Growing Mariawald Trappist Monastery Gets New Altar

A new altar in the Trappist abbeys Mariawald

Webseite der Abtei Mariawald mit dem
 Bild des neuen Altares
© Screenshot

Dealing with the Past: The altar is the successor to a block of stone that was an eloquent testimony to the failure of the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council.

(Kreuz.net) Since the 6th of September there has been a new altar in the church of the Trappist Abbey of Mariawald. The Abbey is located in the vicinity of the 4400-population town of Heimbach - fifty kilometers southeast of Aachen.

A block of stone as a symbol of the pastoral council

The church was blown up in World War II. During a renovation in the years of 1963/64, a grinding table in the form of a rudely hewn stone block was installed.

In the neo-Gothic space of the church, it looked like chalk and cheese.

A gift from heaven has now been given to the Abbey, a neo-Gothic wooden altar with matching six chandeliers. It harmonizes perfectly with the church.

With its modest beauty it is appropriate in a special way to the celebration of the traditional rite.

Even then thought of as reform

The altar, according to the website of the monastery, is probably from a French-speaking region. Its exact age is unclear. It follows in the tradition of the Nazarene movement. This effort in the 19th Century was to reform the religious art.

The donor of the altar does not wish to be known.