Einsiedeln Abbey

The history of Einsiedeln Abbey starts with Meinrad of Einsiedeln. Born in 797 to an aristocratic German family, he was educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island in what is today Germany. Meinrad became a monk and was later ordained a priest. After gaining public attention for reportedly performing miracles, Meinrad established a hermitage in 829 in the Einsiedeln forest of Switzerland, searching for privacy. He was murdered by two robbers in January 861.[2]

Over the next 80 years, other hermits occupied Meinrad's hermitage. In 934 Eberhard, previously Provost of Strassburg, built the Einsiedeln abbey and church on the hermitage site, becoming its first abbot. According to legend, the church was consecrated in 948 in person by Jesus Christ, the Four Evangelists, St. Peter, and St. Gregory the Great. Pope Leo VIII investigated and confirmed the miracle. It was last ratified by Pope Pius VI in 1793, who confirmed the acts of all his predecessors.[2]

In 965 Gregory, the third Abbot of Einsiedeln, was named a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Otto I. His successor abbots would hold that title until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. In 1039, Meinrad's relics were transferred from Reichenau Island to Einsiedeln for enshrinement. In 1274, the abbey and its dependencies were incorporated into an independent principality by Rudolf I of Germany. This gave the abbot political jurisdiction over the abbey lands.[2]

During the early 16th century, the standards of discipline at Einsiedeln started to decline, but Ludovicus II, a monk of St. Gall who was Abbot of Einsiedeln from 1526 to 1544, restored a stricter observance. The abbey remained unaffected by the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. Its leader, Huldrych Zwingli, had studied at the abbey for a period of time.[3] Abbot Augustine I (1600–29) led the movement to create the Swiss Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict in 1602. Augustine established unrelaxed observance in the abbey and promoted a high standard of scholarship and learning amongst his monks.

The Einsiedeln abbey church was rebuilt by Abbot Maurus between 1704 and 1719. In 1779, the abbey came under the control of France during its invasion of Italy, losing its status as an independent principality. In 1854, during a period of unrest in Western Europe, the Einsiedeln leadership became afraid that the abbey would be suppressed or dissolved. They sent a group of monks to southern Indiana in the United States to minister to German immigrants and develop a possible place of refuge. The monks started a new foundation, now Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana. The abbey celebrated the millennium of Meinrad of Einsiedeln in 1861.

The abbey started renovations in 1977 which were completed in 1997.

Pope Pius XI granted a pontifical decree of canonical coronation towards its venerated Marian image on 21 March 1934. The rite of coronation was executed by the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, coinciding with the abbey’s millennium on 14 September 1934.

The canonically crowned image of Our Lady of Hermits.

The religious pilgrimages which have never ceased since the days of Saint Meinrad, have tended to make Einsiedeln on a par with the Basilica della Santa Casa and Santiago de Compostela, serving as a major stopping point on the Way of Saint James leading there. The statue of the Virgin Mary from the 15th century is enshrined within the chapel erected by Eberhard, and remains the venerated object of their devotion. It is the subject of the earliest preserved print of pilgrimage, by the anonymous artisan Master E.S. in 1466.[4] The chapel is located in the great abbey church.

September 14 and October 13 are the main days of pilgrimage.

• September 14 is the anniversary of the consecration of the original church in 948 AD.
• October 13 is the anniversary of the translation of Meinrad's relics to Einsiedeln in 1039 AD.

• 
  The abbey as seen from the left
• 
  The abbey as seen from the east
• 
  Lady Fountain
• 
  Einsiedeln, the Lady chapel (interior)
• 
  Nave of the abbey church
• 
  Details of the ceiling paintings
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  Details of the ceiling paintings

• Moreau (Odile et Richard): D'Einsiedeln à la Salette au fil des siècles : avec les pėlerins comtois sur les pas de la Vierge Marie. L'Harmattan, Paris, 2012.

• Meinrad of Einsiedeln
• Gall Morel
• Johann Michael Feuchtmayer the Elder, Franz Joseph Feuchtmayer
• Martin Marty (bishop)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Abbey of Einsiedeln". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Einsiedeln Abbey.

• Official website (in German)
• Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln (archives of the abbey) (in German)
  • List of abbots
  • List of abbots