Maribo Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (June 2008) |
Maribo Abbey, established in 1416, was the first Bridgettine monastery in Denmark and became one of the most important Danish abbeys of the Middle Ages. It was located in the present town of Maribo on the island of Lolland (Region Sjælland) in southern Denmark. The monastery is in ruins, but the abbey church still remains.
[edit] History
The first Bridgettine Abbey in Denmark was established in 1416 in the town of Skimminge on a gift of land (Grimstrup) from Queen Margaret I and supplemented by her heir, Erik of Pommerania. Monks from Vadstena Abbey in Sweden were dispatched to set up a daughter house of the Bridgettines (Order of St Savior). The abbey inherited a gilt silver chalice from Margaret I's estate at her death. At the same time the town, renamed Marienbo (later Maribo), received a city charter[1] which gave it privileges from inteference by local nobles. Bridgettine abbeys were 'double abbeys' meaning that the house consisted of 60 women, up to 25 monks, and several lay brothers. Maribo received papal recognition in 1418.
Construction began on the Skemminge church choir sometime before 1408. The church was apparently incorporated into the new abbey church which was completed by 1470. It was built in Gothic style out of large red bricks, the most common building material of the day. It was rectangular with a nave and two side aisles the same height as the nave and choir.
The abbey consisted of two separate sections, nuns on the north and monks on the south. The abbess kept order among the nuns and had ultimate control of the abbey. The 13 monks priests were led by the general confessor.
At its height, Maribo Abbey owned several manor estates and over 400 farms, making it one of Denmark's great landowners of the Middle Ages.
Denmark became officially Lutheran in October 1536 when the King and State Council adopted the Lutheran Ordinances. Reformation of local churches had been occurring since the mid 1520's, but after 1536 the government closed all religious houses. Although Maribo Abbey was dissolved as a religious institution, the nuns were permitted to live out their lives, without state assistance until 1551. Some of the nuns apparently went to Mariager Abbey on Jutland where the last nun died in 1588. A few of the nuns stayed on at Maribo. In 1556 the abbey was organized into a Lutheran house for unmarried noblewomen (Danish:jomfru kloster). In August of that year King Christian III visited Maribo to witness the induction of a young woman into the Lutheran abbey. Lady Mette Marsvinsdatter was named abbess and given control over the vast estates which funded the abbey once again. Lady Drude Pogvisk was named prioress, Lady Mette's next in command. After the kings' visit, some noble families paid to have their unmarried daughters or sisters live at the abbey essentailly for the rest of their lives, unless a marriage prospect arose. While the women weren't nuns, their days were supposed to be filled with Protestant religious activity and good works. The abbey functioned in that capacity until 1621 when the buildings and estate were given to Sorø Academy as an income property.
The abbey's renewal wasn't without its critics. Already in 1563 the Lutheran Bishop of Fyn, who had responsibility for Maribo, received complaints the the abbey was harboring Catholics. The continued prayers for the souls of the dead, the singing of Catholic hymnns and refusing to listen to the Lutheran pastor's sermons, shouting at him in church, and taking up the habit of the Brigettines once again all were cited as proof the abbey was 'corrupting' the women who went to live there. In subsequent years the charges became even worse. The abbey was opened to anyone who wanted to visit. The women fought openly and refused to comply with the rule or the abbess. Many were drunk on a regular basis, drinking up the fourteen barrels of beer received each year as rent and more. It was also asserted that women's rooms were used as brothels for any young nobleman who wandered inside.
In 1596 Maribo's parish church burned down, and the abbey church became the parish church for the town. When the abbey was finally shut down in 1621, most of the buildings were torn down for building materials. The church, however, was still in use.
In 1803 when the Diocese of Lolland-Falster was created, Maribo Abbey church became the cathedral. The church had fallen into disrepair with such a small town to support it. In the 1860's the church was restored and a new slender west tower was built to replace the old one.[2] The abbey church has five bells in its tower: the oldest from the original abbey church cracked and was removed from the tower in 1996, its maker unknown.[3]
Maribo once again has a Bridgettine Abbey, though not in the same location which has protected status. The Habitaculum Mariæ Abbey was reestablished in Maribo in 2006.[4]
