멜크 수도원(Melk Abbey)(5)

멜크 수도원(Melk Abbey)(5). 오스트리아(Austria)

 

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Room 1

 

Rule of St. Benedict

(Divine Office Book)

14th century, parchment.

Leather binding from the 19th century.

 

This codex, which came to Melk from the Benedictine monastery Kleinmariazell (documented presence in Melk since the 16th century), contains a martyrologium & the so-called Necrologium Mariacellense (commemoration of dead fathers from Kleinmariazell) as well as the text of the rule of St. Benedict.

 

It is open to the beginning of this rule.

 

Divine office books like this were used in the Prime, the time of monastic prayer before beginning daily work. At this time the saints of the day & a chapter from the rule of St. Benedict are read aloud, & deceased fellow brothers are remembered.

 

The content of the rule of St. Benedict can be most concisely summarized with the words "Ora et labora et lege" (pray & work & read). In this way the rule of St. Benedict was the base of education & cultivation of Europe & our country over centuries.

 

1.01

- 안내문에서 -

 

 

 

UNRUHE

Rom zur Zeit der Volkerwanderung

(Ende 6. Jahrhundert):

Ziellosigkeit und innere Leere

fuhren zu Gefuhlen der Sinnlosigkeit,

lassen den Menschen unruhig sein

Gibt es einen Weg ?

 

 Listen with your heart

The Roman Empire had outlived itself. It was only a matter of time until decadent Rome could no longer maintain itself.

 

Young Benedict left Rome, repulsed by the immorality of the city, & lived in the mountains of Subiaco as a hermit. He found his way to an experience of God step by step: the loneliness of the cave, contact with people looking for direction. At each stage he had to learn through experience to recognize the will of his God. Legends describe his life, & his rule for the monks clearly shows his development from a strict ascetic to a wise father of monks. In 529 AD: the foundation of Monte Cassino.

 

Benedict died in the middle of the 6th century. He continued to write his monastic rule until the end of his life. This was to become the rule of the early Middle Ages.

 

In his monastery Benedict founded a school to serve the Lord: In the same way that he sought God all his life, the first thing his monks should try to do was to recognize God's will. For Benedict the most important criterion for a good monk is that he truly seeks God.

- 안내문에서 -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A House for God & Man

The Babenberg family had received the Eastern Marches from the Roman-German emperor to protect the German Empire from the insecure east. Melk was one of the principal residences of this  family, who expanded the Eastern Marches further & further to the East & the North

 

As Vienna increasingly became the center of the Eastern Marches, Leopold II founded a Benedictine monastery in Melk in 1089. Leopold III then secured the financial basis of the monastery through grants of property on what was then the periphery of the Eastern Marches (letter of donation 1113). The Babenbergs definitely wanted prayers to be said at the tomb of their ancestors in Melk, but they also recognized the cultural & missionary strength of the Rule of St. Benedict.

 

Individual Babenbergs gave the monastery important relics & works of art: the corpse of St. Coloman, a piece of the Cross of Christ, a portable altar. The legend of the theft of the Melk Cross, which was suddenly found in the Schotten monastery in Vienna, clearly shows that Melk had become peripheral & Vienna was the center of the Eastern Marches. Melk's importance as a monastery may be reflected in the fact that the cross did come back to Melk in the end.

- 안내문에서 -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UPS & Downs of History

The monastery of Melk was founded in the time of the Conflict of investitures & experienced a time of great prosperity after the Concordat of Worms (1122). With the decline of the papacy the monastery's fortunes also declined.

 

The Council of Constance (1414-1418) brought a reform for Austria's monasteries, which began in Melk: the Melk Reform (15th century). A return to a strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict through emphasis on asceticism & discipline was the goal.

 

In the 16th century the Reformation also affected Austria & its monasteries, bringing them to the verge of being closed. Using the Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555), the Habsburgs called for the Counterreformation. Melk was soon once again an exemplary model of monastic discipline. The external ｅxpression of this upswing in Melk was the Baroque reconstruction of the monastery (1701-1736)

- 안내문에서 -

 

 

The Wood of Life

We live in this world in the ups & downs of our personal existence, in the ups & downs of constantly changing times & circumstances.

 

We live in this world form birth to death, & in between life occurs with joy & sorrow, success & failure, love & hate, beginning & end.

 

There once was a man. He was born like us, in the same way he lived in the ups & downs of this life: God's son, Jesus Christ. Through him it became clear that this life is not everything, that although we die we will rise again to new life. His death on the cross made God's love clear. We are taken into death, but also into resurrection & new life.

 

We worship you, Lord Jesus Christ, & praise your. For through your holy cross you have saved the world.

- 안내문에서 -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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