Abtei Michaelsberg | |
Monastery information | |
---|---|
Other names | Abtei Siegburg/Siegburg Abbey |
Order | Benedictine Cistercian |
Established | 1064/1914/1945 |
Disestablished | 1803/1941/2011 |
Site | |
Coordinates | 50°47′45″N7°12′39″E / 50.79583°N 7.21083°E |
Imperial Abbey of Michaelsberg, Siegburg Reichsabtei Michaelsberg in Siegburg | |||||||||
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1512–1803 | |||||||||
Status | Imperial Abbey | ||||||||
Capital | Siegburg | ||||||||
Government | Theocracy (till 1803) | ||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages to Modern Era | ||||||||
• Founded | 1064 | ||||||||
• Gained Reichsfreiheit | 1512 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1803 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Germany |
Michaelsberg Abbey (German : Abtei Michaelsberg) is a former monastery of the Benedictine Order, belonging to the Subiaco Congregation (1064-2011). The monastery is situated on the Michaelsberg ("St. Michael's Mount"), about 40 metres above the town of Siegburg. For this reason it is also often known as Siegburg Abbey.
The hill called the Michaelsberg, formerly known as the Siegberg, was first inhabited about 800 by the Counts of Auelgau, who built a castle there. In 1064 the Archbishop of Cologne, Anno II of Cologne, founded a monastery there, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, from whom both the mountain and the abbey henceforward took their names. He appointed the monk Erpho (died 1076) as the first abbot. Anno himself died at the abbey in 1075 and was buried there. [1]
Archbishop Anno was canonized in the abbey church on 29 April 1183 by Cardinal Giovanni Conti da Anagni and Bishop Pietro of Luni, acting as papal legates of Pope Lucius III. At this time his remains were translated to the Chapel of St. Anno, which can still be seen in the abbey church. By this time, however, the early spirit of these founders was beginning to dim among the monks. The community had developed a luxurious lifestyle, one which was so open that they were publicly criticized by a nearby Cistercian abbey. [1]
During the 14th century, after a long legal battle, the abbey was recognized as an Imperial abbey (that is, directly subject to the Holy Roman Emperor alone). [1] This led to bitter rivalry, and on occasion even war, with the town of Siegburg. In 1676 the abbey again became subject to the local territorial power. During the period of the Thirty Years' War, the abbey became a center of literary and musical studies. [1]
The abbey was suppressed during the German Mediatisation of 1802–03. Until their resettlement by Cistercian monks on 2 July 1914, the buildings were used for varied purposes, for some time as a barracks, but also at other times as a lunatic asylum and a slaughterhouse. The new monks came from the Abbey of Merkelbeeck in the Netherlands to establish a monastery there again. This was not an easy endeavor, as part of the abbey was soon taken over for use as a military hospital during World War I. [1]
In 1941 the abbey was again dissolved, this time by the Schutzstaffel (SS); the monks were expelled and the buildings commandeered. The buildings were almost completely destroyed by a bombing raid in 1944, although they were in use as a military hospital and flying the flag of the Red Cross. In 1945 the monks who had been expelled four years previously were finally able to return, some from captivity as prisoners of war, others from exile. They had to rebuild the monastery virtually from scratch.
Since 1997 the Edith Stein Retreat House of the Archdiocese of Cologne has operated at this location, using the north wing and also a large part of the west wing of the abbey. [2]
In 2005 the monastic community of Michaelsberg Abbey consisted of 13 monks and a novice. The financial situation was uncertain and in December 2010 the community voted to close the abbey, effective the following June. [3] At that time the remaining 12 monks left the abbey for various other monasteries, and the abbey was transferred to the Archdiocese. The abbey church (except the crypt) remains open daily to the public.
It was announced in 2012 by the Archdiocese that six friars of the Indian province of the Discalced Carmelites would open a priory in a part of the former abbey after renovation of the building. [4]
In 1504 production of the abbey's liqueur, Siegburger Abtei-Likör, began. After an interruption, production was resumed in 1952. [5] In 2004 a line of beer was also brewed here, called Michel.
Both products ceased to be produced with the closing of the abbey.
Siegburg is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the banks of the rivers Sieg and Agger, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the former seat of West German government Bonn and 26 kilometres (16 mi) from Cologne. The population of the city was 39,192 in the 2013 census.
Mariawald Abbey was a monastery of the Trappists, located above the village of Heimbach, in the district of Düren in the Eifel, in the forests around Kermeter, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In September 2018, the last remaining monks left Mariawald Abbey and the monastery is currently up for sale.
Anno II was Archbishop of Cologne from 1056 until his death. From 1063 to 1065 he acted as regent of the Holy Roman Empire for the minor Emperor Henry IV. Anno is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church.
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Himmerod Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in the community of Großlittgen in the Verbandsgemeinde of Manderscheid in the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the Eifel, in the valley of the Salm.
Waldsassen Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery, formerly a Cistercian monastery, located on the River Wondreb at Waldsassen near Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, in Bavaria, Germany, close to the border with the Czech Republic. In the Holy Roman Empire it was an Imperial Abbey.
Kamp Abbey, also known as Altenkamp Abbey or Alt(en)feld Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery founded in German territory, in the present town of Kamp-Lintfort in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Great Saint Martin Church is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. Its foundations rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was later transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The current buildings, including a soaring crossing tower that is a landmark of Cologne's Old Town, were erected between 1150-1250. The architecture of its eastern end forms a triconch or trefoil plan, consisting of three apses around the crossing, similar to that at St. Maria im Kapitol. The church was badly damaged in World War II; restoration work was completed in 1985.
Engelszell Abbey was the last Trappist monastery in Austria. It is located near Engelhartszell an der Donau in the Innviertel in Upper Austria.
Arnsburg Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery near Lich in the Wetterau, Hesse, Germany. It was founded by monks from Eberbach Abbey in 1174. Although heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War it was rebuilt later in the 17th century and prospered in the 18th century, when much of the abbey was rebuilt in Baroque style.
Heinrich von Siegburg was a twelfth century Bishop of Poznań in Poland, he was little known for his career or episcopal work but was active under the rule of Bolesław III Wrymouth.
Saalfeld Abbey was an important medieval Benedictine monastery and Imperial Abbey in Saalfeld, Thuringia, Germany. As an imperial abbey, the monastery was under the direct auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor, and enjoyed a degree of sovereignty equivalent to a small micro state within the Empire. The monastery was founded in 1071 and existed until 1526, when it was secularised during the Reformation.
Marienstatt Abbey is a Cistercian monastery and a pilgrimage site in Streithausen, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, in the Nister valley near Hachenburg.
The Vita Annonis Minor is a hagiography of Saint Anno, No. 509 in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL). The only extant mediaeval manuscript is in the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt under reference Hs. 945.