If you aren't into changing trains multiple times, then this trip is not for you.
Went by train from Interlaken West to Spiez to Bern to Zürich main train station to Wadenswil to Einsiedeln and by bus to the abbey.
Today I went to the Einsiedeln Abbey which is a Catholic monastery administered by the Benedictine Order in the village of Einsiedeln.
Einsiedeln is situated in the valley of the Alp River. It comprises six localities. Einsiedeln has a total area of 99.1 km2 (38.3 sq mi), of which nearly half (47.1%) is agricultural and only slightly less (44.5%) is forested. The rest of the land is either settled (5.5%) or non-productive (less than 2.8%).
Einsiedeln is located approximately 7.5 km (4.7 mi) from the southern end of the Lake of Zürich, and 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the artificial Sihlsee Lake. It is on a plateau (ca. 880 m (2,890 ft) above sea level). The town is located at an altitude of 470 m (1,540 ft) higher than Zürich, with which it has a railway connection.
"There was no permanent settlement in the area prior to the early medieval period, but numerous artifacts left by prehistoric hunters, dated to the Mesolithic to Bronze Age were recovered."
"The original "hermitage" is associated with St. Meinrad, a Benedictine monk from the family of the counts of Hohenzollern. According to legend, Meinrad lived on the slopes of Mt. Etzel from 835 until his death in 861."
"During the next eighty years Saint Meinrad's hermitage was never without one or more hermits emulating his example. One of the hermits, named Eberhard, previously Provost of Strasburg, erected a monastery and church there, of which he became first abbot. Work on the monastery is said to have begun in 934. Following a miraculous vision by Eberhard, the new church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. At the time of the foundation of the Abbey, the local hunters and small farmers of the forest, placed themselves under the authority of the noble-born Abbot. The surrounding population was known as Waldleute (forest people) because of the forests around the Abbey. The Abbey encouraged the Waldleute to settle in surrounding villages and begin farming. The settlement of Einsiedeln is first mentioned in 1073."
"The alpine valleys were used to raise cattle, which became increasingly more important to the village. By 1250, the major business in the village was breeding and raising cattle. Expansion of grazing land into nearby alpine valleys led to a two century conflict with Schwyz."
"As early as 1100, the villages of Einsiedeln and Schwyz were in conflict over land near the two Mythen mountains. Over the following century, conflicts over the land led to many court battles and actual battles. In 1173 when the Habsburgs gained rights over the village of Schwyz and in 1283 when they raised the Abbey to an independent principality under the Habsburgs, this raised a local conflict into a regional one. The Habsburgs were able to quiet the conflict for a few years, until 1291 when Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden revolted against the Habsburgs. In 1314, the conflict flared up again with an attack by Schwyz into Einsiedeln. This attack triggered a series of border raids that, along with other events, in 1315 led to a Habsburg invasion and their crushing defeat at the Battle of Morgarten. It wasn't until 1350 that the conflict was resolved and the borders between Einsiedeln and Schwyz were fixed."
"In 1394 the Abbey came under the protection of Schwyz and the rights of high justice went over to Schwyz. Low justice, though, remained with the Abbey."
Einsiedeln is the birthplace of Paracelsus, a Renaissance physician and alchemist who is credited with first naming zinc.
"In 1399, the Drei Teile ("Three Parts": a council that included the Abbey, the Waldleute from the surrounding villages, and Schwyz) is first mentioned. Initially the Drei Teile only addressed any issues that affected the free Waldleute. In 1564 they were able to issue a binding ordinance for all three groups. In 1657 the Drei Teilechanged its name to the "Session". The relationship between the three parties was not always smooth. In 1764, an attempt by the Abbot to require tradesmen to only practice their trade in Einsiedeln and preventing skilled workers from settling in among the Waldleute led to open conflict. Schwyz supported the Abbey against the Waldleute and in 1766 crushed the revolt. However, the Abbey lost much of its independence and thereafter was treated more as a subject of Schwyz instead of a partner."
"During Napoleon's invasion of Switzerland in 1798, the Abbey was suppressed for about three years and the land was added to the city of Schwyz. Following the collapse of the post-invasion Helvetic Republic, in 1803 as part of the Act of Mediation Einsiedeln became a Bezirk (or District) in the Canton of Schwyz. During the Restoration starting in 1815, the Abbey's power began to grow in the Canton. A desire for reform led the Districts of March, Küssnacht and Pfäffikon to declare themselves Kanton Schwyz äusseres Land (Canton of Schwyz, Outer Lands) with a liberal constitution in 1832. The Abbey stood on the side of the conservative faction in the Canton, which caused tense relations between them and the surrounding villages until the creation of the Federal State in 1848."
