As of: March 26, 2024, 7:23 a.m
By: Nicole Kalenda
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Split
In summer the novitiate begins in Maria Eich, the Augustinian monastery near the pilgrimage church of the same name.
© Dagmar Rutt
Maria Eich is filled with new life.
After a six-year break, the modernized and expanded Augustinian monastery resumed its work as a novitiate convent.
Planegg
- In the summer one or two novices move to the Augustinian monastery in Planegg.
A candidate has applied and has already been admitted, says Father Christian Rentsch, Prior of Maria Eich and Novice Master of the German Augustinian Province.
He comes from Swabian, is a priest and “would prefer to live in spiritual community,” says Father Christian.
He already spent some time in Maria Eich in the first Corona winter of 2020/21.
A second interested party is currently staying with the Vienna Augustinians.
Things are looking good for him too.
“It starts in the summer.
There will be six of us, at least five of us.” Currently, Father Alfred Issing, Father Felix Meckl and Brother Carsten Meister live in Maria Eich alongside Father Christian.
The German province includes a total of 37 confreres, one of whom is in Rome and the other in the Congo.
In 2013, the monastery became a novitiate convent, making it the only place in Germany where aspiring Augustinians live as fellow brothers in the monastery and try to find their place in the community.
A novitiate lasts a year and a day, begins with the vesting ceremony and serves as a time to come to terms with oneself and the community.
“It's very much about living together, about living as an Augustinian,” says Father Christian, who himself completed his novitiate in the USA.
The next stage in becoming an Augustinian forever is the celebration of first profession.
Taking the religious vows initially binds you to the order for one year.
In the first four years as a novitiate convent nothing happened in Maria Eich, but in 2017 Brother Philipp Katzenberger and Brother Michael Clemens arrived.
The novice master at the time was Father Matthäus Klein, who left Maria Eich in 2021 and now lives at the Augustinian headquarters in Würzburg.
As did Brother Michael and Brother Philipp, who made their first profession in September 2018 and left Maria Eich again.
During the modernization and expansion of the Planegger Convent, which was completed in 2023 in time for its 70th anniversary, the Augustinian monastery of St. Rita in Berlin served as an interim novitiate house.
However, no candidate was found at that time.
This is different now.