Maribo Abbey
Encyclopedia
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and became one of the most important Danish abbeys of the late Middle Ages. It was located in the present town of Maribo
Maribo
Maribo is a town in Lolland municipality in Region Sjælland on the island of Lolland in south Denmark. To the north of Maribo is Nørresø and to the south is Søndersø . Søndersø is the largest lake on Lolland...
on the island of Lolland
Lolland
Lolland is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of 1,243 square kilometers . Located in the Baltic sea, it is part of Region Sjælland...
(Region Sjælland
Region Sjælland
Region Zealand is an administrative region of Denmark established on January 1, 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which replaced the traditional counties with five larger regions. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the number of...
) in southern Denmark. The monastery is in ruins, but the abbey church still remains in use as Maribo Cathedral.
Bridgettine nuns
The first Bridgettine abbey in DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
was established in 1416 in the town of Skimminge on a gift of land (Grimstrup) from Queen Margaret I
Margaret I of Denmark
Margaret I was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. Although she acted as queen regnant, the laws of contemporary Danish succession denied her formal queenship. Her title in Denmark was derived from her...
and supplemented by her heir, Eric of Pomerania
Eric of Pomerania
Eric of Pomerania KG was King Eric III of Norway Norwegian Eirik, King Eric VII of Denmark , and as Eric King of Sweden...
. Monks from the mother house of the Bridgettine Order, Vadstena Abbey
Vadstena Abbey
Vadstena Abbey was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. The abbey started as one of the farms donated by the king, but the town of Vadstena grew up around it...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, were dispatched to set up a daughter house. At the same time the town, renamed "Marienbo" (later Maribo), received a city charter which gave it privileges from interference by local nobles. The new foundation received papal confirmation in 1418.
Construction had begun on the quire of Skimminge church some time before 1408. The existing work on the church was apparently incorporated into the new abbey church which was completed by 1470. It was built in Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style in red brick, the most common building material of the day in the region. It was rectangular with a nave and two side aisles the same height as the nave and choir.
Bridgettine abbeys were double monasteries, meaning that they contained both nuns and canons. The order stipulated that the complement of a house should be 60 nuns, 13 canons, four deacons and eight lay brother
Lay brother
In the most common usage, lay brothers are those members of Catholic religious orders, particularly of monastic orders, occupied primarily with manual labour and with the secular affairs of a monastery or friary, in contrast to the choir monks of the same monastery who are devoted mainly to the...
s. The conventual buildings consisted of two separate sections, with nuns on the north side and canons on the south. The abbess kept order among the nuns and had ultimate control of the abbey; the 13 canons were led by the general confessor.
At its height, Maribo Abbey owned several manors and over 400 farms, making it one of Denmark's great landowners in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.
Dissolution
Denmark became officially Lutheran in October 1536 when the King and State Council adopted the Lutheran Ordinances. ReformationReformation in Denmark
The Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein was the transition from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism in the realms ruled by the Copenhagen-based House of Oldenburg in the first half of the sixteenth century...
of local churches had been occurring since the mid 1520's, but after 1536 the government closed all religious houses. Although Maribo Abbey was dissolved as a religious institution, the nuns were permitted to live out their lives, without state assistance until 1551. Some of the nuns apparently went to Mariager Abbey
Mariager Abbey
Mariager Abbey was a Bridgettine double monastery founded in 1430 which became an important pilgrimage site, in the present town of Mariager in northern central Jutland, Denmark.-Foundation:...
on Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
where the last nun died in 1588. A few of the nuns stayed on at Maribo.
Secular canonesses
In 1556 the abbey was organized into a Lutheran house of secular canonesses for the use of unmarried noblewomen. In August of that year King Christian III visited Maribo to witness the induction of a young woman into the Lutheran abbey. Lady Mette Marsvinsdatter was named abbess and given control over the vast estates which funded the community once again. Lady Drude Pogvisk was named prioress, Lady Mette's second in command. After the king's visit, a number of noble families paid to accommodate their unmarried daughters or sisters at the abbey for the rest of their lives, unless a marriage prospect arose. These women were not nuns, although their days were supposed to be filled with Protestant religious activity and good works.The abbey's renewal was not without its critics. Already in 1563 the Lutheran Bishop of Fyn
FYN
Proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Fyn is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FYN gene.This gene is a member of the protein-tyrosine kinase oncogene family. It encodes a membrane-associated tyrosine kinase that has been implicated in the control of cell growth...
, who had responsibility for Maribo, received complaints that the abbey was harboring Roman Catholics. Allegations of the continued prayers for the souls of the dead, the singing of Catholic hymnns, the refusal to listen to the Lutheran pastor's sermons (he was heckled in church), and the resumption of the habit of the Bridgettines were all cited as proof that the abbey was "corrupting" the women who went to live there. In subsequent years the charges became even worse: the abbey was opened to anyone who wanted to visit; the women fought openly and refused to comply with the rule or the abbess; many were drunk on a regular basis, drinking up the fourteen barrels of beer received each year as rent and more. It was also asserted that women's rooms were used as brothels for any young nobleman who wandered inside.
In 1596 Maribo's parish church burned down, and the abbey church became also the parish church for the town. The abbey was closed down in 1621, and its buildings and estates given to Sorø Academy
Sorø Academy
Sorø Academy is a boarding school and public gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by the Crown after the Reformation, and ever since, on and off, it has served...
as an income property. Most of the buildings were torn down for building materials, leaving only the church still in use.