Our Lady of Settlements

Saint Meinrado: the hermit who founded a sanctuary

The story of Einsiedeln begins with San Meinrado (c. 797-861), a Benedictine monk of the illustrious family of the Counts of Hohenzollern. Educated in the abbey of Reichenau, in Lake Constance, under the care of his relatives, Abades Hatto and Erlebald, Meinrad was ordained a priest and lived for years in monastic discipline. But his soul longed for absolute loneliness and silence. With the permission of his abbot, he entered the forests of the canton of Schwyz, on a side of Mount Etzel, and built a hermitage next to a crystalline water source. There he placed an image of the Virgin Mary which had been given to him and which would be the origin of devotion.

For twenty-six years, Meinrad lived in absolute solitude, dedicated to prayer, penance and manual work. His fame of holiness attracted visitors who sought his spiritual advice. On January 21, 861, two thieves, believing that the hermit was hiding treasures, broke into his cell and murdered him. Tradition tells that two crows, domesticated by the saint, chased the killers to the city of Zürich, where they were recognized and captured. For this reason, the shield of the Einsiedeln Abbey has two black crows.

The foundation of the abbey

After Meinrad's death, his cell remained inhabited by hermits who continued his example. Eighty years later, about 934, the venerable Eberhard - the former preposite of Strasbourg - brought together the scattered hermits in a community organized under the rule of San Benito, of which he was the first abbot. Thus was born the Benedictine monastery of Einsiedeln, whose name derives from the German Hermitage"hermit."

In 947, the Emperor Oton I confirmed the foundation of the monastery, granted it land and the right to free choice of its abbot, in addition to the privilege of immunity. In 965, the Abbot Gregorio was invested as Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, dignity that his successors preserved until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. In 1274, Rodolfo I of Habsburg granted the abbey the status of independent principality, with temporal and spiritual jurisdiction over their territories.

The first church of the monastery was consecrated in honor of the Virgin Mary and of Saint Mauritius. But the building that lasts today is the result of a long evolution. The present Baroque-style abacial church was built between 1719 and 1735 according to the plans of Caspar Moosbrugger, a Benedictine brother who was also an architect. It was consecrated on May 3, 1735 by Abbot Nikolaus Imfeld. The exterior is sober and austere, but the interior is an explosion of marbles, fresh, stucco and golden characteristics of the Central European Baroque. The frescoes of the dome and the ship are the work of Cosmas Damian Asam, one of the largest freschists of the German baroque.

The legend of the Engelweihe: the consecration of the angels

One of the most unique elements of Einsiedeln is the tradition of Angel dedication (Consecration of the Angels). According to legend, when Eberhard concluded the construction of the first church in the 10th century, he asked the bishop of Constanza to come and consecrate it. The night before the ceremony, the bishop heard a heavenly voice saying to him, "You do not need to consecrate the church, for it is already consecrated by the angels." To verify it, he entered the temple and found on the altar the signs of consecration - crosses recorded on the walls and the altar - made by angelic hands.

Since then, the abbey celebrates the feast of the Angel dedicationa unique tradition in Christianity. Pope Leo VIII officially confirmed this tradition in a bull of the 10th century The chapel of Grace, which occupies the exact place of the hermitage of Saint Meinrado, is considered by the faithful to be especially holy because of this heavenly consecration.

La Virgen Negra de Einsiedeln

The venerated image in Einsiedeln is a tarootic size of the Virgin with the Child, made about 1466 by an anonymous artist from southern Germany. The original image that San Meinrado venerated was lost during one of the fires that struck the monastery. The current size of polychrome wood shows the Virgin standing, with the Child Jesus in her arms, who plays with a bird - symbol of the human soul.

Like other European Black Virgin, the dark color of the image is due to the smoke of the candles and the oxidation of the original painting. The image is in the Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of Grace), a black marble chapel located in the center of the abacial church, exactly over the place where San Meinrado built its primitive hermitage. The relics of the saint are also preserved in this chapel.

The Virgin is dressed in embroidered blankets that change according to the liturgical time: white for the great festivities, blue for the Marian solemnities, purple in Advent and Lent, red for Pentecost, and green during the ordinary time. This tradition of "dressing" the Virgin is one of the most visible of the sanctuary and attracts many visitors.

Einsiedeln and the Compost pilgrimage

During the Middle Ages, Einsiedeln was an important stop on the Way of Santiago. In 1495, the German monk Hermann Künig left a pilgrimage guide to Compostela, which mentions Einsiedeln as a necessary stage for Central European pilgrims. The abbey offered hospitality to pilgrims crossing the Alps in the direction of Santiago.

After the Protestant Reformation, Einsiedeln became a bastion of Catholicism in Switzerland. As the neighbouring cantons adopted the new faith, Einsiedeln remained faithful to Rome and was erected as a symbol of Catholic resistance. The abbey was looted and burned several times by Protestant troops, but it was always rebuilt. In 1798, the French troops of the Revolution occupied and looted the monastery. The monks were expelled and the abbey suffered serious damage. The chapel of Grace was rebuilt in 1817 in a classicist style, using the original stones of the medieval chapel.

The sanctuary at present

Today, Einsiedeln is the third most visited Marian sanctuary in Europe, after Lourdes and Fatima, with more than 200,000 pilgrims per year. The abbey maintains a community of Benedictine monks who run a school, a library with more than 230,000 volumes - including incunable and medieval manuscripts - and a music school. The abbey is also the center of theological studies and houses an important historical archive.

The Abbey Library is one of the most valuable in Switzerland, with manuscripts dating back to the 10th century The historical archive retains documents from the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, including papal bulls and imperial privileges.

The image of Our Lady of Einsiedeln is the main patron of Switzerland. The Abbot of Einsiedeln, who holds the title of Prince of the Holy Empire (honorary since 1806), has quasi-episcopal authority over the territory of the abbey, which constitutes a nullius dioecesis - an independent diocese directly subject to the Holy See.

Prayer to Our Lady of Einsiedeln