World Heritage of the Middle Ages

... is the title of an exhibition at the Archäologischen Landesmuseum Konstanz. This year, the Museumsgesellschaft Freiburg made its summer trip to Constance and Reichenau Island, commemorating the monastery's founding 1300 years ago. Professor Thomas Zotz, an expert on Middle Age history, guided our group.

St. Pirmin, reading his
Dicta Abbatis Pirminii, de Singulis Libris Canonicis Scarapsus?
(Words of Abbot Pirminius, extracts from the Single Canonical Books)

It all started in 724 when the peregrinating monk and missionary Pirmin founded a monastery on Reichenau Island. Benedictine monks preferred islands to settle.

The founding document of Reichenau was forged in the 12th century on a scraped-off predecessor and supports the legend of Reichenau. According to this, the monastery was founded in 724 on the orders of Charles Martel, who was Mayor of the palace (Hausmeier) of the Frankish Empire from 718-741.

Here is a statue of Benedict of Nursia

Benedict must have known the Psalms well, for he based one rule of the order on Psalm 116, verse 62: At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You. Because of your righteous judgments, Benedict continued invoking verse 164: Seven times a day, I praise you for your righteous rules.

The rules

The motto of the Benedictines was ora et labora. 

The monks used glosses to help them better understand the Latin texts.
They sometimes wrote these reading aids in Old High German directly into the original texts,
as in the case above in the Gospel of Luke.
These annotations are among the oldest treasures of the German language. (click to enlarge)

However, they not only labored on the most extensive estates of their abbeys but also inside the monastery walls, learning biblical texts.

 

The hierarchy

The region on the High Rhine and Lake Constance is characterized by the founding of many monasteries. 

Click to enlarge

One of the exhibition's highlights is the Plan of Saint Gall, a medieval architectural drawing dating back to 820–830. It depicts an entire Benedictine monastic compound.

According to the most recent investigations, the plan is an original drawing made at Reichenau Abbey. Librarian Reginbert and the young monk Walafrid Strabo drew the plan and inscribed it with Latin verses. According to the inscription, it was intended to inspire Prior Gozbert at the St. Gall monastery.

St. Gallus

In the 820s, Gozbert planned to build a new abbey church to house the relics of the monastery's founder and namesake, the hermit Saint Gallus. Construction of the Basilica of Gall (Gallusbasilika) began in 830, and the church was sanctified after 835.

Reichenau Abbey was famous for its scribes and book illuminators.

The health problems of a scribe: A person who does not know how to write
does not believe it is work. O, how hard writing is: it dulls the eyes,
squeezes the kidneys, and simultaneously brings agony to all the limbs.
Three fingers write the whole body suffers ...
(Vita Harlinis et Reinilae around 850-880).

The dedicatory poem on the left reads:
This book, O Egbert, is full of divine teachings. Take it as a farewell greeting and rejoice for a long time.
In your honor, the blessed Au (Reichenau) offers it to you, Bishop.
On the right, Reichenau monks Keralt and Heribert hand manuscripts to Archbishop Egbert of Trier.

The Codex Egberty is one of the highlights of Ottonian book illumination. The Evangelistary was made at the Reichenau and dedicated to the Archbishop of Trier, Egbert (977-993). The codex contains 51 scenes from the life of Christ, making it the oldest and most comprehensive series of images on this subject in the Middle Ages.

The statue of St. Mark in front of the Minster dedicated to St. Mary and him

The next day of the summer trip, the group was taken to the Reichenau. The first stop was an extensive visit to St. Mary and St. Mark's Minster.

Abbot Haito had a Carolingian basilica built in a cruciform, parts of which are still preserved in the crossing and the east transept. It was consecrated on 16 August 816 in honor of the Virgin Mary. 

St. Marc's shrine garnished with written intercessions

In 830, Verona Bishop Randolt transferred St. Mark the Evangelist relics to the cathedral.

The nave of the basilica with a view of the altar

In April 2024, on the occasion of the cathedral's 1,300th anniversary, Pope Francis elevated it to the status of basilica minor.

