The Church of Saint Pantaleon (, ) is an early Romanesque church in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, Germany. The church dates back to the 10th century and is one of the

twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne The twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne are twelve landmark churches in the Old town ''(Altstadt)'' of Cologne, Germany. All twelve churches are Catholic. Churches The twelve churches are1: * St. Andreas in Altstadt-Nord, est. 974 * St. Ap ...

. The former monastery church is consecrated to

Saint Pantaleon Saint Pantaleon ( el, Παντελεήμων, russian: Пантелеи́мон, translit=Panteleímon; "all-compassionate"), counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Heal ...

and the

Saints Cosmas and Damian Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...

and is the oldest church of the

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

of Saint Pantaleon west of

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

. The empress

Theophanu Theophanu (; also ''Theophania'', ''Theophana'', or ''Theophano''; Medieval Greek ; AD 955 15 June 991) was empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Otto II, and regent of the Empire during the minority of their son, Emperor Ott ...

and the archbishop

Bruno the Great Bruno the Great (german: Brun(o) von Sachsen, "Bruno of Saxony"; la, Bruno Magnus; May 925 – 11 October 965 AD) was Archbishop of Cologne''Religious Drama and Ecclesiastical Reform in the Tenth Century'', James H. Forse, ''Early Theatre'', V ...

are buried in the church, which also contains shrines of saints Alban, the first Christian martyr of Britain, and Maurinus of Cologne. Pope

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

visited the church in 2005.

History

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

originally occupied the hill, just outside Roman Cologne, on which the church stands. Remains of this villa are still visible in the church

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

. The villa was replaced with a church around 870 and in 955, Archbishop

(brother of Emperor

Otto the Great Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henr ...

) added a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

. Here, Bruno was buried after his death. In 966, work was begun on a new church to go with the monastery. The church was consecrated in 980. Holy Roman Empress

, a Byzantine princess who was married to Emperor

Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. ...

in 972, ordered the construction of the current facade and was also buried in the church at her own request. From 1618 onwards, the building was remodeled in several phases to a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style church. The monastery was dissolved after Cologne was occupied by French revolutionary forces in 1794. The church then served as a horse stable, and, after Cologne became

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n in 1815, as a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

garrison church. A

semaphore telegraph Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

was placed on the roof of the church to enable rapid communication between Cologne and the Prussian capital of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. St. Pantaleon played an important role in the earliest stage of German Old Catholicism. Seeing the persecution of Old Catholics by Roman Catholics, the government authorized Old Catholics to celebrate mass there in February 1872. Though the church previously served as a horse stable and a Protestant garrison church, Roman Catholic Bishop Franz Adolf Namszanowski was enraged that the space was now "polluted," leading the Bavarian government to strip him of his office as apostolic vicar of the Bavarian army. In 1890–1892 the building underwent restoration and in 1922 the church, through an exchange with the

Cologne Charterhouse Cologne Charterhouse (german: Kölner Kartause) was a Carthusian monastery or charterhouse established in the Severinsviertel district, in the present Altstadt-Süd, of Cologne, Germany. Founded in 1334, the monastery developed into the largest ch ...

, again became

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the roof, parts of the outer walls and a large part of the interior were destroyed, but after the war the church was restored. During this restoration, in 1955-1962, an archeological survey was conducted. Around 1956-1957, new church bells were placed, and in 1963 a new organ was installed. The

coffered ceiling A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...

in the nave, depicting the

Tree of Jesse The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a ge ...

and portraits of various saints, was designed and constructed by artist Dieter Hartmann and was made possible by support of the booster club for the Romanesque churches of Cologne. The ceiling in the flanking

westwork A westwork (german: Westwerk), forepart, avant-corps or avancorpo is the monumental, often west-facing entrance section of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of multiple stories between two towers. The interior ...

was done by artist Gerhard Kadow in 1966, and depicts the

Heavenly Jerusalem In the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, New Jerusalem (, ''YHWH šāmmā'', YHWH sthere") is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city centered on the rebuilt Holy Temple, the Third Temple, to be established in Jerusalem, which would be the ca ...

. Pope

visited the church on 19 August 2005, during

World Youth Day 2005 XX World Youth Day (german: XX. Weltjugendtag) was a Catholic youth festival that started on 16 August and continued until 21 August 2005 in Cologne, Germany, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first World Youth Day held in 1985. It was t ...

, and addressed a group of

seminarians A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

. On 10 August 2006, Cardinal

Joachim Meisner Joachim Meisner (25 December 1933 – 5 July 2017) was a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the immediate past Archbishop of Cologne, serving from 1989 until his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis in 2014. He previously served ...

blessed a new chapel in the church dedicated to Saint

Josemaría Escrivá Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás (9 January 1902 – 26 June 1975) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness ...

, founder of

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...

Shrines

Since the 10th century, the church holds a

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

Saint Alban Saint Alban (; la, Albanus) is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorded ...

. The remains of Saint Alban probably ended up in the church after the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

in the 16th century. In 2002, a

collar bone The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the righ ...

, one of the

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s in the shrine, was moved to

St Albans Cathedral St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Normans, Norman times. It cease ...

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, England, and placed in the shrine to Saint Alban there. The church also contains a 12th-century shrine to Maurinus of Cologne said to contain the remains of this saint. A more modern shrine, completed in 2006, stands in the northern aisle. It is dedicated to

, the founder of the

movement. The shrine was officially consecrated in 2006 by Cardinal

of Cologne.Kath.net
Kardinal Meisner: 'Der hl. Josefmaria vermittelte Geschmack an Gott'
12. August 2006

References

External links

Website of the Church of Saint Pantaleon
(German)
Sacred Destinations: St. Pantaleon Church

(with many photographs) {{Authority control Romanesque architecture in Germany Innenstadt, Cologne Roman Catholic churches in Cologne 10th-century churches in Germany

History

Shrines

See also

References

External links