Monastery of Saint Hildegard threatened by declining vocations. Leading member of community demands female ordination.
Too few nuns for too large a monastery
Far-sighted: Abbess Katharina Drouvé, the 41st successor of Saint Hildegard, is driving the monastery's transformation process forward.
The second monastery founded by Hildegard of Bingen often seemed doomed. Now, the small number of nuns is jeopardizing its future. To preserve the abbey in the Rheingau, the nuns are making room for others.
It looks considerably older than it is: The foundation stone for St. Hildegard's Abbey above Rüdesheim-Eibingen was laid only 125 years ago. Just in time, says Sister Philippa Rath (part of the problem not part of the solution), a member of the board of the monastery foundation. According to canon law, "legal entities" such as monasteries and religious orders cease to exist – unless they have been dissolved beforehand – at the latest 100 years after the property has been definitively abandoned or abandoned.
As early as 1802, the Princes of Nassau had taken possession of the then Benedictine monastery in Eibingen, one year before the Imperial Deputation Act of 1803, which legally marked the – temporary – end of the order's activities. The nuns were allowed to remain in their monastery until 1814. Then the eviction order came. Hildegard of Bingen's second monastery seemed to be history.
The founder was Hildegard of Bingen.
What followed was painful: The Nassau rulers didn't hesitate for long and converted the monastery church into a cannon shed. According to the monastery annals, the east wing was used as an armory, and the west and south wings were auctioned off for demolition. It wasn't until 1831 that the old monastery church became the new parish church of the village of Eibingen, which was incorporated into Rüdesheim against its will in 1939. Hildegard's relics are still kept in a shrine there today. They were saved from destruction during the Thirty Years' War by the then abbess Anna Lerch von Dirmstein.
The history of the Eibingen monastery began in 1165, when the Rupertsberg Monastery, founded by Hildegard von Bingen, had become too small. Hildegard took over an empty Augustinian monastery in Eibingen, sent nuns across the Rhine, and from then on headed both monasteries. Until her death, she is said to have crossed the Rhine twice a week to care for her daughter monastery. After the Rupertsberg Monastery was burned by Swedish troops in 1632, the convent relocated to Eibingen in 1641.
The Benedictine nuns owe the fact that the turning point of 1803 did not mark the end of Eibingen's monastic history primarily to Bishop Blum of Limburg and his successor Karl Klein, and to the fact that both clergymen maintained close relations with Prince Karl zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.
He wished for reparation for the church property that had fallen to his family after the secularization of 1803. He embraced the bishops' wishes for restoration in light of the veneration of Hildegard and founded a new monastery. He persisted with his plans, even though his eldest daughter, who died prematurely at the age of 36 on July 2, 1896, was ultimately denied the opportunity to become the first abbess of the refoundation, as the prince had wished. Until her death, she was a nun at the Abbey of St. Cécile in Solesmes, France.
33 Benedictine nuns receive the inheritance
On July 2, 1900, construction began on the complex planned by Ludger Rincklage on a hill above Eibingen. Sandstone interspersed with quartzite was used, which was extracted, among other things, from the rock above the construction site. On September 17, 1904, a dozen sisters from the Abbey of St. Gabriel in Prague, the first women's monastery of the Beuron Congregation, moved into the new cloister. Pope Leo XIII elevated the monastery to an abbey and restored all the rights of the former Hildegard Monastery to it. To this day, the abbey is not subordinate to the local bishop, but directly to the Holy See in Rome.
The nuns are proud of their building, even though it has become too large for them since the number of sisters steadily dwindled. There were once more than 100 sisters – shortly before the expulsion and expropriation by the Nazis in 1941. Again, in this war year, it was a July 2nd that took on special significance for the monastery's history. In mid-March 1945, the monastery hospital was closed again. American troops reached Rüdesheim shortly thereafter. Soon after, the property was returned to the abbey.
