The Nursing Madonna of Beurig

This amazing Madonna in its Catholic pilgrim church was unknown to me until 2002 when Ewald Meyer brought me from his home in Irsch to Beurig to visit it. That was a trip of about one mile. Herr Meyer had grown up in Beurig, which in former centuries, (sometimes only 88 people) would rightly have been considered a tiny village. As early as the 16th century, however, the church in this small vilage was as much a pilgrimage site as Lourdes, Fatima, and Santiago de Compostela. It was visited by numerous pilgrims from neighboring countries. All of my Rhineland ancestors must have known this pilgrimage site, visited it, most likely as part of a village pilgrimage, and been awed by it (The hardship of their pilgrimage was not impressive as most lived within 10 miles of it). Ewald Meyer, as a resident of Beurig, regarded the pilgrim church and the Madonna that it was built to protect as a source of pride for the village of his birth. A few years ago he wrote an extensive chapter about it in the book, Beuriger Lese- und Bilderbuch.

On the day we visited, Herr Meyer described, in German, the interior of the church and the location and size of the former Franciscan abbey. That order of priests and monks had been put in charge of the pilgrimage church in the 17th century. My German was not good enough to understand a lot of the detail in his explanation. But I did understand and laugh when he called my attention to a corner across from the entrance to the church. It was, he said, the former location of a bakery, because the pilgrims had been fasting and were very hungry when their pilgrimage was over. Those bakers understood how to select a good market place for their breads.

I really didn't appreciate the significance of the Beurig Madonna during that first visit. She was dwarfed by the fine late Gothic-style church built for her. I knew she was venerated and that some people were said to have experienced miracles through her intercession after they completed a pilgrimage to this site. I didn't look closely at the statue, carved by an unknown artist, on that first visit, and I completely missed something rarely seen on any statue of the Virgin Mary - her uncovered breast, about to give nourishment to her child, Christ, as he looked up into her face.  The statue is small in proportion to the tall altar piece in which she rests.

The Nursing Madonna

According to legend, the statue of the nursing Madonna - in Latin called "Madonna lactans" - was discovered by a miller’s apprentice. He found the wooden figure in the branches of an oak tree, which was being propelled downstream during a flood of the Saar River. This is said to have happened in the year 1304, which is also regarded as the first year of pilgrimage. The moment the villagers heard the story, they flocked to visit this miraculous Gnadenbild (image of the Virgin and Child).

A printed brochure once distributed to visitors to the pilgrimage site explained the story with a variation as follows: A miller's lad was making his way home through the Kammerforst (a woodland at the border of Beurig) when the evening church bells rang out. The bell known as "the angel of the Lord" rang out and was answered by a heavenly voice that led the boy to the statue, which was in the branches of an oak tree.

The representation of the nursing Virgin seems to refer to the Gospel of Luke (11:27) "Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked." However, this representation was not considered proper with the Catholic Church authorities of the times. Very early on it was "veiled" so that only the head of the baby could be seen. The rest of the child's body and the entire body of the Virgin Mother were covered in a very ornate dress of silk. From 1512 until 1955, the Madonna of Beurig looked very similar to other religious statues of the Madonna.

The restoration of the original icon was done in 1955 under Pastor Weber.  It was the first time in almost 500 years that a Beuriger congregation would see the original grace and expressiveness of the Virgin Mother's image in "unclouded beauty," with her right arm holding the infant as safely as if he sat on a throne. The intimate relationship between mother and child is evident and touching as I discovered in my second visit to the Madonna side chapel.

Mary's crown was not a part of the figure until the early 20th Century.  Retired Mayor Nicholas Ritzler wrote in 1912 in his History of the Castle and Town Saarburg: "A proof of the high veneration for the Beuriger Madonna gave rise to the solemn coronation a few years ago..." His description is probably based on the Jubilee pilgrimage of 1907.

The Pilgrims

Pilgrims came immediately after they heard the news of the discovery of the miraculous image. The first pilgrimage chapel was a small building of clay and wood. In 1330 a Marian society was established, which continued in existence until 1803. In 1479 the wooden chapel was replaced by a small stone church, but this too soon proved too small for the crowds. An impressive pilgrimage church was built between 1512-16.

