Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The Hohenburg Abbey (Altitona or Altodunum in the ancient Celtic name) was founded in 680 by Saint Odile. The convent of Hohenburg experienced a great boom during the half of the 12th century with the arrival in 1150 of the Abbess Relindis († 1176). It was she who introduced the rule of St. Augustine Community.

On the death of Relindis, Herrad of Landsberg (died 1195) succeeded him. Herrad called in 1178 the Premonstratensians of Etival to administer the Abbey and then founded around 1186 the Truttenhausen Abbey. Hohenburg Abbey was burned and repaired several times: in 1115, 1200, 1224, 1243, 1277, 1301, 1365, 1400 and 1473. In 1546 a fire destroyed the convent of Hohenburg and marks the end of the women Abbey. In 1648 Alsace became French, the Premonstratensian rebuild Hohenbourg between 1649 and 1650. A new fire destroyed the Abbey in 1681, which was rebuilt by the Premonstratensians. In 1791, during the Revolution, the Abbey was sold as national property. Around 1796, the Canon François Louis Rumpler redeems all and has the convent until 1806, the year of his death. From 1806 to 1853, several owners succeed.

 

In 1853, Bishop André Raess (1794-1887), Bishop of Strasbourg, redeems the Mont Sainte-Odile and appealed to the nuns of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mercy of Reinacker to administer the place. In 1988 Pope John Paul II visited the abbey. In 2006, major redevelopment and rehabilitation works made it possible to better receive the many faithful, particularly those with disabilities. Similarly, in 2006, the church of Mont Sainte-Odile is elevated to the rank of pontifical basilica.

Location

Hohenburg Abbey was built on what is now known as the mont Sainte-Odile, an eminence located in the present commune of Ottrott (Bas-Rhin, canton Rosheim), at an altitude of 763 meters.

The Mont Sainte Odile massif is bounded in the South by the Valley of Barr (Kirneck), on the North by the Boersch Valley (Ehn) and in the East by the foothills of the Vosges. The Abbey occupied a privileged location, on a rocky plateau in the middle of the forest, overlooking the plain of Alsace, and in particular, from the South to the North, the city of Barr and the villages of Heiligenstein, Saint-Nabor, Ottrott, Klingenthal and Boersch.

 

The territory of Hohenbourg was bounded by an old building called the Pagan Wall; within the Frank Kingdom, in the Merovingian period, it was reported to the Duchy of Alsace.

Founding of the Abbey

The Hohenbourg originally designated a castle on the summit of the mountain, under the duchy of Alsace. In the 7th century, the dukes of Alsace used this fortress as their residence. Around 673 to 682 Adalric and Bereswinde, the sister-in-law of King Childéric and Obernai, the hometown, which both belonged to the Merovingian aristocracy, took their distance with Ebroin, mayor of the palace of Neustria, to draw closer to sovereigns of Austrasia. Hohenburg Abbey is founded in 680 by Saint Odile, daughter of Aldaric (also called Athic or Etichon) duke of Alsace and Bereswinde on the site of a castle denominated Hohenbourg or Altitona. Born blind, Odile would have been hidden to be protected from her father who gave the order to kill her. Having found the view at his baptism, his father later offered him his castle at Hohenbourg or Altitona to establish an Abbey and redeem himself of his sins. After the death of Saint Odile the center became the site of a pilgrimage. Three daughters of Odile's brother, Adalbert (around 673-722) became abbesses: Saint Eugenie († 735), Saint Gundelinde or Gerlinde, first abbess of the abbey of Niedermunster and Saint Attale (around 690-741) first abbess to 718 of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne de Strasbourg. By a privilege of Charlemagne, renewed by Louis the Pious, the monastery of Hohenbourg was protected by imperial immunity. At the end of the twelfth century, Bishop Conrad of Strasbourg confirmed the exemption of the high plateau which as a salicine land was exempt from any civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Only the abbess was able to administer the monastery. In 1045, Bruno d'Eguisheim, bishop of Toul consecrated the church of Hohenbourg. In 1050 he visited the monastery as Pope under the name of Léon IX and granted to the abbess Bertha a bubble confirming the property of Hohenbourg and a number of privileges and the right to elect freely their abbess.

