Michaelsberg Abbey

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Michaelsberg Abbey, Siegburg

Michaelsberg Abbey (Abtei Michaelsberg) is a monastery of the Benedictine Order, belonging to the Subiaco Congregation. The monastery is situated on the Michaelsberg ("St. Michael's Mount"), about 40 metres above the town of Siegburg. For this reason it is occasionally also referred to as Siegburg Abbey.

[edit] History

The hill called the Michaelsberg, formerly known as the Siegberg, was first inhabited about 800 by the Counts of Auelgau who built a castle there. In 1064 Archbishop Anno II of Cologne founded a Benedictine monastery there, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, from whom both the mountain and the abbey thenceforward took their names.

The monastery quickly became a reformed abbey in the Cluniac Reforms. After the death of Archbishop Anno in 1075 he was buried in the abbey. After he was canonised, in 1183 his bones were translated to the "Anno shrine", which can still be seen in the abbey church.

In 1504 production of the abbey's liqueur (Siegburger Abtei-Likör), began, which is still produced today [1].

The abbey was dissolved during the secularisation of 1802–03. Until its resettlement on 2 July 1914 the buildings were used for varied purposes, for some time as a barracks, but also at other times as a lunatic asylum and a slaughterhouse.

In 1941 the abbey was again dissolved, this time by the SS; the monks were expelled and the buildings commandeered. The buildings were almost completely destroyed by a bombing raid in 1944. In 1945 the monks expelled four years previously were finally able to return, some from captivity as prisoners of war, others from exile. They had to rebuild the monastery virtually from scratch.

Since 1952 the abbey liqueur has been produced again. Since 2004 a beer has also been brewed here, called "Michel". In the north wing and also in a large part of the west wing the Edith Stein Retreat House of the Diocese of Cologne has been accommodated since 1997.

The community of Michaelsberg Abbey consists (as of 2005) of 13 members and one novice.