At the start of the 17th century, pilgrimages to Beurig continued to increase. The parish priest was overwhelmed by looking after all the pilgrims. To provide him with support, in 1609 the Franciscans of the Cologne Order took over pastoral care of the pilgrimage/pilgrims and between 1615-28 they built an abbey with a place for the pilgrims to be housed during a short stay. The Franciscans remained in Beurig until 1803. This was a time when Napoleon ruled; he had pushed the border of France all the way to the left bank of the Rhine. This abbey as well as most others within France were abolished as part of Napoleon's secularization of all Catholic Church properties. After the departure of the Franciscans, the pilgrimages ceased, the abbey assets were auctioned off by the French, and the church was gifted by Napoleon to the village in Beurig as their parish church. Around the middle of the 19th century the concept of Beurig as both a parish and a pilgrim church was re-established; and pilgrimages came to life again.

Postcard showing the Madonna chapel and the veiled Madonna

A Very Special Tour and Tour Guide

My vacation apartment's door (Erdenbach Strasse, Saarburg) is to the left of the garage door.










As I told you in September, I was planning to do some novel writing.  In the interests of home safety, I did not mention that I had reserved a vacation apartment in the city of Saarburg Germany as a wonderful way to inspire chapters for my novel.  A wise woman once told me that to improve my inspiration, I should go to my home villages, sit on the ground, and listen while they talked to me.  I'm a bit too old and my back is too touchy to do that literally, but I found that once I was in Saarburg, ideas for chapters came into my mind very easily - unlike the puzzlement I was experiencing at home.

What I hadn't reckoned with was the number of friends and acquaintances I have made in my past trips to Kreis Saarburg.  There was German hospitality being offered to me from the moment I arrived until the day before I left for home.   I had pictured myself busily writing most of my days in the city.  Instead, I was often having coffee and Kuchen.

On a sunny Sunday, I had a very special tour with a very special tour guide, Ewald Meyer, author of a published history of Irsch and Beurig.  He has been helping me ever since the first day I met him in 2002.  He was also the person who urged me to come back to Germany, offering to again help me with any local research trips I might want to make.

Ewald Meyer, Tour Guide

The tour began in the Beurig's cemetery.  Those who are not family historians will think that a strange place to begin a tour - I did not.  Beurig, about a mile from Irsch, is Ewald's birthplace.  In the Catholic cemetery I saw for myself the impressive monument to Herr Bürgermeister Bodem which I had written about in Sept. 2009, "Herr Burgermeister Bodem and his angel."  The monument was even bigger than it looked in the picture.  

We also visited smaller monuments to deceased officials of the Prussian Government, such as the district foresters and game wardens.  

A forester's grave monument

Unlike ordinary citizens who had (and still have) only a limited number of years to own their cemetery plots, these 19th century Prussian officials still keep their grave sites and monuments in the cemetery today, even if the family line has ceased to exist.    

As we drove through the village of Beurig which is now considered a part of Saarburg, Ewald pointed out Herr Bürgermeister Bodem's very impressive, somewhat Victorian-looking house.  Evidently finding favor with the Prussian government could be monetarily as well as socially and politically important.  Burdensome taxes were levied on the farmers and dayworkers, but even officials and the well-to-do didn't escape taxation.  Houses, including those of Herr Bürgermeister Bodem and his wealthy neighbors were taxed on the number of their chimneys.  Clearly, these houses were designed to show the status of their owners; men wealthy enough to have more than one fireplace.  The office of the Mayor was near the railroad station on the site of today's employment office.  The mayor's office was moved there from its earlier location in the village of Irsch in 1833, shortly after Herr Bodem was appointed Bürgermeister in 1832.

As I described in my July post, (From Bishop's Crosier to Napoleonic Flag), before the time of Napoleonic and then Prussian rule, the farmers, craftsmen, and day workers of Irsch, Beurig and the surrounding villages were governed by the Prince/Archbishop Electors of Trier and then Koblenz.  I had known that the peasant classes paid their "taxes" in the form of produce and farm animals, but not the specifics.  Herr Meyer explained that after the harvest, usually around St. Martin's Day in November, about 10 per cent of a farmer's crops and animals were sent to their Archbishop.  Wagon loads of "taxes" from the villages of the area were sent to the church estate at the edge of the Saar where today's Hotel Keller stands.  There they were housed until they could be sent, by barge, to Trier or Koblenz--depending on the location of the Archbishop Elector of the time.  

