Schönau Abbey is a monastery in the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Diocese of Limburg on the outskirts of the municipality of Strüth in the

Rhein-Lahn Rhein-Lahn-Kreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Westerwaldkreis, Limburg-Weilburg, Rheingau-Taunus, Mainz-Bingen, Rhein-Hunsrück, Mayen-Koblenz, and the di ...

district,

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is often referred to as Schönau Abbey of Nassau (because it was founded by the

House of Nassau The House of Nassau is the name of a European aristocratic dynasty. The name originated with a lordship associated with Nassau Castle, which is located in what is now Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Nassau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With t ...

and was located in their lands) or Schönau Abbey in

Taunus The Taunus () is a mountain range in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located north west of Frankfurt and north of Wiesbaden. The tallest peak in the range is '' Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are '' Kleiner Feldberg' ...

, in order to differentiate it from the other Schönau Abbey in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. This Schönau Abbey is most well known as the

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of St. Elizabeth of Schönau.

History

Around 1117, Dudo, Count of Laurenburg founded at Lipporn a Benedictine priory dedicated and named for Florin of Koblenz, and dependent on the Benedictine All Saints Abbey in Schaffhausen. About 1126, his son,

Rupert I, Count of Laurenburg Rupert I of Laurenburg, (died before 13 May 1154Dek (1970).Hesselfelt (1965).Van de Venne & Stols (1937).), was count of Laurenburg and one of the ancestors of the House of Nassau. Biography Rupert was a son of Dudo of Laurenburg (German: ''D ...

, the

Vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

of Lipporn, established it as a separate and independent abbey. The Romanesque buildings were constructed between 1126 and 1145, presumably with a three-nave

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

. The abbey included both a monastery for monks and a small, separate one for nuns.Steele, F.M., "St. Elizabeth von Schönau and her Visions", ''American Catholic Quarterly Review'', (James Andrew Corcoran, Patrick John Ryan, Edmond Francis Prendergast, eds.) Hardy and Mahony., 1911, p. 393
/ref> Hildelin, of noble birth, was the first abbot. The area was rude and uncultivated, and building proceeded slowly. Hildelin asked the Bishop of Trèves for assistance, and was given the nearby church of Welterode. Elizabeth of Schönau worked there from 1141 until her death in 1164. Her brother Eckebert (died 1184) entered the men’s monastery at Schönau in 1155 or 1156. Schönau Abbey had grown strong enough economically by 1340 that the city of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

could promise support through arms and wagons. A Gothic

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

(still extant today) and a chapel dedicated to Saint Elizabeth were added between 1420 and 1430 on the north side of the nave. During the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

, the surrounding communities of Strüth, Welterod, and Lipporn became Protestant between 1541 and 1544, but Schönau Abbey remained Catholic. In 1606, the convent was dissolved because only a few sisters still lived in Schönau. During the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, whil ...

, Swedish and Hessian soldiers attacked Schönau Abbey between 1631 and 1635. The Swedes drove off the monks, plundered the monastery, broke into the grave of Elizabeth and scattered her bones. Only the skull was rescued. It is now preserved in a

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

on the right-side altar of the church. A major fire in 1723 destroyed the church and convent, and only the Gothic chancel remains extant today from the original buildings. The abbey received its present shape in reconstruction over the following years. The chapel to Elizabeth, however, was not rebuilt.

Recent history

In the course of

secularization In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

in 1802 and 1803, the monks' community was dissolved and the monastery became the property of the state of Nassau.''The Edinburgh Gazetteer: Or Geographical Dictionary'', Vol. 1, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827, p. 255
/ref> Some of the buildings were sold to private individuals. The parish previously affiliated with Schönau Abbey became part of the Vicariate General of

Limburg an der Lahn Limburg an der Lahn (, ; officially abbreviated ''Limburg a. d. Lahn'') is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn. The t ...

, which would then become the Diocese of Limburg in 1827. In 1904, the Dernbacher Sisters (officially, the ''Ancillae Domini Jesu Christi'', the

Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC) is a female Religious congregation, congregation of the Catholic Church. It originated in Dernbach (Westerwald), Germany, where the generalate is still located. Their organization for ''associates'' (like ...

) moved into the monastery. From 1947 to 1975, displaced

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

s from

Teplá Abbey Teplá Abbey (; ) is a Premonstratensian abbey in Teplá in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It is included in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague, Archdiocese of Prague. History Teplá Abbey was founded in 1193 by the Beat ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

also lived there. The last Dernbacher sisters left the monastery in 1986. Since then the buildings have been used by the local Catholic parish of St. Florin. In 1994, the parish established the Schönauer Book Corner as a public library. Three years later, the former work buildings became "One World House, Schönau Abbey" a learning and meeting place for groups. Also in the rooms of the One World House, a computer training facility and an Internet café were opened in 2001.

References

External links

Schönau Abbey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonau Abbey (Nassau) Monasteries in Rhineland-Palatinate Benedictine monasteries in Germany