 

 

The life of Saint Odile

Legend has it that St. Odile was born blind and that her father, the Duke Aldaric who was expecting the birth of a son was so irritated that he wanted her to perish. At the request of his mother Bereswinde, a  beautiful sister of King Childeric, the nurse hid the young child at the monastery of Palme in Burgundy (today Baume-les-Dames). She recovered her sight, just when she was baptized by Saint Erhard and his brother Saint Hydulphe. But this miracle had no influence on Etichon's paternal feelings. He even mistreated Count Hugo, brother of St. Odile, who had no other fault than to have wished to bring back his sister to Hohenbourg, that the unfortunate young man died of it. Etichon, overcome by remorse, finally let herself be disarmed by Odile's sweetness and received her in her Oberehnheim palace (Obernai). Etichon wants to marry her by force, but she refuses and will take refuge in Germany. he pursued it with mountains and valleys in order to force it to yield to his will. It is about to be reached when the rock on which it prayed opens and miraculously escapes the duke's hands. Seeing the will of God to manifest itself so openly, the duke agrees not to oppose her and gives him the castle of Hohenbourg she transforms into an asylum for young pious girls of the Austrasian and Burgundian nobility. After the death of Etichon in 700 and his wife Bereswinde, who were buried at Hohenburg, St. Odile founded a new monastery at the foot of the mountain and gave it the name of Niedermunster. According to tradition, the death of Saint Odile dates back to 13 December 720.

The rise of the Abbey

The Brunon Bishop of Toul, elected Pope under the name of Léon IX passes to st.Odile Mount and visit the Merovingian graves.

 

Around 1153 the Emperor Frédéric I Barberousse (1122-1190) visited the Hohenburg Abbey and decided to rebuild the two monasteries, Niedermünster and Hohenburg, ruined by his father Frederick II of Swabia known as Le Borgne during the Investitures Quarrel to dislodge the Hohenbourg, his enemies. He had, it is said, set fire to the abbeys of Hohenbourg and Niedermunster. Frédéric I Barberousse charge one of his relatives, Relindis, augustine Abbess of Rastibonne to rebuild the two monastery in expiatory title. With the arrival of the Abbess Relindis 1153 (+ 1176) important work are done at Hohenburg. It is from this period that seems to date the lower part of the walls of the Church, the chapel of the cross, the chapel of the tears and the chapel of the angels.

On the Death of Relindis, Frédéric I Barberousse appointed magister operis: Herrad at the convent of Hohenburg and Edelinde at Niedermünster, two from abbesses of the noble family of the Landsberg. Herrad distinguished himself as the author of the manuscript Hortus Deliciarum. In 1178 she called upon the Premonstratensians of Etival to serve the abbey, then founded around 1180 the abbey of Truttenhausen which she entrusted to the Augustinians of the abbey of Marbach. Around 1194, Hohenbourg Abbey was visited by Richard Lionheart himself, released from captivity.

 

Under the Abbot of the Abbess Elisabeth of Lützelburg, Egelolf de Mundingen sells goods to the abbey in Bolsenheim and Uttenheim for the prebend of a priest who celebrates Mass every day at the altar of the cross. Under the abbatiat of Elizabeth II, Louis of Bavaria (1229-1294) confirms to the convent of Hohenbourg all its former advantages and rights, while Pope John XXII (Pope from 1316 to 1334) charges the provost of Saint-Amarin, the Dean of the Basel Cathedral and the Treasurer of Lautenbach to examine the dispute between Hohenbourg and the Grand Chapter of the Strasbourg Cathedral. King Charles IV (1316-1378) who was consecrated a Romans emperor in 1355, climbs the mountain Hohenbourg with a large following including John II de Lichtenberg, bishop of Strasbourg.