Today's Hotel Keller in Beurig on the Saar

In a year when the harvest was very bad, the peasant farmer paid his dues in the form of Frondienst; that is, as enforced service to a Fronherr or lord in lieu of produce.  Probably in this region, the "lord" was a high official of the church or the manager designated by the abbot of a monastery.  

From Beurig, our tour went on to the Catholic Church in Irsch.  The newly refurbished church retains an altar from the 19th century to one side, but the main altar is modern. Several statues from my ancestors' time also remain in various locations in the church.  

Historic Side Altar

Choir view of newly remodeled church

Back on our tour, Herr Meyer pointed out a raised plateau just outside the city limits call the Feuerstatt.  That innocent-looking field was the place where four people accused of witchcraft and found guilty by the Catholic church inquisition, were burned in the 1630s.  One of the women was a midwife.  She would also have used herbs and potions to try to heal disease, making her a prime target for stories of sorcery and probably blamed for the illness or death of a fellow villager.  None of those burned were from Irsch; three were from the small wine village of Filzen and midwife Barbelen came from Kommlingen.  

We peered at the buildings in the oldest part of the village, known as An der Wey, with narrow streets that resemble alleyways.  Here and there, parts of out-buildings made of lime, stones, dab and wattle, have stood the ravages of time and are now combined as part of later reconstructions.  It is a blending of old and new that testifies to the age of the village, which shows up in records as early as 957. 

We also drove through the district of Irsch which at one time was a separate section known as Biest.  It was larger than Irsch until the fire of 1842 in which the area was almost totally destroyed and was rebuilt as a part of Irsch.  

As with all tours, an end comes.  But I was luckier than most tourists.  I was to have "a coffee" with my tour guide.  I was invited to the Meyer home where Helena Meyer waited to welcome me.  

Coffee and Kuchen with the Meyers

Above is a fruit torte (grapes, mandarine oranges, and raspberries), baked and served by Helena Meyer after our afternoon tour of Beurig and Irsch.  It was as good as it looks.  

If I could, I would appoint Herr Ewald Meyer as the official historian and tour guide for the villages of Irsch and Beurig and Frau Helena Meyer as a five-star baker of Kreis Saarburg.  

Source
Conversation with Ewald Meyer and information from his books, Irsch/Saar: Geschichte eines Dorfes, and Beuriger Lese - und Bilderbuch, co-authored by Bernd Gehlen

Prussian Officials - Small town

As I told you, in the next few weeks I will give you snippets of information that come my way as I do my "authoring."

I found this very interesting.  Prussian city and village officials of the mid 1800s wore uniforms, especially for significant events.  Therefore, the Mayor Herr Bodem of Beurig/Irsch would have appeared at official functions in a blue uniform, short jacket with epauletttes and a tricorne hat I associate with the French Napoleonic times.  The two hats were similar - except that the Prussian eagle, which irreverent men of Kreis Saarburg called the "Cuckoo," was the symbol that often decorated the Prussian tricorne.

Picture taken at Trier's Simeonstift Museum

The Memorials of our Ancestors - a Correction and a Family History

The Tressel Cross Monument

http://www.irsch-saar.de/denkmaeler_schulkreuz.htm

A few weeks before Christmas, I received an e-mail from Ewald Meyer of Irsch, the author of Irsch/Saar; Geschichte eines Dorfes. He had read my November blog post in which I had written about a monument in Irsch which he had described in his history. Now he kindly made me aware of some new information about the motivation for the construction of the Tressel Cross or Tresselkreuz that had come to him. And I will share that information with you, hoping that some searcher will find a genealogical treasure by reading this post, not just a correction of a misinterpretation of a Latin inscription at the base of the monument.

The Correction to my post, "The Memorials of our Ancestors."

Prior histories had guessed that the Tressel Cross monument had been erected by the school teacher of Irsch, Christopher Tressel and his wife because they were, to their sorrow, childless. For that reason, it was believed that they dedicated the cross to the Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows and the patient suffering of her Son, Jesus.

