St. Martin is the name of a

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 ...

parish and church in

Idstein Idstein () is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt (Old Town) it is part of the ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'' ...

, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, Germany. The official name of the church is . The name of the parish became St. Martin Idsteiner Land on 1 January 2017, when it was merged with five other parishes. The parish is part of the Diocese of Limburg. St. Martin is the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of Idstein, to whom a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church was dedicated in 1330. The present building, designed by architect

Johannes Krahn Johannes Krahn (17 May 1908 – 17 October 1974) was a German architect and an academic teacher. Career Born in Mainz, Johannes Krahn studied architecture from 1923 to 1927 at the Technische Lehranstalten Offenbach. He continued his studies 19 ...

, was consecrated in 1965. It replaced a church built in 1888 in

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and dedicated to

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

. The earlier church was too small for the congregation growing after World War II. After restoration in 2003, a new organ was installed in 2006. Church music in services and concerts, performed by several groups including a children's choir and ensembles playing historic instruments, have received attention in the Rhein-Main Region. The parish is in long-term ecumenical contact with the main Protestant church of the town, the , which includes two regular ecumenical services and concerts performed by joint groups of both churches.

History of the parish St. Martin

The beginning of Christianity in Idstein is not documented. When the

Idstein Castle Idstein Castle (german: Burg Idstein), later the Renaissance style ''Schloss Idstein'', is located in Idstein in the county of Rheingau-Taunus, Germany. The hill castle was the ''residenz'' of the counts of Nassau-Idstein. The castle's Witches' ...

was first mentioned in 1102, the area belonged to the Diocese of Trier. Idstein possibly had a church in Romanesque style, which was replaced in 1330 by a

church dedicated to St. Martin, the

of Idstein. It was the church of a founded in 1333 for six canons, and became the Protestant church with the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, named in 1917. During the

, Idstein became Lutheran beginning in 1540 under . The last

canon left the town in 1553, which then had no Catholic congregation until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1806,

Frederick Augustus, Duke of Nassau Friedrich August, Duke of Nassau, Prince of Nassau-Usingen (23 April 1738 in Usingen – 24 March 1816 in Wiesbaden) was the last Prince of Nassau-Usingen and, jointly with his cousin, Friedrich Wilhelm of Nassau-Weilburg, first Duke of Nassau. ...

allowed the practice of the Catholic cult again. Thirteen families were permitted to use the chapel of the '' Schloss''. The dukedom became part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

in 1866. In 1884, the minister Wilhelm Schilo began the building of a church for a growing congregation, collecting money all over Germany. The architect Aloys Vogt, from the local (School for building trades), designed a hall church with two aisles in

, built from 1887 to 1888. The building, seating 135 people, was dedicated to

() by Bishop on 8 October 1888. The Catholic population of Idstein grew considerably after World War II, when many refugees and displaced persons moved to Idstein. Minister Hans Usinger first built a (community center) and pursued from 1961 the building of a larger church. The was dynamited in 1963. The building of the new church began in 1963. It was consecrated, again to St. Martin, on 5 June 1965 by Bishop Wilhelm Kempf. On 1 January 2017, the parish became part of the larger ''St. Martin Idsteiner Land'' parish, which includes five other former parishes: Maria Königin in Niedernhausen, St. Nikolaus von Flüe in Idstein-Wörsdorf, St. Martha in Niedernhausen-Engenhahn, St. Michael in Niedernhausen-Oberjosbach and St. Thomas in

Waldems Waldems () is a municipality in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. The municipality's administrative seat is Waldems-Esch. Geography Location Waldems is located in the Taunus in a widely woode ...

. A service was held on 5 February by Wolfgang Rösch.

Construction of the present church

Professor

, who built several churches and early skyscrapers such as the Beehive House in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, designed a space recalling elements of an early Romanesque

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

. In a simple shape, a single long nave is concluded by a semicircle choir around the altar. On the right side the wall opens to a side chapel, reminiscent of a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

. The outer walls are

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

, visible both inside and outside. Light flows in from a band of windows under the plain wooden ceiling. The combination of materials has been compared to

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

. The building recalls the austere style of sacred architecture of the 1950s. The floor is of Jura marble, the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...

, ambo,

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

and

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

are made of Lahn marble. The wall behind the altar held a neo-Gothic crucifixion scene of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

, and

under the cross, from the Magdalenenkirche. Low

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows forming the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

were designed by Paul Corazolla from Berlin. The first organ was built by E. F. Walcker & Cie. and consecrated in 1974. It was placed on the right side in the opening for the chapel, visible to the congregation. The free-standing bell tower, housing four bells, is 42 m high.