The Abbey reduced several times to ash

The convent and the Church of Sainte-Odile had to undergo great disasters in the course of the centuries. It was first the Hungarians that devastate and plunder in 917 and 925 the convent and its dependencies. In 1045, we don't know because of what event, the Church was destroyed by fire and rebuilt by Pope Léon IX. Four years later a new fire broke out at the top of the release Hohenburg, reportedly said by the forest in flame. Around 1115, Duke Frederick the Borgne burned the monastery to take revenge on the Hohenbourgs his worst enemies. Hardly named, in 1200, Edelinde Landsberg faced a violent fire in Hohenbourg, communicated by the forest on fire that reduced much of the convent to ashes. The rebuilding work completed, another fire accidentally caused, around 1224, is declared on the top of the mountain. Henry, king of the Romans, grants a special privilege to the inhabitants of the mountain by exempting them from sizes and taxes. In the same year, according to tradition, St. Elizabeth of Thuringia went to Hohenburg. The two quarter-century reconstructions were a burden on the Community budget. In 1229, the Hohenbourg Abbey was run by a woman named Werentrude who succeeded Elisabeth de Lutzelbourg who died in 1223. In 1243, the convent was again on fire. Under the reign of the Abbess Agnès II, a new fire broke out in 1277 at the convent. Barely rebuilt, the nearby forest burns again around 1301, communicating the fire to the abbey.

 

On the eve of the Annunciation, in March 1546, flames began to spring from the roof while the Abbess took her bath, she just has time to leave the room. The cross of Niedermunster, the chalice of Sainte Odile and the Hortus Deliciarum are saved from flames. There does not seem to be any loss of life, but enormous damage. Full sections of masonry, the walls of the church, the chapel of the cross, the two chapels at the end of the rock are consumed. The tomb of Saint Odile, as well as the sarcophagus of the abbess Eugenie and that of Aldaric were miraculously preserved from the destruction. After the fire of 1546, the canonesses abandoned this abbey, and several of them, including the abbess Agnès d'Oberkirch, adopted the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation. The revenues of the two monasteries (Hohenbourg and Niedermunster) were then combined with those of the bishopric.

In 1572, the Church was destroyed by lightning. But soon, the thirty years war was to begin, which brought into conflict the troops of the Catholic League under the orders of Emperor Ferdinand II and those of the Evangelical Union of German Princes commissioned at the time by Count Ernst von Mansfeld. In 1622, the Chief soldiers looted and burned everything that had been rebuilt at that time at the mont Sainte-Odile. It was only after the Westphalian Treaties in 1648 that the funds were collected, allowing the resettlement of the Premonstratensians. Unfortunately, the premonally canons had hardly had time to restore the convent, that the convent is again the prey of the flames on May 7, 1681. A large public collection is then organized in Alsace and the Sundgau and until in Swabia, Bavaria and Rhineland to Cologne to restore old buildings and build a new convent church. This one is consecrated on October 20th, 1696.

 

 

The hundred years war

In France during the thirty years war, bands of unarmed looters seek to make a fortune in Alsace. They seem to put fire to the abbey around 1365. In 1375, Enguerrand de Coucy launched his soldiers on Hohenbourg and caused considerable damage to the abbey. Under the abbey of Anastasie Oberkirch, the war of the peasants puts the abbey in turmoil between February and May 1525. A group of peasants occupies Hohenbourg. The canonesses take shelter from the approach of danger, visiting their own families most often. Agnès de Zuckmantel, future Abbess, seeks refuge behind the walls of Strasbourg. In 1632, it is the Swedes who occupy the mountain where the abbey is located and commit damage in the newly renovated buildings.

 

A Premonstratensians monastery

In 1178, the so-called Herrad of Landsberg brought the Premonstratensians from Etival to serve Hohenbourg. It gives a small domain called Saint-Gorgon, as well as income from several villages. Premonstratens will also receive a small wood in Ergesheim, a place now known as Krautergersheim. After several fires and reconstructions, the fire of 1546 marks the end of the Premonstratensians at the Hohenburg and also that of the nuns. A church was founded in 1573, but thirty years war brings desolation on the mountain. The Bishop of Strasbourg asked the Premonstratensians of Etival to ensure a presence near the deserted tomb of St. Odile on the ruins of the monastery in 1605. In 1605, the episcopal vicar Adam Petz founded a convent Premonstratensians who was ravaged in 1622 by the Troops of Ernst von Mansfeld (1580-1629). The religious abandon the site in 1632. They will return to Hohenbourg in 1661, twenty three years after the treaties of Westphalia. Restored by Archduke Leopold II of Austria (1586-1632), Prince-Bishop of Passau in 1598, then of Strasbourg from 1608 to 1625, but constantly threatened, ransomed and plundered during the Thirty Years' War, he seemed to be in a better state of prosperity from 1642, when it was again destroyed by a fire in 1681, with the exception, however, of the ancient chapels of the cross and Saint-Jean or Sainte Odile, which still exist today. and which contain: the first, the tomb of Aldaric, and the second that of his daughter, St. Odile. The current church was built between the years 1687 and 1692, the other buildings are of a more modern construction.

