Klöster#

Monasteries: Following the Christianisation of the area of Salzburg, monasteries were centres of the spiritual and economic development of the country and formed the basis for the organisation of the church until the late Middle Ages. From the 11th century onwards many new monasteries were founded.

Secular canonical abbeys and monasteries of the Benedictines were established from the 10th and 11th centuries onwards, later on monasteries were founded by the Augustinian Canons Regular, the Cistercians and Premonstratensians, from the 13th century onwards by the mendicant orders of the Dominicans, Franciscans, Friars Minor, Carmelites, Augustinian Hermits and Carthusians. In the same way as castles, medieval monasteries were centres of cultural and economic life, pioneering agriculture, settlement, schools, hospitals and the crafts. Monasteries enjoyed special rights concerning customs, duties and the maintenance of their own churches, they also enjoyed immunity and were exempt from paying taxes. They were also responsible for works of outstanding architectural importance in the Romanesque and in the Gothic and again in the Baroque periods. By writing ( Annals) they documented the news of their times. Monasteries also acted as centres of spiritual drama ( Religious Literature), and by copying older literary works they disseminated antique culture ( Book Illumination).

Reform movements started in Cluny (France), Gorze and Hirsau (Germany). They came to Salzburg via Einsiedeln and Augsburg, to Millstatt from Hirsau, to Goettweig from St. Blasien (Germany). The reforms of the Benedictine order ( Melk Reform) and the Augustinian Canons at the beginning of the 15th century led to the foundation of new monasteries and to an economic and scientific upswing in older monasteries. During the Reformation many monasteries fought for their survival. Their renewal was supported by visitations by bishops and nuncios, as well as by the impulses of new orders like the Jesuits, Friars Minor, Capuchin, Piarists, Barnabites, Servites. During the Counter-Reformation many new monasteries were founded.

The scientific and cultural interest of monasteries during the Baroque period is documented in music, drama and books. Monasteries promoted the newly popular Pilgrimages. Joseph II dissolved half of all monasteries (that is around 140 in Austria's present area). With the forfeited ground and goods of the monasteries and abbeys, the Religionsfonds was founded, from which the clergy was to be paid. Numerous new orders settled in the second half of the 19th century. The Society of Jesus, dissolved in 1773, was re-established in 1814. In the National Socialist era (1938-1945) many monasteries were dissolved or seized, e.g. Klosterneuburg, Missionshaus St. Gabriel, Deutschordenshaus in Vienna, Goettweig, Geras, Altenburg, St. Florian, Kremsmuenster, Lambach, Engelzell, Wilhering, Schlaegl, the Archabbey St. Peter in Salzburg, Michaelbeuern, Wilten, Fiecht, Stams, Mehrerau, St. Lambrecht, Admont, Seckau, Vorau, Rein, St. Paul, Tanzenberg and 188 more, especially those of female religious orders. After World War II many orders, most of them small women's orders, settled in Austria again.

Since the early orders are in charge of pastoral work in many incorporated parishes, few conventuals remain in the monasteries themselves and the conventuals make up a remarkable share of Austria's parish priests. Today religious orders also work in the Faculties of Theology in Innsbruck (Jesuits) and Salzburg (Benedictines), in secondary schools integrated in abbeys, in hospitals (e.g. Brothers Hospitallers, Sisters Hospitallers, Holy Cross Sisters), in youth education (Piarists, female religious educational orders, Christian Brothers of De La Salle) etc.

Several orders (Benedictines, Augustinian Canons, Capuchins) offer lay people the opportunity to spend a limited period of time as guests of the religious community in the form of retreats, which are popular among people seeking rest and spiritual renewal.

Literature#