Restoration in 2003

The walls of the church were completely restored in 2003. At the same time the altar was moved closer to the congregation, making more room for the choir. The baptismal font was relocated from the chapel to the front, opposite the ambo. The tabernacle, which had been where the baptismal font is now, and the crucifixion scene were moved to the chapel, creating a chapel for adoration. The restoration works were directed by Franz Josef Hamm from Limburg. The new cross above the altar was created by a group of young people in preparation for

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

. During the restoration the organ had to be taken apart. The parish decided not to restore it but to have a new organ built.

Mebold organ and concerts

The organ was built by Orgelbau Mebold and consecrated on 22 January 2006. The instrument has 1,888 pipes and 33 stops on two manuals and a pedalboard. The layout of its great division () reflects the classic organ construction of the

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 ...

period, whilst the swell division (or swell box) () has the timbre of the Romantic, which makes it possible to play a wide range of the organ repertoire from different eras. The first organ concert on the Mebold organ was played by Dan Zerfaß, organist of the

Worms Cathedral St Peter's Cathedral (German: ''Wormser Dom'') is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral in Worms, southern Germany. The cathedral is located on the highest point of the inner city of Worms and is the most important building of the Ro ...

. The organ is used mostly in services, but has been played in concerts of artists such as Kalevi Kiviniemi. In 2005

Graham Waterhouse Graham Waterhouse (born 2 November 1962) is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, '' Three Pieces for Solo Cello'' and '' Variations for Cello Solo'' for his own instrument, and stri ...

was the soloist in the premiere of his ''

Cello Concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instr ...

'' in the chamber version on 5 August 2005. Giora Feidman and Matthias Eisenberg performed a duo programme on 14 November 2008. Christian Schmitt played in 2007 with the chamber choir of the

Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (german: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, italic=no, link=no, HfMDK) is a state Hochschule for music, theatre and dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its ...

, conducted by

Wolfgang Schäfer Wolfgang Schäfer (born 7 April 1945) is a German choral conductor and academic. He founded the Freiburger Vokalensemble, the BosArt Trio, and the Frankfurter Kammerchor. Career Born in Staufen im Breisgau, Schäfer studied music education, voi ...

, who returned in 2010 to conduct the Frankfurter Kammerchor.

Church music

Franz Fink has been the

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

of St. Martin since 1992, conducting five musical groups, a children's choir , the , the Martinis (a chamber choir of mostly young people), the , and the on period instruments. The church choir was named in 1973. The Martinis were founded in 1988 by Thomas Gabriel as a youth choir. Franz Fink St

All groups perform in services, including

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

es such as Haydn's ,

Leopold Mozart Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist and theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook ''Versuch einer gründlichen ...

's Missa in C, K. 115, Mozart's '' in D minor, K. 65'' and , Monteverdi's Missa in F from , the mass for double choir from '' Missodia Sionia'' by Michael Praetorius, the '' Missa aulica'' by František Xaver Brixi, the Missa secundi toni by Johann Ernst Eberlin, and masses by

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer __NOTOC__ ) , baptised = ( cs, }), Royal Bohemia, Austria , death_date = , death_place = Rastatt, Margravial Baden , occupations = organist, composer, , flourished = , era = Baroque , known_for = bringing many French elements throug ...

, Hans Leo Hassler, Alberich Mazak, Flor Peeters and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. The repertory includes motets such as

Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský (Christened 16 February 1684, Nymburk, Bohemia – 1 July 1742, Graz, Austria) was a Czech composer, organist and teacher of the baroque era. He wrote among other works motets, other choral works (a fugue ''Laudetur ...

's ''Laudetur Jesus Christus'', Kuhnau's ''

Tristis est anima mea Tristis est anima mea (Sad is my soul) is the Latin phrase with which starts. It is Tristis est anima mea (responsory), the second responsory of the Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday which was often set to music. It may also refer to: *Movement XI of ...

'', Rheinberger's '' Abendlied'' and Bruckner's '' Locus iste''. The groups have also included contemporary music, such as that by

Heinz Werner Zimmermann Heinz Werner Zimmermann (11 August 1930 – 25 January 2022) was a German composer, focused on contemporary sacred music. He was professor of composition at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing ...

