{"id":4536,"date":"2018-11-27T18:24:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T17:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/osb.org\/?p=4536"},"modified":"2020-02-04T09:54:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T08:54:13","slug":"wechselburg-priory-church-becomes-a-papal-basilica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/2018\/11\/27\/wechselburg-priory-church-becomes-a-papal-basilica\/","title":{"rendered":"Wechselburg Priory\u2019s Pilgrimage Church Becomes a Minor Basilica"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pilgrimage Church of Heilig Kreuz in Saxony was elevated to the dignity of Minor Basilica on 12 November 2018, on the 850th<\/sup> anniversary of its historical founding.\u00a0 In 1543, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the monastery was suppressed.\u00a0 It was in 1993 that the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen invited the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal to refound the monastic community as a dependent priory.\u00a0 Ettal Abbey is a member of the Bavarian Congregation.<\/p>\n

With the naming of Wechselburg\u2019s monastic church to the dignity of Minor Basilica, it becomes the first church in former East Germany outside of Berlin to receive such a title.\u00a0 The Apostolic Nuncio to Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterovi\u0107, read aloud the papal decree issued by Pope Francis, and he also unveiled the papal coat-of-arms at the basilica\u2019s entrance portal.\u00a0 The Bishop of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen, His Excellency Heinrich Timmerevers, and the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Ettal, the Right Reverend Barnabas B\u00f6gle OSB, also took part in the celebration along with the monastic community and Christian faithful.<\/p>\n

At present, there are approximately 1,500 minor basilicas in the world, with 77 of them being in Germany.\u00a0The Basilica of Wechselburg is the first Catholic church in the eastern German states to bear this title.\u00a0 The church is one of the best preserved Romanesque buildings in eastern Germany.\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0For us, this award is like a UNESCO World Heritage Site for Catholics,\u00a0\u00bb stated Father Maurus Kra\u00df, prior of the monastic community since 2012.\u00a0 Three monks currently serve at Wechselburg Priory, with responsibilities for carrying out pilgrimage work and pastoral care for the parish.<\/p>\n

Adapted from Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk<\/em> (12 November 2018)<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div>
Homily of Apostolic Nuncio Eterovi\u0107 (German)<\/span><\/a><\/div>
<\/div>
Apostolic Nunciature to Germany’s celebration photos<\/span><\/a><\/div>
<\/div>
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk article (12 November 2018, German)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wechselburg Priory’s monastic church was elevated to the dignity of Minor Basilica on 12 November 2018, becoming the first church in eastern Germany outside of Berlin to bear the title. Apostolic Nuncio Nikola Eterovi\u0107 proclaimed the papal decree on the festive day. See articles, photos, and Apostolic Nuncio’s homily here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Kloster Wechselburg, cropped | \r\n","source_text":"By User:Kolossos - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 | link | ","source_url":"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=7676114"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}