Guldholm Abbey
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Guldholm Abbey was an attempt by Bishop Valdemar of Schleswig to reform the Benedictine monks and nuns at the tiny St Michael's Abbey in Schleswig town, then southern Denmark, now northern Germany.
[edit] History
Guldholm was located on a peninsula of land in the Schlien owned by Bishop Valdemar of Schleswig (1158-1236), an illegitimate son of King Canute V of Denmark. He was bishop of Schleswig from 1184-1191. It was reported to him that the Benedictine abbot, monks, and nuns at St Michael's Abbey had fallen into immoral behavior and had earned a reputation for drunkeness. The bishop decided that the best way to reform the monks was to move them from the temptations in Schleswig, and establish a new house far enough away that the monks wouldn't cause more trouble.
The monks apparently were moved unwillingly to Guldholm in 1191 to begin work on a new house. At some point, Guldholm became a Cistercian house, where the monks worked in the fields to earn their daily bread and meat.
In 1192, Bishop Valdemar and Duke Valdemar (later King Valdemar II) of Denmark got into a serious disagreement about who was going to rule in the Duchy of Southern Jutland. Bishop Valdemar fled to Sweden to avoid arrest. The following year he organized a fleet of 35 ships and harried the coasts of Denmark with an eye to overthrowing King Valdemar, believing he had a claim on the throne. Bishop Valdemar was quickly captured and imprisoned in the tower at Søborg Castle on Zealand for the next 14 years.[1]
Guldholm was abandoned (Danish:nedlagt) and the monks who didn't run away went north to the banks of Flensborg Fjord near the little hamlet of Ryd and began work on a new Cistercian house, Ryd Abbey in 1210. [2]
