Einsiedeln: the chapel that Christ consecrated in person

Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Suiza · Año 861 – 948 d.C.

San Meinrad, the martyred hermit

It all started with a Benedictine monk named Meinrad, born about 797 in the noble family of the Counts of Hohenzollern. Formed in the abbey of Reichenau, in Lake Constance, Meinrad felt the call to the erectic life and in the year 835 he retired to a cave in the forest of the canton of Schwyz, carrying with him a small image of the Virgin Mary who had already worked healing among the sick who visited him.

The fame of his miracles and of his holiness attracted many pilgrims, which paradoxically disturbed him the loneliness he sought so much. On January 21, 861, two thieves presented themselves in their hermitage with the intention of stealing the vows and offerings that the faithful left before the image of the Virgin. He was killed, but, according to tradition, two crows Meinrad raised followed the killers to Zurich, where his unusual behavior gave away the criminals and they were killed. The ravens are the heraldic symbol of Einsiedeln until today.

The foundation of the abbey

After the martyrdom of Meinrad, the hermitage was subsequently occupied by other hermitage. At the beginning of the 10th century, Eberhard - the former preposte of Strasbourg - came to the place and decided to find a monastic community. In 934 he erected the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln on the site of the hermitage, becoming his first abbot. Emperor Oton I confirmed the foundation in 947.

In 948, Bishop Konrad of Constanza came to solemnly consecrate the chapel of the Virgin. The night before the ceremony, the bishop heard a voice announcing to him that the consecration had already taken place: on the night of 13 to 14 September, Christ himself, assisted by the four evangelists, Peter and Gregory the Great, had personally consecrated the chapel dedicated to his Mother. Pope Leo VIII investigated the prodigy and confirmed it; several of his successors confirmed the pontifical confirmation.

The Black Virgin and the million pilgrims

The image that is being venerated today in the Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of Grace) is a black Virgin of the 15th century, about 70 centimeters, richly covered with embroidery blankets. The dark color comes in part from centuries of cirium smoke, although there is also the theory that it was intentionally darkened to represent the verse of the Song of the Songs: "I'm black, but beautiful".

Einsiedeln receives more than a million pilgrims each year, making it the most visited sanctuary in Switzerland. In the 15th century he was a rival in pilgrimages of Rome, Loreto and Santiago de Compostela. The saint Nikolaus von Flüe - the patron of Switzerland - traveled to Einsiedeln; so did the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. And it was in Einsiedeln that, in 1493, the doctor and alchemist Paracelso was born, in whose family the devotion to the Virgin of the place was deep.

"Virgin of the Ermites, who took Meinrad in solitude
and to Christ in your chapel, they also acogen us. "