A catalog of the exhibits will be published exclusively for display in the Diocesan Museum. It also offers a versatile essay on Premonstratensians by Professor M. Dr. Johannes Meyer, Spiritual Rector of the Annual Year in the Archdiocese of Mainz / Clarholes, Paderborn. The curators of the exhibition at the Diocesan Museum are Dr. Reinhard Feldman, former head of the historic holdings department at the University of Munster Library; Bettina Hein-Hipler from LWL-Denkmalpflege Münster is also responsible for the travel exhibition, which – after stopping at Arnsberg (Oelinghausen, Rumbeck and Wedinghausen) and Werl – will continue to appear in Dortmund and Clarholz next year.

Archdiocesan film about Premonstratensians

The order of the Primonstratians, their achievements over the centuries, and their activities in the Archdiocese of Paderborn focus on a movie that can be viewed on the Paderborn Archdiocese’s YouTube channel. In addition to Professor M. Dr. Dr. Johannes Meyer, historian; Ingrid Ehlers-Kisseler Fr. Philip Richling Oprem from Primonstrattensian Abbey, Hambon, in an article on the special features of the order. The film also offers aerial shots of three former monasteries in the Arnsburg area: Rumbeck, Weddinghosen, and Olinghousen.

Premonstratensian order

In 1120, Norbert von Santon began building a monastery in the isolated valley of Premontre (Latin: Premonstratum) in the north of France. The very next year, he was able to find a small community there with a group of comrades, from which the place was to be named “Primostratensians”. Following the reign of St. Augustine (Father of the Church; 354-430), they lived as canons facing the world and served in the “world”, especially in the pastoral care of the country.

For centuries the canonical order of the Catholic Church originated from a community of a few who strove for a life in harmony with the ideals of the early Christian community in the absence of unity and wealth. A century after its founding, there were 600 Premonstratensian pens in Europe, from Ireland to Hungary and from Spain to Sweden.