Redesign of the Floor Display Case

Beginning and Development – ​​Change and Reorientation 

 

The redesign of the floor display case is intended, on the one hand, to commemorate the first St. Ottilien missionaries in what is now southern Tanzania.

The young monks sent to East Africa starting in 1887, and to Korea starting in 1908, worked hard under primitive living conditions. In East Africa, a mission station was initially assigned a father (priest) and two or three brothers.

While the priests were engaged in evangelization, the brothers, with the help of local workers, built the first mission stations. A high degree of craftsmanship was required in all areas: the brothers erected monastic buildings, churches and workshops, crafted the interiors, laid out fields for cultivation, and took over all daily tasks. Improvisational talent was also required, as available financial resources were limited, and they had to work with materials on site. Local staff were trained in the still-unfamiliar language.

Those who traveled to the mission territory said a permanent farewell to their families beforehand, as the possibility of a return home was not provided for in the first decades.

Pioneering craftsmanship was also required in St. Ottilien. The dilapidated Emming estate was renovated, monastery buildings and a church were built, and the surrounding moorland was drained and developed for agricultural use.

A daunting daily workload and the willingness to putting aside one‘s own needs, often even one‘s health, over the task of development, distinguish these pioneers who dedicated themselves to their assigned work. The early days of missionary work in East Africa and Korea were marked by setbacks, which often meant a new beginning.

 

On the other hand, the floor display case illustrates the changes in the self-image and responsibilities of the Missionary Benedictines over time.

Since the 1940s, the Missionary Benedictines have undergone a transition to indigenously run monasteries. Starting in 1957, a monastery exclusively for African monks was established, today's Hanga Abbey in Tanzania. Larger settlements developed into abbeys with indigenous monks.

Until the 1980s, St. Ottilien served as both a home and supply center for the mission stations and monasteries. With the decline in enrollments in German-speaking abbeys, fewer and fewer monks could be sent abroad. Moreover, the focus in the former mission territories was no longer on "widespread mission” but on monastic life.

With the independence of the African states between 1951 and 1972, the mission territories were transformed into locally run dioceses, and the activities of the Missionary Benedictines shifted. In addition to supporting the dioceses in pastoral care, educational work, social, caritative and ecological projects are now the focus.

Since the 1980s, the Missionary Benedictines have also been involved in interreligious exchange with Buddhist monasteries in Asia. The Monastic-Muslim Dialogue, established in 2010, promotes dialogue with Islam.

Recent developments demonstrate a move toward globalization. In 1982, a newly founded monastery in the Philippines was staffed not only with monks from Germany but also from Korea.

In 2005, Europe was recognized as a mission territory. The distinction between home and mission monasteries thus disappeared.

The structure at the end of the 19th century, characterized by the phrase "Germany sends missionaries," has evolved into a global missionary movement with many individual centers, whose monasteries fulfill the mandate of evangelization regionally and in international networks.