"The Abbey of Einsiedeln is one of the most important baroque monastic sites and the largest place of pilgrimage in Switzerland."
The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln in the Chapel of Grace attracts around 800,000 pilgrims and tourists every year. The community of Benedictine monks has around 40 members. The monastery is not under the jurisdiction of a diocese or a bishop because it is a territorial abbey.
The abbey operates a private high school along with a winery, sawmill, restaurant and other small businesses in order to support itself.
"The history of Einsiedeln Abbey starts with Meinrad of Einsiedeln. Born in around 800, he was educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island in what is today Germany. Meinrad became a monk and was later ordained a priest. After gaining public attention for reportedly performing miracles, Meinrad established a hermitage in 828 in the Einsiedeln forest of Switzerland, searching for privacy. He was murdered by two robbers in January 861."
"Over the next 80 years, other hermits occupied Meinrad's hermitage. In 934 Eberhard, previously Provost of Strassburg, built the Einsiedeln abbey and church on the hermitage site, becoming its first abbot. According to legend, the church was consecrated in 948 in person by Jesus Christ in honor of his mother Mary. It was the beginning of the pilgrimage to the Chapel of the Saviour, which turned in the Middle Ages to a Marian pilgrimage."
"In 965 Gregory, the third Abbot of Einsiedeln, was named a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Otto I. His successor abbots would hold that title until the dissolution of the empire in 1806.
In 1226, after another fire, the church was enlarged. The lower church was built above the Chapel of the Savior, which was incorporated into the new compley. This effect, of a sanctuary within a sanctuary, has been maintained in later restorations of the Chapel of Our Lady."
"In the 13th century, the pilgrimage to the monastic compley became more popular, better structured and organized. The figure of the enthroned Madonna holding the baby Christ on her left knee, which appears on an abbey seal from 1239, is considered Einsiedeln's oldest miraculous image.
During the early 16th century, the standards of discipline at Einsiedeln started to decline, but Ludovicus II, a monk of St Gall who was Abbot of Einsiedeln from 1526 to 1544, restored a stricter observance. The abbey remained unaffected by the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. Its leader, Huldrych Zwingli, had studied at the abbey for a period of time. Abbot Augustine I (1600–29) led the movement to create the Swiss Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict in 1602. Augustine established unrelaxed observance in the abbey and promoted a high standard of scholarship and learning amongst his monks."
Found at the end of each row.
"The Einsiedeln abbey church was rebuilt by Abbot Maurus between 1704 and 1719 and the baroque ornamentation was completed in 1734. In 1798, the abbey was occupied by French revolution soldiers, losing its status as an independent principality. The clergy could return to the monastery in 1801. On February 19, 1803, the abbey was officially reinstalled by the Act of Mediation. However, the Chapel of Grace was only rebuilt in 1815-1817 with the remaining parts of the old structure in the neoclassical style."
"Because of the political uncertainties inside and outside the country in the 1840s, the Einsiedeln leadership became afraid that the abbey would be suppressed or dissolved. They sent a group of monks to southern Indiana in the United States to minister to German immigrants and develop a possible place of refuge. The monks started a new foundation, now Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana."
There are a total of five monasteries in the USA that are linked to Einsiedeln by history:
Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana
Subiaco Abbey in Logan County, Arkansas
St. Joseph Abbey in Saint Benedict, Louisiana
Marmion Abbey in Aurora, Illinois
Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside, California
A highlight in the history of the monastery was the visit of Pope John Paul II in the summer of 1984, who solemnly consecrated the new high altar in the lower choir on June 15.
"In contrast to for example Lourdes, the pilgrimage in Einsiedeln does not go back to a Marian apparition, but to a monastic tradition.
The oldest surviving reference to the Einsiedeln pilgrimage dates back to the early 14th century. However, the pilgrimage itself is likely to be older. It was encouraged by the legend of the consecration of the angels, according to which the Einsiedeln Chapel of Grace was consecrated by Christ himself in 948. Originally, the Einsiedeln pilgrimage was therefore a pilgrimage to the church consecrated by Christ, which only gradually became a Marian pilgrimage with the rise of Marian devotion in the High Middle Ages. The miraculous consecration is commemorated every year on the Feast of the Consecration of the Angels on September 14th."
