Einsiedeln Abbey

Coordinates: 47°07′36″N 08°45′5.3″E / 47.12667°N 8.751472°E / 47.12667; 8.751472

Einsiedeln abbey
as seen from the left
The abbey as seen from the east
Lady Fountain
Details of the statue

Einsiedeln Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Einsiedeln in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, the title being derived from the circumstances of its foundation, for the first inhabitant of the region was Saint Meinrad, a hermit. It is a territorial abbey and, therefore, not part of a diocese, subject to a bishop. It has been a major resting point on the Way of St. James for centuries.

History

Meinrad was educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island, in Lake Constance, under his kinsmen, Abbots Hatto and Erlebald, where he became a monk and was ordained a priest. After some years at Reichenau, and at a dependent priory on Lake Zurich, he embraced an eremitical life and established his hermitage on the slopes of Etzel Mountain. He died on January 21, 861, at the hands of two robbers who thought that the hermit had some precious treasures, but during the next 80 years the place was never without one or more hermits emulating Meinrad's example. One of them, named Eberhard, previously Provost of Strassburg, erected in 934 a monastery and church there, of which he became first abbot.

The church was miraculously consecrated, so the legend runs, in 948, by Christ himself assisted by the Four Evangelists, St. Peter, and St. Gregory the Great. This event was investigated and confirmed by Pope Leo VIII and subsequently ratified by many of his successors, the last ratification being by Pope Pius VI in 1793, who confirmed the acts of all his predecessors.

In 965 Gregory, the third Abbot of Einsiedeln, was made a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Otto I, and his successors continued to enjoy the same dignity up to the cessation of the empire in the beginning of the 19th century. In 1274 the abbey, with its dependencies, was created an independent principality by Rudolf I of Germany, over which the abbot exercised temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction. It continued independent until 1798, the year of the French invasion. The abbey is now what is termed an abbey nullius, the abbot having quasi-episcopal authority over the territory where the monastery is built.

For the learning and piety of its monks, Einsiedeln has been famous for a thousand years, and many saints and scholars have lived within its walls. The study of letters, printing, and music have greatly flourished there, and the abbey has contributed largely to the glory of the Benedictine Order. It is true that discipline declined somewhat in the fifteenth century and the rule became relaxed, but Ludovicus II, a monk of St. Gall who was Abbot of Einsiedeln 1526-44, succeeded in restoring the stricter observance.

In the 16th century the religious disturbances caused by the spread of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland were a source of trouble for some time. Zwingli himself was at Einsiedeln for a while, and used the opportunity for protesting against the famous pilgrimages, but the storm passed over and the abbey was left in peace. Abbot Augustine I (1600–29) was the leader of the movement which resulted in the erection of the Swiss Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict in 1602, and he also did much for the establishment of unrelaxed observance in the abbey and for the promotion of a high standard of scholarship and learning amongst his monks.

Nave of the abbey church
Details of the ceiling paintings
Details of the ceiling paintings

The pilgrimages, just mentioned, which have never ceased since the days of St Meinrad, have tended to make Einsiedeln the rival even of Rome, the Holy House of Loreto and Santiago de Compostela, serving as a major stopping point on the Way of St. James leading there. Pilgrimages constitute one of the features for which the abbey is chiefly celebrated. The pilgrims number around one million, from all parts of Catholic Europe or even further. The statue of Our Lady from the 15th century, enthroned in the little chapel erected by Eberhard, is the object of their devotion. This chapel stands within the great abbey church, in much the same way as the Holy House at Loreto, encased in marbles and elaborately decorated.

September 14 and October 13 are the chief pilgrimage days, the former being the anniversary of the miraculous consecration of Eberhard's basilica and the latter that of the translation of St Meinrad's relics from Reichenau Island to Einsiedeln in 1039. The millennium of St Meinrad was kept there with great splendour in 1861 as well as that of the Benedictine monastery in 1934. The great church has been many times rebuilt, the last time by Abbot Maurus between the years 1704 and 1719. The last big renovation ended after more than twenty years in 1997. The library contains nearly 250,000 volumes and many priceless manuscripts. The work of the monks is divided chiefly between prayer, work and study. At pilgrimage times the number of confessions heard is very large.

In 2013 the community numbered 60 monks. Attached to the abbey are a seminary and a college for about 360 pupils who are partially taught by the monks, who also provide spiritual direction for six convents of Religious Sisters.

Expansion to America

In 1854, when the monastery was again facing suppression, a colony was sent to the United States from Einsiedeln to minister to the local German-speaking population and to develop a place of refuge, if needed. From St. Meinrad Archabbey, daughter houses began to be founded, the first being St. Meinrad, Indiana, and in 1881 these were formed into the Swiss-American Congregation, which in 2013 comprised 14 monasteries from Canada in the north down to Guatemala, 10 of which were directly founded from Einsiedeln. In the fall of 1887, Einsiedeln sent eight novices and one professed monk to Subiaco, Arkansas. The Reverend Father Gall D'Aujourd'hui, O.S.B., is considered to be the co-founder of Subiaco Abbey and Academy.

School

One of the abbey's apostolates is a school (Gymnasium) for the seventh to twelfth grades which has existed in its present form since 1848. It is the continuation of a tradition of education that dates to the early Middle Ages. Its distinguished alumni include Gall Morel, Franz Fassbind, Philipp Etter, Hans Hürlimann and his son Thomas Hürlimann, Bruno Frick, and Anatole Taubman.

Fahr Abbey

Main article: Fahr Abbey

Located in separate cantons, Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Abbey, a community of Benedictine nuns, form a double monastery, both under the authority of the Abbot of Einsiedeln.

Ufenau island, Einsiedlerhaus and Endingen area in Rapperswil

Main articles: Ufenau and Einsiedlerhaus

The western lake shore town wall respectively the fortifications of Rapperswil probably were built in the early 13th century by the Counts of Rapperswil. The so-called Endingen area in Rapperswil was given as a fief by the Einsiedeln Abbey which is still owner of the land, including the site where the Capuchin monastery was built. That's why the adjoint building traditionally was named Einsiedlerhaus, meaning "house of the Einsiedeln abbey". Historians mention a 10th-century ferry station located there – in 981 AD as well as the abbey's vineyard on the Lindenhof hill – between Kempraten on Kempratnerbucht, the Lützelau and Ufenau islands and assumably present Hurden. The ferry services allowed the pilgrims towards Einsiedeln to cross the lake before the prehistoric Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden at the Seedamm isthmus was re-built between 1358 and 1360. Endingen, the Einsiedlerhaus, and even the lake area are still in the possession of the Einsiedeln abbey, as well as the Ufenau island.[1]

Trivia

Cultural Heritage

The monastery complex, the abbey's library, archives and music collection are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as Class A objects of national importance.[3]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Das Einsiedlerhaus in Rapperswil wechselt den Besitzer" (in German). Kapuzinerkloster Rapperswil, published by Markus Turnherr, Stadtarchivar, in Obersee Nachrichten. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  2. ↑ The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses, Helena M. Gamer, Speculum, Vol. 29, No. 4 (October 1954), pp. 734-750
  3. ↑ "A-Objekte KGS-Inventar (Kanton Schwyz)" (PDF). Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Amt für Bevölkerungsschutz. 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
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 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Abbey of Einsiedeln". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. 

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