 

 

Since the French Revolution, (1789)

At the time of the French (1789) revolution, the population of neighboring communities plundered the convent. In the stolen objects was a massive golden eye, rich ex-voto priceless. In 1791, the farmhouse and inn, which was national property, was awarded with a good part of the land and the forest, to Sieur Meinrad Bruder, Mayor of Mutzig, and May 27, 1796 the convent, including the church, the chapels and the large yard planted with linden trees, was acquired at a price of 3,195 livres, by François Louis Rumpler, former canon of the collegiate church of Saint Pierre-le-Jeune in Strasbourg. In 1798, the domain of Sainte Odile, farm and convent, became the property of the Laquiante family, who sold it in 1831 to Sieurs Wittmann of Heiligenstein, and Steinmetz de Barr, both owners. These, the following year, gave everything to the Abbot Lhulier, former parish priest of Mandray near Saint-des-Vosges who sold the estate to the Baillard brothers in 1837. Twelve years later, it was bought by Mr. Lee of Strasbourg, who gave it to Mr. Rohmer of San-Francisco. It is this last owner that the bishopric acquired August 16, 1853, M. Schir, vicar-general, was in charge of everything related to the administration of spiritual and material of the pilgrimage. The Sisters of the third order of St. Francis, established at Reinacker, near Saverne, were called to lead the hospitality industry and cultivate the land.

 

The chapels dedicated to Sainte-Odile, the cross, tears and the angels, as well as the library and the sculptures of the cloister of the monastery were classified as historical monuments by the list of historical monuments protected in 1840. The Conventual Sainte-Odile Church, in present Basilica, is, it, classified as historical monuments by Decree of 22 July 1997.

 

Installation of the Sisters of the cross (1889-2015)

The establishment still worked as a community of the order of the cross, founded June 24, 1841 by the Abbess Adèle de Glaabitz. Between 1889 and 2015, the nuns of the Sisters of the cross assured its services in two areas at the Hohenburg Abbey, with 35 sisters at the beginning: on  one hand, liturgical services including accompaniment of the organ; on the other hand, hotel business, the tasks of the household and kitchen, garden and field interviews. They also supported the administration of the hotel, the store and even the infirmary. However, as the number of nuns decreased, the monastic life in Hohenbourg as a hotel became more and more difficult. From 2010, their departure was planned and planned. In the last days, Mont Sainte-Odile had only 5 nuns. On June 24, 2015, the festive day of its founding and authorization, but also the departure of these last nuns, a special celebration was held there. Following a request from the Archbishop of Strasbourg Jean-Pierre Grallet, two nuns from the Sisters of Saint Joseph succeeded them.

 

Nowadays Hohenburg Abbey (2015 -)

The most important sanctuary in Alsace, the transition was, as early as 2010, carefully prepared and carried out.

Always under the protection of the Archbishop of Strasbourg, the celebration in the Basilica was maintained by a Rector and a Canon and a new permanent community. Many priests also support the services. In benefiting from the Catholic tradition, the celebration distinguishes itself in particular from its musicality, sung in French as well as in Latin, in German, during the daily services, lauds to Compline.

Indeed, it is necessary that the abbey meets the two main needs. On one hand, welcome all year round many pilgrims, individuals and groups, including religious. On the other hand, support a long tradition since July 5, 1931. This is the perpetual adoration of the Brotherhood of St. Odile.

 

By keeping a close collaboration with the religious, the hotel works also for tourism. It  was obtained, on the 12^th of July 2012, the official label of two stars of the Atout France.

 

Secret passage

Between August 2000 and May 2002 more than 1,000 ancient books went missing from the monastery library. Stanislas Gosse, a book collector, stole the books after finding an old map showing a secret entrance into the library. The route was not easy, however, involving climbing up exterior walls, a steep staircase and a secret chamber. A mechanism then opened the back of one of five cupboards. The disappearance of so many books over such a length of time confused the librarian, the monks and the police, with Gosse finally being caught by closed-circuit television cameras.

