Kornelimünster Abbey (), also known as Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius, is a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery that has been integrated since 1972. The abbey is located in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

(in the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Kornelimünster/Walheim Kornelimünster/Walheim is the southernmost ''Stadtbezirk'' (borough) of Aachen, Germany, and borders the Eifel area of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as Belgium. It became part of Aachen in 1972, after all of the communities surrounding the cit ...

) in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

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 ...

History

The monastery was founded in 814 on the river Inde by

Benedict of Aniane Benedict of Aniane (; ; 747 – 12 February 821 AD), born Witiza and called the Second Benedict, was a Benedictine monk and monastic reformer who had a substantial impact on the religious practice of the Carolingian Empire. His feast day is ...

, an adviser to

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

(successor to

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

). The monastery was at first known as the "Monastery of the Redeemer on the Inde". In the mid-9th century, the monastery became an

Imperial abbey Princely abbeys (, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the Holy Roman Empire which enjoyed the status of imperial immediacy (''Reichsunmittelbarke ...

("Reichsunmittelbar") and received large endowments of land, as well as Biblical or Saviour's

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

s: a loincloth, a

sudarium A ''sudarium'' (Latin) was a "sweat cloth", used for wiping the face clean. Small cloths of various sorts, for which ''sudarium'' is a general term, played a role in Ancient Roman formal manners and court ceremonial, and many such uses transferre ...

and two shroud-like cloths.Górny, Grzegorz. "The Aachen Relics", ''Witnesses to Mystery: Investigations into Christ's Relics'', Ignatius Press, 2013
In 875, one of the shrouds was exchanged for a relic of the head of the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

Pope Cornelius Pope Cornelius () was the bishop of Rome from 6th or 13 March 251 until his martyrdom in June 253. He was pope during and following a period of persecution of the church, while a schism occurred over how Lapsi (Christianity), repentant church mem ...

(died in 253), after which the abbey was known as ''Sancti Cornelii ad Indam'', and later as ''Kornelimünster''. (The full official title of the present monastery is the Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius). In the 12th century, a Priest of

composed the famous ''

Tafelgüterverzeichnis The ''Tafelgüterverzeichnis'' is a list of the "courts which belong to the table of the king of the Romans" (''curie que pertinent ad mensam regis Romanorum''), that is, a register of the lands belonging to the royal demesne (or fisc) and of t ...

'', a registry of royal estates and what they owed the king's court. It is one of the earliest pieces of evidence for the extent of the German royal

fisc Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc (from Latin '' fiscus,'' whence we derive "fiscal") applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was. ...

. Burg Reichenstein, also known as "Falkenburg", began as church property under the Imperial Abbey of Kornelimünster. It was part of the parish of Saint Clement" in

Trechtingshausen Trechtingshausen (formerly also ''Trechtlingshausen'') is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The winegrow ...

. Because it was so far away, the monastery appointed knights (Vögte) as bailiffs and protectors. They had their seat at Reichenstein Castle. Over time, the bailiffs turned robber knights, getting rich off of boats traveling the River Rhine. In 1270, the monastery sold the whole parish of Saint Clement to the Cathedral Chapter at Mainz and

St. Maria ad Gradus St. Maria ad Gradus ("Our Lady of the Steps", also colloquially called ''Mariengraden'' in German language) is the name of a former church located East of the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, situated between the cathedral and the Rhine. Founded ...

, also at

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

. In 1500, the Imperial abbey (''Reichsabtei'') of Kornelimünster became part of the

Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle The Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (, ) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised territories of the former Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, Frisia and the Westphalian part of the former Duchy of Saxony. The circle was mad ...

. In 1802, the territory of

Kornelimünster Kornelimünster () is a town in the rural ''Münsterländchen'' area of Kornelimünster/Walheim, a stadtbezirk, district of Aachen, Germany. History The Kornelimünster Abbey was founded in 814 on the Inde River by Benedict of Aniane (750–8 ...

came under

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

rule, and the abbey was dissolved in the

secularisation 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 ...

. The former abbey church of St Cornelius became the parish church, and the remaining abbey buildings became property of the '' Bundesland'' of

. Kornelimünster came under the

Mairie In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

system in the Kanton

Burtscheid Burtscheid () is a district of the city of Aachen, part of the Aachen-Mitte Stadtbezirk. It is a health resort. History It was inhabited since ancient times by Celts and Romans, who were attracted by the presence of hot springs. Burtscheid ...

. In 1815, Kornelimünster became part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

and of the district (''Landkreis'') of Aachen. The buildings of the former Kornelimünster Imperial Abbey are now a museum of modern art.

Second foundation

The monastery was re-founded by the Benedictines in 1906 about a kilometre away in the western part of Kornelimünster by monks from Merkelbeek Abbey in the Netherlands. At first the monks worked in parish ministry, before opening a boarding school in 1948. Since the school closed in 1988, they now focus on retreats and hospitality. Kornelimünster is on the Way of St. James. Although not a hostel, the abbey can provide accommodations for pilgrims if booked in advance."Pilger", Abtei Kornelimünster
/ref> Kornelimünster is a member of the

Subiaco Cassinese Congregation The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses (abbeys and priories) within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro ...

. It is an extra-provincial monastery, subject directly to the Abbot President of the Congregation. As of 2022, there were eight monks at Kornelimünster."Kornelimünster Abbey", The Subiaco-Cassinese Congregation
/ref>

References

External links

Kornelimünster Abbey official website

Monumente-Online:Aachen - Notes on the Benedictine Abbey of Kornelimünster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kornelimunster Abbey Benedictine monasteries in Germany Christian monasteries established in the 9th century Buildings and structures in Aachen Monasteries in North Rhine-Westphalia Imperial abbeys disestablished in 1802–03

History

Second foundation

See also

References

Further reading

External links