"The Middle Ages were the great age of pilgrimages. In addition to pilgrimages to Einsiedeln, many were also passing through on their way to Rome or Santiago de Compostela.
After the Reformation and especially in the Baroque period, Einsiedeln became more and more of a Marian pilgrimage site. After the great ecclesiastical crisis caused by the Reformation, the monastic community consolidated again and played a significant role in shaping Einsiedeln's pilgrimage culture."
"Nowadays, the monastery is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year. The majority come from Switzerland and the surrounding countries, but pilgrims from Eastern and Central European countries are also well represented. In addition to the traditional religious pilgrims, there are also more and more visitors who come to the monastery and village for cultural reasons."
"The Einsiedeln monastic community currently consists of 40 monks (as of October 2023).The average age (as well as the median) is comparatively low at just under 60 years due to the continuous arrival of new members in recent years."
"Einsiedeln is still a territorial abbey, meaning that it is located in a territory that is not part of any diocese which the abbot governs "as its proper pastor" (Canon 370, Codex Juris Canonici) with the same authority as a diocesan bishop."
"The head of the community has been Abbot Urban Federer since December 2013. As Abbot of Einsiedeln, he is a full member of the Swiss Bishops' Conference.
Located in separate cantons, Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Convent, a community of Benedictine nuns, form a double monastery, both under the authority of the male Abbot of Einsiedeln."
"The monastery's library is rich in old books: it contains around 230,000 printed books, 1230 manuscripts and 1040 volumes of incunabula and early printed books. Between 500 and 800 books are added every year."
The library was founded in 934 and the monastery already had its own writing school in the mid-10th century; 64 manuscripts from this period are still preserved today. The scriptorium, established in 2022, is a reminder of this, where visitors can learn about the production of books in the Middle Ages and write with ink and quill themselves. The monastery was given its own printing press in 1664, where over a thousand titles were published by 1798. The library was last restored in 1998."
"Einsiedeln Abbey School is a private and federally recognized Matura school in Einsiedeln with a history stretching back over 1,000 years. It is organized by the Benedictine monastery of Einsiedeln. Around 400 students attend the school, which is taught by around 50 teachers. Among them are also five priests.
The mission statement of the Abbey School is shaped by the Benedictine tradition. According to the current abbot of Einsiedeln Abbey, this is reflected in "the most holistic humanistic education possible, which essentially includes the artistic dimension". The abbey school is thus intended to offer an alternative to the existing range of schools."
"After a fire in 1465 this gothic standing mother and child replaced a 9th-10th century Romanesque Seat of Wisdom Madonna lost in the flames. Baby Jesus holds a bird in his left hand. According to the local monks this eludes to an apocryphal story in which Jesus as a young child resurrected a dead bird."
"In Jungian psychology the Dark Mother is an archetype that is meant to help us, in a healthy way, to integrate into our psyche all that we fear. The famous Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, whose shrine is close to where C.G. Jung taught, seems to confirm that."
"Around the year 825 a German monk called Meinrad (about 799-861) became the abbot of a monastery near Zürich. But soon the holy man was drawn to live the life of a hermit. So he moved into the 'finster Wald', i.e. the deep, ominously dark, forest, the quintessential scary place of German language tales. The only thing he took with him on this journey into everything scary was a dark statue of Mother Mary. - To this day the Madonna of Einsiedeln is referred to as Our Lady of the (Ominously) Dark Forest, as if to remind us that when we set out to face our deepest fears, it is good to be accompanied by a dark mother."
"After Meinrad had spent thirty three years in the wilderness, two robbers came upon his hermitage. The saint knew their evil intentions, yet he welcomed them with open arms, gave them food and clothes. He only had one request: “When you have killed me, please light one candle at my feet and one at my head.” They proceeded to club him to death, but as soon as they had placed the candles according to Meinrad’s wish they lit up by themselves. Then the two murderers realized that they had just killed a great saint and fled in horror. Now Meinrad had two pet black crows as his companions, who had witnessed the deed and were known to the people in the area. They flew around the evildoers, making a racket, until the men were apprehended and "brought to justice", i.e. hanged."
"Maybe because of this violent end, nobody wanted to have anything to do with Meinrad's hermitage for at least 40 years. It was maintained only by the will of God until other monks were finally drawn there. By 934 enough hermits lived around Meinrad's old cell with the Black Madonna that it was decided to build a full fledged monastery."
"In 948 St. Konrad, bishop of Konstanz, arrived in Einsiedeln to consecrate the chapel that housed the old hermit's cell. The night before this solemn celebration was to take place, he had a vision of Jesus and the angels adoring the Queen of Heaven and consecrating the chapel. When the time came for the usual Sanctus prayer that contains the words: "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might … blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord …" they sang instead: "Holy, holy, holy God before the face of the glorious Virgin … blessed is the son of Mary who comes in the name of the Lord…" The next day Konrad was still going to perform the usual consecration, but a voice stopped him, calling, "Cease, cease, brother, the chapel has been divinely consecrated."
To this day the Sanctus is sung in Einsiedeln the way Heaven taught it. Making such a change at the heart of the mass, required bringing the matter before the Pope. In 964 a Papal bull confirmed Konrad's vision as true and allowed the changes for Einsiedeln. The story of its "angelic consecration" and the many miracles that followed it, earned Einsiedeln international fame.
The statue was badly damaged during the time of the French Revolutionary occupation. After a year in a damp exile, the Black Madonna could return and was restored to her original whiteness in 1799. This caused such an uproar in the population that the restorer had to darken her again. He attempted a compromise of dark skin but with some color in the eyes, on the cheeks and lips, but the people weren't happy until he painted the whole face pitch black."
"The figure of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, revered as “Our Lady of the Hermits,” is housed above the Abbey’s Lady Chapel. The Black Madonna (see illustration) is one of several hundred statues of its type throughout Europe. The history of the Einsiedeln figure is somewhat convoluted: it is thought to have been carved about 1450, replacing a much older, seated Madonna. In 1798, the statue was secreted through Switzerland and Austria to protect it from the invading French army. It was uncovered the following year and given to the restorer Johann Adam Fuetscher, who describes having “repainted” the black face. It is assumed the original statue did have light, pink-colored skin, but the figure is thought to have turned black long before its restoration. While many sources further the idea that the statue was darkened from years of exposure to the flames and smoke from nearby candles, the image of the Black Madonna is nonetheless a distinct object of worship and pilgrimage."
"The story of Our Lady of the Hermitage in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, begins in the days of Blessed Meinrad (d. 861). In 853, while living in seclusion near a small lake, the holy man had a small chapel built near his cell and therein placed a statue of the Blessed Virgin with the Infant resting on her arm. This statue had been given to him by the Abbess Hildegard, Superior of a convent in Zurich.
In 948, after a church had been built on the site of Meinrad's little cell and chapel, just before the ecclesial dedication ceremony for the building, Our Lord miraculously appeared and was seen to perform the Mass of Consecration. When Bishop Conrad of Constance arrived for the service an unknown voice was heard to say: "Stop, brother, the church has been consecrated by God." Charles Broschart notes a resemblance between these miraculous events and those surrounding the church of Our Lady of Puy, France in the fifth century."
Other buildings and structures on the grounds of the abbey.
Yard for the horses
"The story now becomes more interesting, as related in some of the ancient documents found here. When the church was due to be consecrated on September 14, 948 two Bishops kneeling before the altar suddenly saw Christ standing at the altar with angels and saints beside him! Then, when one of the Bishops tried to consecrate the church, one of the angels held him back announcing that Christ had consecrated the church the night before. September 14 is now the feast of Our Lady of Einsiedeln and a great day of celebration in the village.
As if these events were not miraculous enough, note that the church and monastery have been damaged by fire several times over the course of centuries, but the statue has been unharmed. In fact: in each of the five fires which reduced the church to ashes, only the holy chapel containing the miraculous image escaped injury.
In addition to these miraculous origins:
Throughout the centuries, miracles of every nature have been performed through the intercession of Our Lady of Einsiedeln; but the shrine claims as the most striking those graces which have invigorated faith and devotion. It is no miracle then, that Einsiedeln is today, and has been for centuries, the home of one of the most famous Catholic shrines of the Blessed Virgin. However, in contrast to the shrine of Our Lady at Czestochowa, its popularity is limited mainly to Switzerland, Germany and Austria."
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