 

Abbesses of Hohenburg Abbey

• Sainte Odile (died on the 13^th of December 720)

• Eugénie (721-735) died in the month of September 16 735

• Werentrude or Warnetrude (Abbess died in 741)

• Adala or Attala - Abbess cited in 783 in a text where a pious woman named Odsindin offers vineyards in Sigolsheim Hohenburg.

• Ruthrude (Abbess in 831) from the time of Liutfrid, 5th and the last Duke of Alsace

• Odile II, daughter of the count of Verdun (Abbess from 1010) - cousin of Brunon of Eguisheim, Bishop of Toul.

• Stehelin Eugénie (Abbess from 1040-1045)

• Bertha (mentioned around 1045-1051)

• Relindis (Abbess from 1151 died on the 22^nd of August 1176)

• Herrad of Landsberg (1176-1195) based around 1180 Truttenhausen Abbey (died on the 25^th of July 1195 in Hohenburg)

• Luchard or Lugarde Wertenbach (or Luppffen)

• Adelaide of Vermingen cited around 1195

 

• Edelinde of Landsberg (1199) under its abbot a huge fire at the Hohenburg

• Attalus II (died on the 13^th of January 1206)

• Mathilde de Niphen (died on the 15^th of July?)

• Cunegonde or Kunegundis (deceased on January 7th ??)

• Werdenbach Luchardis

• Werentrude or Olizensa of Luxembourg? 1229

• Elisabeth I of Lutzelbourg (1230-1233) died on the 7^th of September 1233

• Elizabeth II (Abbess from 1249)

• Marguerite of Senones (Abbess around 1250)

• Agnes I (Abbess of 1255-1263)

• Gerlinde (Abbess to 1263 - deceased on the 21^st of August 1273)

• Agnes II (Abbess to 1277 – died on the 6^th of January 1286)

• Elisabeth III (Abbess from 1286-1299)

• Catherine of Stauffenberg (Abbess of 1304-1312)

• Elisabeth IV of Bavaria (Abbess from 1325 to 1326)

• Mathilde IV (1326-1329)

• Elizabeth V (1338-1341)

• Agnes III of Stauffenberg (Abbess around1350)

• Marguerite II de Wyllerstein (Abbess from 1362-1385)

• Agnes Stauffenberg III (1286-1390)

• Catherine II of Stauffenberg (+ 15 August 1409)

• Marguerite III of Willrich (death in 1442)

• Clara Lutzelbourg (died on the 13^th of July 1453)

• Suzanne Hohenstein (elected in 1462)

• Marguerite Kanell IV (sometimes called Kandelin)

• Suzanne Hohenstein (resigned in 1470)

• Catherine III (1509)

• Véronique of Andlau (+ 15 April 1524)

• Ursula of Rathsamhausen, elected in 1524 (d. 1534)

• Agnes IV of Zuckmantel (elected in 1534) who died on the 29^th of January 1542

• Agnes V of Oberkirch (elected on the 10^th of March 1542)

 

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Albrecht, Dionysius, History of Hohenburg oder St. Odilienberg, Sélestat, 1751

• Calmet, Augustine, history of illustrious men, library of Lorraine, Nancy, 1751

• Collective (Jean-Marie Le Minor, Alphonse Troesler, Franck Bilmann), mount sainte Odile, ID, 2008 Edition

• Grandidier, Philippe André, history of the Church and the bishops-princes of Strasbourg since the Foundation of the bishopric till today, Strasbourg, 1776

• Fischer, Marie Therese, thirteen centuries of history at Mont Saint-Odile, the sign 2006 Edition

• The Minor, Jean-Marie, Mont Sainte-Odile, Editions Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, 2003

• Laguille, Louis, History of the province of Alsace since Julius Caesar until the marriage of Louis XV, King of France and Navarre, Strasbourg, 1727

• Pétry, François & Robert Will, Mount Sainte Odile (Bas-Rhin), Department of Heritage - Sub-directorate of Archeology, Imprimerie Nationale, 1988, 168 page

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_de_Hohenbourg