Monastery of Einsiedeln

Einsiedeln Abbey

Kloster Einsiedeln
Location within Canton of Schwyz Show map of Canton of Schwyz Location within Canton of Schwyz Show map of Switzerland
Monastery information
Order	Order of Saint Benedict
Established	934
Dedicated to	Our Lady of the Hermits
Diocese	Einsiedeln territorial abbey
People
Founder(s)	Eberhard of Strasbourg
Abbot	Urban Federer OSB
Prior	Cyrill Bürgi OSB
Important associated figures	Saint Meinrad
Architecture
Style	Baroque (1704/1721)
Site
Location	Einsiedeln, Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland
Coordinates	Coordinates: 47°07′36″N 08°45′5.3″E / 47.12667°N 8.751472°E / 47.12667; 8.751472
Public access	allowed
Other information	place of pilgrimage, theological school, gymnasium (Swiss Matura, 350 students), work shops, plant nursery, viniculture, stud
Website	http://www.kloster-einsiedeln.ch/?id=2

Einsiedeln Abbey (German: Kloster Einsiedeln) is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Einsiedeln in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, the title being derived from the circumstances of its foundation, for the first inhabitant of the region was Saint Meinrad, a hermit. It is a territorial abbey and, therefore, not part of a diocese, subject to a bishop. It has been a major resting point on the Way of St. James for centuries.

Meinrad was educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island, in Lake Constance, under his kinsmen, Abbots Hatto and Erlebald, where he became a monk and was ordained a priest. After some years at Reichenau, and at a dependent priory on Lake Zurich, he embraced an eremitical life and established his hermitage on the slopes of the mountain of Etzel. He died on January 21, 861, at the hands of two robbers who thought that the hermit had some precious treasures, but during the next 80 years the place was never without one or more hermits emulating Meinrad's example. One of them, named Eberhard, previously Provost of Strassburg, erected in 934 a monastery and church there, of which he became first abbot.

The church was miraculously consecrated, so the legend runs, in 948, by Christ himself assisted by the Four Evangelists, St. Peter, and St. Gregory the Great. This event was investigated and confirmed by Pope Leo VIII and subsequently ratified by many of his successors, the last ratification being by Pope Pius VI in 1793, who confirmed the acts of all his predecessors.