Today, there are still 33 Benedictine nuns living, praying, and working in the monastery. They can earn a good living from their diverse business activities, but maintaining the impressive property is too much for them in the medium to long term. However, they have no intention of giving up their abode. It is home to the four workshops where church archives are restored, ceramic works of art are created, books are now artfully bound, and even gold jewelry is made.
Abbey with Guest House, Café, and Winery
The 16 rooms of the guest house are very well booked, and more are expected to be added to the attic in the foreseeable future. The monastery café, run by a specially established limited liability company, helps maintain a good level of visitor frequency even outside of the Rheingau's peak tourist season.
Many visitors are also important for the spacious monastery shop, which offers more than just the monastery's products. The extensive selection also includes wine from the seven-hectare monastery vineyard – the only one in Germany run by nuns themselves, albeit with the help of a cellar master.
Riesling and Pinot Noir are cultivated and vinified, regularly receiving recognition at the state wine awards. The global crisis in wine consumption has not yet affected the sales of the monastery wines. The Benedictine nuns can also point to their founder, Hildegard, who, in her natural history treatises, pointed out the healing effects of wine when consumed in moderation.
According to Hildegard's recommendations, "the powers of a heavy wine should be tempered either by immersing bread in it or by adding water, because it is of no use to either a healthy or sick person if it is not tempered in this way." An early praise of wine spritzer.
Three million for a future concept
The fewer sisters live in the monastery and the older they become, the more the community relies on permanent staff. The effort required to complete the monastery complex is currently demonstrated by a large scaffold. The eastern roofs are being re-roofed, according to Abbess Katharina Drouvé, who was consecrated two years ago as the 41st successor of Saint Hildegard and the sixth abbess in the new St. Hildegard building.
The work is scheduled to be completed this summer. Next year, the north roof of the church will be next. In some places, the Wilhelminian-era slate tiles still urgently need to be replaced to avoid damage to the building.
The sisters are grateful that this investment has been made easier and even possible thanks to a generous grant of €300,000 from the federal government's historic preservation program.
This also applies to the support they have received in considering the monastery's long-term future. From more than 100 applications, the Benedictine abbey was selected last year for the federal government's "National Urban Development Projects" funding program. It will receive €3 million to develop a concept for a "resource-saving transformation" into the future.
"We have decided to stay here."
The core idea is to downsize the nuns' cloister while simultaneously improving the quality of life and living, thus creating space for an institutional tenant who thinks long-term and appreciates the monastery's spirituality. The sisters could make up to 40 percent of the living space available for such a tenant, as well as the monastery's spacious basement, which is intended to preserve its character. Much work also needs to be done in terms of energy efficiency to reduce running costs. A photovoltaic system could soon be built on the rear side, facing away from the Rheingau.
Cultural monument in a new light
"We decided to stay here," affirms Sister Philippa Rath, referring to the preservation of the legacy of the monastery's founder, Hildegard, who was canonized in 2012. Furthermore, the nuns in Eibingen own the complex and are not tenants like in other places. Rath and Drouvé point out that the demand for guidance and spirituality is growing, and that there are more and more people who want to take a long break from everyday life and join the monastic community during this time. However, the guesthouse is not yet geared towards such longer stays.
Further evidence of the monastery's appeal: Sister Philippa Rath founded the "Nevertheless" discussion group for those who have left the church or are struggling with the idea. Demand is high. Abbess Katharina Drouvé sees the opportunity to use the transformation process to permanently preserve St. Hildegard as a spiritual center and to strengthen hospitality.
The Abbey wants to be "open to everyone who comes." It is important to "get started" rather than wait and see how things develop. The question of what a "minimally invasive" reconstruction of the monastery might look like in the spirit of historical preservation is still being determined. The abbess estimates that in three to five years, it will finally be clear what the concrete path will look like. Previous investigations have confirmed that a reconstruction and reduction in the size of the cloister is possible. It is a transformation project that is being considered a model because other monasteries are experiencing a similar situation. If this process succeeds in Rüdesheim, there could well be imitators in the German monastic landscape.
The Genius of the Saint Hildegarde
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