So in my last post, I wrote:

A Married Couple's Disappointment

"...This monument was erected by the school teacher, Christoph Tressel and his wife, Maria Elizabeth. Legend has it that the couple was childless and that this was a great sorrow to them. Herr Tressel was the teacher, sexton, and founder of the church choir in Irsch. He was also the teacher in Beurig and Ockfen. Thus the monument came to be called the Schulkreuz or "School Cross." It also served as a place where people, in times of trouble, often came to pray to the sorrowful Christ and to the virgin mother of the seven sorrows."

Herr Ewald Meyer had used many historical sources to write his history of Irsch. One was a narrative written by the pastor of the Catholic Church in Irsch in 1979, "Beitrag zur Heimatkunde." It described the Tressel Cross and sought to explain why it was built. Pastor Markus Laser pondered the inscription on the base of the Cross (noting that sometimes it became almost illegible) "Crux erecta Jesui Patienti a Christophero Tressel et Maria Elisabetha (conjugibus) solis in Irsch = Stat oblatas septem doloribus onera (munera) de Mariae (Virginis) voto. 1781. The word "solis" led the priest to conclude that the childless Tressels built the monument as a testament to living patiently with suffering or disappointment.

As so many of us who try to reconstruct a history - whether of a village or a family - know, the most likely explanation does not always turn out to be the right one. After the Irsch history was published, new information about the Tressel family tree emerged. Herr Meyer says it was very accurately researched. There were many descendants of Christoph Tressel, school teacher of Irsch and his wife Anna Maria. The supposed "childless couple" was not childless.

Christoph Tressel, who would become the schoolmaster in Irsch, was the sixth and youngest child of Melchior Tressel (Melchior Tressel was christened 1696 in St. Gervase in Trier and died in Trier in 05.06.1766.) and Anna Katharina Reiter. The family lived on the Neugasse or "new alley" in Trier.

Christoph was born on October 13, 1731 and was baptized on the same day in St. Gervaise Church in Trier. He studied at the former University of Trier in 1750 and passed his examination as a "bachelor of liberal arts". On May 5, 1757 he married a childless widow, Anna Maria Blasius, born Berling, in Pellingen. Her father was John Berling, a teacher and farmer in Pellingen.

The marriage of Christoph and Anna Maria Tressel was very fruitful according to the parish records of Irsch and Beurich. They had five children and Herr Tressel became the school teacher in Irsch where he and his family lived for approximately 50 years.

The Descendants of Christoph Tressel and his wife, Anna Maria (note the male in each generation printed in bold type)

The children of Christoph Tressel and his wife, Anna Maria

*08/05/1756 in Pellingen, +11/10/1810 in Irsch, oo before 1790 to Margarethe Wagner, 1758 in Irsch, +March 21, 1818 in Irsch

2. Tressel, Matthias, farmer, Synod member, surveyor, * 22/08/1759 in Pellingen, + 05/02/1826 in Beurig, oo about 1791 in Beurig to Anna Elisabeth Reinert, * 1760 in Beurig, + 05/02/1836 in Pellingen

3. Tressel, Nikolaus, * 23/06/1761 in Pellingen, + 22.12.1838 in Irsch, oo I. 1782 to Magdalena Dawen,oo II. Margaretha Peters

4. Tressel, Bernhard, * 08.02.1763 in Pellingen, + as a little child

5. Tressel, Anton,* 1765 in Pellingen, + 21.09.1835, (he built the house that served as a school in Irsch, p. 145 of the Irsch History by Ewald Meyer), oo ca. 1817 Maria Britten.

The Children of Matthias Tressel und Anna Elisaberth Reinert:

1. Tressel, Michael, Farmer, Wine maker, Tailor, Teacher in Baldringen, *1793 in Beurig, + 09.04.1851 in Beurig

oo 17.02.1819 Anna Oberkirch from Beurig

2. Tressel, Johanna, * 1795/96, + in Beurig, oo 1817 Franz Schu

3. Tressel, Johann, *17.06.1797 in Beurig, immigrated with three of his sons to Illinois, USA, + 30.09.1871 in Galena, Illinois St. Mary Church, oo 08.06.1822 Anna Maria Morgen

4. Tressel, Anton, * in Beurig, + in Zewen, married at Brotdorf

The children of Michael Tressel und Anna Oberkirch (Nr.1):