, Pärt's De profundis, Barber's , Sandström's , and Whitacre's . The Martinis have performed

Bach cantata The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest cant ...

s, (), in (a

Vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic (both Latin and Eastern), Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , mea ...

service) on 20 November 2005, and , in a cantata service. 2009 OREYA St

Concerts and services have also been performed by guest ensembles such as the Ukrainian chamber choir OREYA. The choirs of St. Martin travelled to England in 2006 to attend services and

evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buil ...

and St Paul's Cathedral, London. They travelled to Leipzig in 2008 to hear the Thomanerchor in and services. In 2009 they sang with other choirs of the diocese in the

Limburg Cathedral Limburg Cathedral (german: Limburger Dom, also known as ''Georgsdom'' ("George's Cathedral") after its dedication to Saint George, is located above the old town of Limburg in Hesse, Germany. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Limbu ...

from the of Stefano Bernardi for double chorus, conducted by Joachim Dreher and Franz Fink. In 2016, they performed at the Cathedral the premiere of the oratorio '' Laudato si''' with the choirs of Liebfrauen, Frankfurt, conducted by the composer Peter Reulein. The performance was repeated at the Frankfurt Cathedral in 2017.

On 26 December 2019, the Hessian broadcaster

hr4 hr4 is a German, public radio station owned and operated by the Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of ...

broadcast a Christmas service, in which a project choir of mostly choir members performed Rutter's '' Angels' Carol'' and '' Christmas Lullaby'', among others.

Abendlob

In addition to singing in mass on Sundays and feast days, the choirs added irregular liturgies of Abendlob, in the tradition of the Anglican Evensong, singing psalms,

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for " y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical servic ...

and

Nunc dimittis The Nunc dimittis (), also known as the Song of Simeon or the Canticle of Simeon, is a canticle taken from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 29 through 32. Its Latin name comes from its incipit, the opening words, of the Vulgat ...

. An Abendlob on the occasion of the ''Kreuzfest'' (Feast of the Cross) in 2018 had

Psalm 100 Psalm 100 is the 100th psalm in the Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Bible. In English, it is translated as "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands" in the King James Version (KJV), and as "O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands" in the Book ...

set by Charles Villiers Stanford, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D by Charles Wood, Mozart's Ave verum corpus and Rheinberger's '' Abendlied''. An Abendlob in

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek '' parousia''. ...

2019 contained, among others, Hammerschmidt's '' Machet die Tore weit'', Hassler's

Dixit Maria ''Dixit Maria'' (Mary said o the angel is a motet for four voices by Hans Leo Hassler. It is part of his collection ''Cantiones sacrae'' published in 1591. It sets a verse from the narration of the annunciation in Latin. Hassler based a mass on th ...

, Vivaldi's

, RV 610, and Biebl's

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

.Abendlob in St. Martin, Idstein, zum Thema Maria
vrm-lokal.de

Choral concerts

An annual choral concert with soloists and orchestra has been performed by the combined choirs. The specialized orchestras La Beata Olanda (

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

), Antichi Strumenti (

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

), Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt and L'arpa festante /Munich) accompanied works by Bach, Buxtehude, Handel, Haydn and Schütz in

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in whic ...

s, also the church's groups Capella lignea and Barock-Consort St. Martin. Several concerts were collaborations with other choirs: the choir of the

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 ...

church of

Geisenheim Geisenheim is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany, and is known as ''Weinstadt'' (“Wine Town”), ''Schulstadt'' (“School Town”), ''Domstadt'' (“Cathedral Town”) and ''Lindenst ...

and the

Idsteiner Kantorei Idsteiner Kantorei (Idstein chorale) is a mixed choir in Idstein, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, Germany. The group performs regularly in the Protestant Unionskirche in services and concerts, also in smaller churches of the region and internationally. Th ...

(the choir of the Unionskirche), conducted by Kantor Carsten Koch from 2003. In the following table, the regular conductor Franz Fink is not mentioned, only the guest conductor when conductors shared a performance.

References

External links

*
St. Martin Idstein
website

website
Katholische Kirche St. Martin
(in German, pictured) taunus.info
Gründungsvereinbarung der Pfarrei St. Martin - Idsteiner Land
(in German) St. Martin 2017

Wiesbadener Kurier 14 June 2017 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Martin, Idstein Roman Catholic churches completed in 1965 Roman Catholic churches in Hesse Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis Churches in the Diocese of Limburg 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany