The origin of the Beuron Congregation begins with the Archabbey of St. Martin, Beuron, founded in 1863, the first declarations of which in 1866 already had in view an expansion to a congregation. After a further foundation, that of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium, the first constitutions of the Beuronese Congregation were ratified in Rome in 1873.[1]
Gerleve Abbey
Further foundations outside Germany followed during the period of "cultural struggle" (Kulturkampf), when the community was driven out of Beuron. Most relocated to an old Servite monastery in Volders in the Austrian Tyrol.[2] In 1876, some of the monks were given refuge in Erdington Abbey, Birmingham, England until after the First World War. After their return it was possible to found more monasteries inside Germany: Maria Laach Abbey (1893); Gerleve Abbey (1904); Neresheim Abbey (1920); Weingarten Abbey (1922); Neuburg Abbey (1926); and others. The last foundations were Tholey Abbey, resettled in 1949, and Nütschau Priory, a new foundation established by Gerleve Abbey in 1951.[3][4]
During World War II, a number of refugee monks of the Beuronese Congregation, established a temporary priory in Keyport, New Jersey with the help of St. Mary's Abbey in Morristown.[6] It was closed in 1948.
Organization
Neresheim Abbey
Initially, the congregation was under the management of the Abbot of Beuron, who acted as its Archabbot. The General Chapter, which took place at lengthy intervals and was attended by the congregation's officiating abbots, served the purpose of promoting general agreement among the communities and the regulation of outstanding questions. It was a strongly centralised system: all houses of the congregation were obliged to follow the customs, daily routine, service times and forms prescribed by Beuron.
In 1936 the Archabbot system was replaced by that of the Presiding Abbot; the General Chapter, which as a rule assembles every six years, elects one of the officiating abbots of the congregation as Presiding Abbot until the time of the next chapter meeting. This makes the congregation more federalistic, and individual monasteries and nunneries are better able to develop an individual profile.
In 1984, in accordance with the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1983, the revised statutes of the congregation and the declarations for monasteries and nunneries were approved. The statutes identify as tasks of the congregation the furtherance of the observation of the rule in the member houses, mutual help and joint solutions to tasks and problems, as well as exchanges between monasteries and nunneries. The General Chapter, consisting of the heads of each religious house, as well as elected representatives, is to meet every six years. Since 2003 the representatives of women's communities have had full voting rights.
The foundations outside Germany and Austria later separated from the Beuronese Congregation, often for political reasons. In 1920, Maredsous Abbey became a founding member of the Congregation of the Annunciation. Maredret Abbey is also affiliated with the Congregation of the Annunciation. After the monks returned from Erdington Abbey, they founded in 1922 St. Martin's Abbey, in Weingarten.[5] The Birmingham parish was turned over to the Redemptorists; the former abbey is now Highclare School. After repeated wartime internments of the monks, in 1951, Dormition Abbey was separated from the Beuron Congregation and placed under the direct supervision of the Abbot-Primate of the Benedictines in Rome. In 2007 the nuns of St. Gabriel's Priory left the Beuronese Congregation and joined the Federation of Sisters of St. Lioba.[7]
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