lørdag den 13. oktober 2012
søndag den 7. oktober 2012
Research for the short introduction to Montmedy
This is research for the short story I am doing on Montmedy. If you read it via our webpage - please leave comment as I would like to hear what you think.
lørdag den 6. oktober 2012
Orval - Mystery, Treasure and Nostradamus
The Legend
of Orval
One day la Gran Contessa ("the Great Countess") or Countess Matilda of Canossa was visiting a small
chapel near the forests of Orval.
She was a woman under a continued pressure as the
deaths of both her mother and
husband in 1076, had left her in sole control of her great Italian patrimony as
well as lands in Lorraine. On the behalf of the Pope himself she was fighting
the German King Henry IV who would sort to conquer Matildas throne. Legend says
that she stopped at the fountain and somehow her wedding- ring accidentally fell into the fountain. Eventhought she had been
estranged from her late husband (her
stepbrother Godfrey the Hunchback) She was in great distress at her loss of the
ring. She
prayed to the Lord for the return of the ring and at once a trout rose to the surface of the water with the precious ring in its mouth. Matilda
exclaimed: "Truly this place is a Val d'Or (Golden
Valley)", from which the name "Orval" is derived, and in
gratitude she made available the funds for the foundation of the monastery and
to this day the spring still supplies water to the monastery and its brewery.
Let all guests that come be received like Christ, for
he will say,
"I was a stranger and you took me in."
"I was a stranger and you took me in."
In 1070 a group of Benedictine monks
from Calabria settled in Orval, at the invitation of Count Arnould de
Chiny, lord of the manor, who welcomed them and granted them land from his own
domain. Construction immediately begun of the church and a
monastery, but after some forty years, possibly because of the death of Count
Arnould, the monks moved away again. They were replaced by a community of Canons Regular,
who completed the construction work: the abbey church was consecrated on 30
September 1124 by Henri de Winton, Bishop
of Verdun. Soon afterwards, however, the Canons ran into economic difficulties,
a situation which led them to request affiliation to the Order of Cîteaux, at
that time in full expansion. Their request was transmitted to Saint Bernard who
accepted it. He entrusted the re-establishment of Orval to the eldest of his
daughter-houses, the Abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne. On the 9th March
1132, seven monks under the leadership of Constantin arrived at Orval from
Trois-Fontaines. Monks and Canons formed one single community and began at once
on the adaptation of the buildings to Cistercian usages. The new
church was completed before 1200.
For
five centuries, Orval led a hidden life, like so many other monasteries of the
Order. During the 12th Century, the abbey seems to have been prosperous ; from
the middle of the following century, calamities were often to be its lot for
long periods. In 1252 the abbey was gutted by fire and the consequences weighed
on the community for almost a century. Certain buildings had to be entirely
reconstructed. Around 1252, the monastery was destroyed by a fire;
the rebuilding took around 100 years. So
serious was the state of misery that for a time the authorities of the Order
went so far as to envisage the suppression of the monastery.
During the 15th and 16th
centuries, the various wars between France
and various neighbouring regions (Burgundy,
Spain)
had an important impact on Orval. At one stage a foundry was established on the
site. In 1637, during the Thirty Years' War, the abbey was pillaged and
burnt by French mercenaries. In the 17th century, the abbey converted to the Trappist
branch of the Cistercian order, but reverted back to the Rule of the main order
in around 1785.
Abonner på:
Opslag (Atom)