Kornelimünster Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Kornelimünster
Reichsabtei Kornelimünster
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
9th century – 1802
Coat of arms
Kornelimünster in 1789
Capital Kornelimünster Abbey
Government Elective principality
Historical era Middle Ages
 • Abbey founded 814
 •  Gained Reichsfreiheit mid-9th century the 9th century
 • Acquired reliquary (head
    of Pope Cornelius)
875
 • Joined Lower Rhenish–
    Westphalian Circle
1500
 •  Secularised by France 1802
 • Awarded to Prussia June 9, 1815
Preceded by 		Succeeded by
Frankish Empire
Roer (department)
Buildings of the Imperial Abbey of Kornelimünster
Relics at the abbey

Kornelimünster Abbey (German: Benediktinerabtei Kornelimünster), also known as Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius, is a Benedictine monastery that has been integrated since 1972. The abbey is located in Aachen (in the district of Kornelimünster/Walheim) in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

History

The monastery was founded in 814 on the river Inde by Benedict of Aniane, an adviser to Emperor Louis the Pious (successor to Charlemagne). 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 ("Reichsunmittelbar") and received large endowments of land, as well as Biblical or Saviour's relics: a loincloth, a sudarium and a shroud.

In 875, half of the shroud was exchanged for a relic of the head of the martyred Pope Cornelius (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 Aachen composed the famous Tafelgüterverzeichnis, 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.

In 1500, the Imperial abbey (Reichsabtei) of Kornelimünster became part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle.

In 1802, the territory of Kornelimünster came under French rule, and the abbey was dissolved in the secularisation.[1] The abbey church became the parish church, and the remaining abbey buildings became property of the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia. Kornelimünster came under the Mairie system in the Kanton Burtscheid. In 1815, Kornelimünster became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and of the district (Landkreis) of Aachen.

Second foundation

The monastery was re-founded by the Benedictines in 1906 at a different location in the western part of Kornelimünster and is still in operation as a member of the Subiaco Congregation.

References

  1. ↑ Paul Fabianek, Folgen der Säkularisierung für die Klöster im Rheinland – Am Beispiel der Klöster Schwarzenbroich und Kornelimünster, 2012, Verlag BoD, ISBN 978-3-8482-1795-3

Further reading

Media related to Imperial Abbey of Kornelimünster at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 50°43′43″N 6°10′41″E / 50.72861°N 6.17806°E / 50.72861; 6.17806

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