An oversized Pirmin in a boat approaches the already built-up Reichenau

On the way to the church choir, we passed a painting on the history of the monastery's origins.

Our guide is standing on the tomb slab of Duke Gerold,
a Prefect of Bavaria. He died in 799 (©hj)

Our guide was talkative and told us many stories, Dönekes, as they say in the Westphalian dialect. Indeed, he had my mother's accent. I told him outright that he was from Westphalia, to which he replied affirmatively.

On the right wall of the choir is Mary with the child, the Minster's patron saint.

View into the choir

The festive flag of the Catholic Church, based on the flag of the Vatican, is white for Christ, light, and resurrection. A dull yellow replaces gold, a surrogate that Germans know so well.

And there are plenty of celebrations in this church. In addition to the regular Catholic holidays, the people of Reichenau celebrate their island holidays. On the Feast of St. Mark on April 25, the Feast of the Holy Blood on the Monday after Trinity Sunday, and the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, all work stops, stores are closed, and children are off school. This is when the island people take the reliquaries from the cathedral treasury and carry them in processions across the Reichenau.

Painting in the choir: A list of the owners, patrons,
and benefactors of the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ here in Reichenau.

Another relic kept in St. Mary and St. Mark's Minster is the holy blood of Christ.

In the church's treasury, I saw a stained glass window from 1510 showing the Annunciation of Mary flanked by Saints Pirmin and Benedict. The lower part depicts the nativity scene with the three wise men from the East, identified here as kings in the early tradition.

On the way to the monastery garden, I passed a Pieta.

The exit from the church to the monastery garden was low and narrow.

Some participants sank to their knees before the splendor of the flowers in the center.

The impressive church building from the perspective of garden visitors.

One last look at the choir as we left for lunch at the restaurant "mein Inselglück" (My Island Bliss).

©MS (Click to enlarge)

After the meal, we reposed blissfully on the restaurant's terrasse, dozing or contemplating the "sweet" landscape.

Look into the western apsis
with a door through which our guide was supposed to arrive.

In the afternoon, our first stop was the church of St. George, built in the late 9th century to house the relic head of the Saint. 

The Reichenau Abbot Hatto, who in 891 also became Archbishop of Mainz and thus Archchancellor of the East Frankish Empire, received a reliquary of the skull of St. George from Pope Formosus in Rome in 896. Our guide showed us a photo.

Our guide was devoted to her job.

St. George is world-famous for its mural paintings dating back to the 10th century. These are often referred to as frescoes in English descriptions. The “correct“ English description is fresco-secco. I have changed  the Wikipedia article on the Church of Saint George (Reichenau) accordingly.

This well-known story happened on Lake Genezaret near Capernaum: Then Jesus got into the boat, and his disciples followed him. Suddenly, a furious storm came up on the lake, so the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. (Matthew 8:23-28).

The fresco-secco paintings on the other side.

The German expression Es geht auf keine Kuhhaut is translated into English as It's going too far, or  It beggars description and today, it means just that. But where does the strange expression come from? Here is the famous mural of a cow's skin at St. Georges. A devil writes on it, "I want to write here about the stupid women; the blah-blah spoken here all week will be remembered when it comes before the judge."

The inscription is aimed at female churchgoers who gossip and spread lies and fake news. In the Middle Ages, people believed the devil recorded all sins on parchment. The predecessor of today's paper was made from goatskin or cowhide. As parchment was expensive, only the essential things were written down. For the devil, these were sins. When there were too many, they would no longer fit on a cow's skin.

Prof. Zotz is waiting for a few latecomers
to begin his lecture on the church's history.

Our last stop on this remarkable Museumsreise was visiting the Romanesque Basilica, St. Peter and Paul. Bishop Egino of Verona built the first church on this site in 799. After his resignation and Abbot Waldo's permission, Egino withdrew to his richly furnished cella on the western tip of Reichenau, where he died in 802. 

 Thank you, Thomas. You immersed the group deeply into the medieval history of Reichenau Island. Thanks to Gertraud, too, for the perfect organization of this trip.

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