Christian II to return to Denmark to take in hand the care of the Poor Clares who had been his mother's 'particular and elect' daughters.
The city fathers passed a law that forbade the nuns or their agents from collecting food or alms on the street which quickly impoverished the monastery. By January 1532 conditions had grown so bad that the 'nursing sisters' and the 'provisioner sisters' had abandoned the monastery. The Franciscan friars had been expelled from their friary, leaving the nuns with virtually no way to sustain themselves spiritually or temporally.
A few of the friars were permitted to gather alms for the Poor Clares, but they could not solicit alms any closer than 40 miles from the city. The transport of large quantities of food back to Copenhagen proved to be so difficult that they attempted to sell the provisions for money. The Grayfriars were by that time generally hated, and few would purchase anything from them. On 25 May 1535 the Minister General of the Franciscan Order wrote to the abbess, informing her that either they would have to abandon the monastery, or they would have to violate their Rule and accept cash money for their sustenance.
Denmark officially became Lutheran in October 1536 with the adoption of the Smalcald Articles. All Catholic church property and buildings became Crown property. The monastery was closed and the nuns either went to other locations or left the Order.
Much of the monastery was converted into shops and residences for the poor. The largest building began to be used as the Royal Mint in 1541. Several city fires, the worst in 1728, destroyed the complex and no remnants exist of the monastery today.
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare, originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis, are members of an enclosed order of nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan branch of the order to be established. Founded by 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. 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.
Agnes of Assisi was a younger sister of Clare of Assisi and one of the first abbesses of the Order of Poor Ladies. Pope Benedict XIV canonized her as a saint in 1753.
Clare of Montefalco, also called Saint Clare of the Cross, was an Augustinian nun and abbess. Before becoming a nun, Clare was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis (Secular). She was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on December 8, 1881. She differs from Clare of Assisi, a contemporary of St Francis and the founder of an order of Poor Clares.
Henry de Beaume, O.F.M., , also known as Hugh Balme, was a Franciscan friar, priest and theologian. He became a supporter of the reform work of Colette of Corbie, among the Poor Clare nuns, which, in turn, led a reform movement of his own branch of the Franciscan Order. He is honored as a Blessed within the Order.
Colette of Corbie, PCC was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. She is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life, she is venerated as a patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers, and sick children.
The Capuchin Poor Clares is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for women founded in Naples, Italy, in 1538, by Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo. The order still exists and it now has communities in the United States. Members are referred to as Capuchinesses.
St. Gertrude's Hospital, Copenhagen was a locally important church and hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Franciscan Friary, Copenhagen was the most important Franciscan friary in Denmark.
The House of the Holy Ghost in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a historic building owned and operated as an exhibition space by the adjacent Church of the Holy Ghost. One of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen, it was part of the largest medieval hospital in Denmark which King Christian I turned into an Augustinian priory 1497.
The Carmelite Priory, Copenhagen, was a small Carmelite college in Copenhagen, Denmark, in existence between 1497 and 1529, with connections to the University of Copenhagen.
Chiara Offreduccio, known as Clare of Assisi, was an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio, OSC was an Italian Poor Clare. She was sent to the United States to found the first convent of the order in the country. She eventually established three of them before her death. Her beatification process has been opened and she has been granted the title of a Servant of God.
Gammel Mønt is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, located one block west of Gothersgade and Rosenborg Castle Garden.
When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term Second Order refers to those communities of contemplative cloistered nuns which are a part of the religious orders that developed in the Middle Ages.
The Colettine Poor Clares are a reform branch of the Order of St. Clare, founded by Clare of Assisi in Italy in 1211. They follow the interpretation of the Rule of St. Clare established by Saint Colette in 1410, originally a French hermit and member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God are an institute of religious sisters in the Roman Catholic Church. The congregation belongs to the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. They were founded in 1910 in Santarém, Brazil, by Armand August Bahlmann, OFM, and Mother Immaculata, both natives of Germany, to educate the children of the poor throughout the world.
Mary Ignatius Hayes, O.S.F., also known as Mother Mary Ignatius of Jesus, was an Anglican religious sister who was later received into the Catholic Church and became a Franciscan sister. Her lifetime of religious service, in the course of which she traveled widely, led to the establishment of three separate religious congregations of Franciscan sisters and the establishment of the Poor Clare nuns in the United States.
The Convento de Santa Clara la Real is a convent of the Poor Clares located in the city of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The present convent was founded in the middle of the 14th century by Toledan noblewoman María Meléndez, and is located near other monasteries of note, such as the monastery of Santo Domingo el Real and the Convent of Capuchins of Toledo.
The Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate known also variously as the "Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Aldgate" or the "House of Minoresses of the Order of St Clare of the Grace of the Blessed Virgin Mary" or the "Minoresses without Aldgate" or "St Clare outside Aldgate" or the "Minories, London" was a monastery of Franciscan women living an enclosed life, established in the late 13th century on a site often said to be of five acres, though it may have been as little as half that, at the spot in the parish of St. Botolph, outside the medieval walls of the City of London at Aldgate that later, by a corruption of the term minoresses, became known as The Minories, a placename found also in other English towns including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stratford-upon-Avon.
