Liesborn Abbey

Liesborn Abbey (German: Kloster Liesborn) was a Benedictine monastery (originally for nuns or women's collegiate foundation) in Liesborn, in what was originally the Dreingau, now a part of Wadersloh in the district of Warendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The foundation of the monastery was traditionally ascribed to Charlemagne in 785. More probable however is a later date of 815, with two founders named Bozo and Bardo. At first Liesborn was a monastery of nuns or a women's collegiate foundation, but by the 12th century the community had grown so worldly that in 1131 Egbert, Bishop of Münster, expelled them, and replaced them by Benedictine monks.

The abbey was several times besieged by enemies. From the 13th century ascetic life steadily declined as the abbey increased in wealth, and the monastery, like very many other religious houses in Germany, became a secular college for the nobility. In 1298 the property of the abbey was divided unto separate prebends, twenty-two of them full prebends, and six for boys.

However, in 1465 the abbey joined the reformist Bursfelde Congregation, which succeeded in restoring spiritual discipline and a more properly monastic way of life. Thanks to this influence, Liesborn was in a very healthy condition by the time of the distinguished abbots Heinrich of Cleves (1464–90) and Johann Smalebecker (1490–1522), who restored the buildings and greatly improved the economic state of the abbey. The zeal of Liesborn influenced other Benedictine abbeys, and it succeeded in re-establishing discipline and spiritual observance in several nunneries.

Also at this time the humanist Bernhard Witte was a monk here (from 1490 to about 1534) and wrote a history of Westphalia and a chronicle of the abbey.

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