Tholey Abbey () in

Tholey Tholey () is a municipality in the Sankt Wendel (district), district of Sankt Wendel, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately west of Sankt Wendel, and north of Saarbrücken. History Local history The first traces of settlement in t ...

, in the district of

Sankt Wendel St. Wendel (; sometimes spelled in full as Sankt Wendel) is a town in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier. According t ...

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

, is a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery dedicated to

Saint Maurice Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, Maurits, or Mauritius; ) was an Egyptians, Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Roman Empire, Rome in the 3rd century, and is one of the favourite and most widely venerated saints of tha ...

. It is part of the Beuronese Congregation within the

Benedictine Confederation The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict () is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict. Origin The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monastic congregations that nevertheless retain their own aut ...

History

As early as the 5th and 6th centuries a group of clerics had established themselves here in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

ruins. On the instructions of Magnerich, bishop of Trier from 566 to 600, these hermits formed themselves into monastic communities. One of the earliest of such communities, at the foot of the Schaumberg, is said to have had Saint Wendelin as its head, who is thus counted by tradition as the first abbot of Tholey. The Benedictine history of Tholey is thought to have begun in about 750. At the end of the 15th century the abbey joined the Bursfelde Congregation. In 1794 during the French Revolution the abbey was plundered and burnt down, and dissolved the same year. In 1798 the remaining buildings were auctioned off. In 1806 they became the property of the municipality, as the parish church and priest's house. The present abbey was established by the Benedictines in 1949 and settled in 1950 by monks from St. Matthias' Abbey, Trier. The monks work in pastoral care and run the guesthouse and book shop. As of 2020, twelve monks from five nations reside in the monastery. in 2008, with philanthropic support from Edmund and Ursula Meiser, the chapter house was renovated, and baroque-style pavilion was erected on the grounds of the abbey. In 2020, the abbey installed stained glass windows created by German artists

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

and Mahbuba Maqsoodi.Kate Brown, Rural German Monks Hope Their Abbey’s New Gerhard Richter-Designed Stained Glass Windows Will Help Convert Art Lovers to the Church, Artnet (Mar. 9, 2020), https://news.artnet.com/art-world/richter-tholey-abbey-window-1795800 Richter's three windows — with deep reds and blues prevailing on the two outer displays and the central one dominated by radiant gold — are more than 30 feet tall and made to a symmetrical design. Maqsoodi's 34 windows for the church feature figurative images portraying saints and scenes from the Bible.

Abbots since the re-establishment in 1949

* 1949–1976 Dr. Petrus Borne * 1977–1981 Hrabanus Heddergott * 1982–1985 Athanasius Weber (Prior Administrator) * 1985–2007 Makarios Hebler * 2008–present Mauritius Choriol (until 2014 as Prior Administrator)

References

* Manfred, Peter, 2005. ''Der heilige Wendelin – Die Geschichte eines faszinierenden Lebens''. Otzenhausen: Verlag Burr.

External links

*
Website of Tholey Abbey
{{Authority control Benedictine monasteries in Germany Buildings and structures in Sankt Wendel (district) 1st-millennium establishments in Europe Irish monastic foundations in continental Europe Churches in Saarland Roman Catholic churches in Germany