TUTZING PRIORY
In 1887 the Reichenbach community transferred to Emming, Diocese of Augsburg. Later, the name St. Ottilien in honor of the shrine there was used. That same year, the sisters opened a daughter house on the Lake of Starnberg with the help of the three Ringseis sisters. In 1904, after the Sisters had received civil recognition by the Royal Government of Bavaria, they moved from St. Ottilien into a new motherhouse in Tutzing.
ADDRESS : Missions-Benediktinerinnen; Bahnhofstrasse 3; 82327 Tutzing / Germany
TEL : 0049-8158-92597.470
E-MAIL : information@missions-benediktinerinnen.de
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ABOUT
Tutzing – from this town at Lake Starnberg nearthe Alps our Congregation took its name. Here, after the early beginnings in Reichenbach and St. Ottilien, the Sisters started, and from here the Congregation spread out to the other continents.
Today more than 1300 Sisters call themselves Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing and find in Tutzing their “Mother House”.
Three houses belong today to Tutzing Priory: the Priory House in Tutzing, Bernried with its Seminar and Retreat House, and Dresden, the beautiful city, where the Catholics are a minority. In all these places the Sisters strive to reach out to the people and give witness of their faith and hope in a society where Christian faith is no longer common ground.
As the need for space in St. Ottilien grew, the sisters looked around for another location for a new motherhouse. The decision was made in 1902 for Tutzing, where the sisters had already had a small community with a kindergarten since 1887.
The priory went through its most difficult period from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was ruled by the National Socialists. During this time the work of the sisters was systematically hindered, and finally the motherhouse was expropriated in 1941. Most of the sisters had to leave the convent and were assigned to nursing service in Munich and St. Ottilien. The convent building was also converted into a military hospital.
Only in secret were sisters able to take their vows on the Kerschlach monastery estate during this time. Immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, the motherhouse was returned. At the request of the community, the wartime hospital was converted into a civilian hospital and was run by the sisters until 2007. Some of the sisters continue to work beneficially in the hospital as doctors, and in pastoral care.
When the inner-German border fell in 1989, the priory was soon asked if they could start anew in the eastern part of Germany, where only about 20% of the people were still Christians. In 1992 a small community began in Dresden. The sisters are a prayerful presence in the parish and work in various areas such as teaching, counseling, pastoral care. Parallel to this new beginning, works had to be abandoned and communities closed because of the increasing age of the sisters and the small number of young sisters.