1. Tressel, Susanna, * 1819 in Beurig, + 1889 in Irsch

2. Tressel, Michael, * 1823 in Beurig, farmer and linen weaver, + 1893 in Beurig

3. Tressel, Nikolaus, * 25.08.1825 in Beurig, farmer and winemaker, + 17,03.1891 in Beurig

4. Tressel, Johann, * 18.10.1827 in Beurig, spindle weaver, farmer, winemaker, + 24.07.1881 in Beurig,

oo 24.02.1862 in Beurig Margaretha Wallrich

5. Tressel, Peter, * 1830 in Beurig, + in the Ruhr in1857

6. Tressel, Anni, * 1833 in Beurig, + in the Ruhr in 1857

7. Tressel, Johann Peter, * 1836 in Beurig, Ackerer, wine maker, linen weaver,+ 1909 in Beurig, oo 1873 Katharina Baumann from Beurig (*1846, +1921)

Die Kinder von Johann Peter Tressel und Katharina Baumann ( Nr. 7):

1. Maria Margaretha, * 1873, + 1965, 1908 to 1916 housekeeper in the parish house in Haag for her brother, Matthias, oo 1918 Peter Palm of Irsch, Adopted child Katharina

2. Johann Josef, *1875, + 1877

3. Matthias Josef, *1878 + 1945, Since 1909 the priest and poet used the name, Ernst Thrasolt.

4. Maria Gertrud (1880 – 1966) stayed in her parents' home

5. Nikolaus Josef (1882 – 1915) was the farmer in his parents' home, killed in Russia in WWI.

6. Maria Susanna (1884 from1975) was a teacher, married 1919 to Josef Feiten (1888 – 1957), who later became the governmental school inspector.

7. Johannes (1889 – 1915), Doctorate in philosophy earned on June 5,1915. On September 27, 1915 he was killed in France during WWI.

Legends often have a grain of truth in them. Perhaps the word "solis" did not refer to sorrow of a second marriage of the the childless widow Anna Maria who married Christoph Tressel but rather to her first marriage. Ewald Meyer ventured a guess that the Tresselkruez was merely an indication of the prestige of the village school teacher, who was able to associate with the highest classes of the village and of the Kreis. The reason the Tressel Cross was erected can only be guessed at, but there is indisputable evidence that the monument had nothing to do with sorrow over childlessness.

There is no doubt, however, that the schoolmaster and founder of the church choir of Irsch was the great great grandfather of the priest/poet Ernst Thrasolt, whose writings in the old Irsch dialect had been translated by Ewald Meyer, who, at the time, did not know of Thrasolt's connection to the beloved Irsch schoolmaster and choir founder of the 18th century.

Herr Burgermeister Bodem and his Angel

Monuments of Chopin, Pere Lachaise Cemetery Paris

Bodem family monument, Beurig church cemetery

When my sister and I were in Paris a few years ago, we went to visit the city's most famous cemetery, the Cimitiere de Pere Lachaise. I was amazed at the size of the monuments of the prominent Parisians (and a few outsiders of great fame such as Chopin) buried there.

When I received the e-mailed photo above from Ewald Meyer who lives in Irsch but who was born in the neighboring village of Beurig, I wondered if he and his wife had made a trip to Paris recently. It had never occurred to me that a monument of such enormous size might reside in the cemetery at Beurig, which at about the time the tombstone was constructed, had a population of less than 1,000.

Then, when I read his explanation, I knew I had another case of class distinctions, similar to the sumptuary laws affecting clothing which I described in a recent post.

This is a summary of what Ewald Meyer wrote, knowing that what he told me would be of great interest both to me and probably to the people who periodically read this blog:

I am sending you a photo from the cemetery in Beurig. Here stands the monument of the Bodem family. Nikolaus Bodem was Bürgermeister when Johann Meyer (my 2nd great grandfather) emigrated to USA in 1861. Irsch was only a village in the Kingdom of Prussia. But any civil servant was a very big man within the Monarchy. John Meyer (a farmer) was only an (unimportant) subject of the Prussian king.

While the grave of ordinary citizens would be assigned to someone else after 25 years of non-usage, the graves of the prestigious remained untouched, even when no more relatives of the family lived in the city or village. The bombastic grave monument (of the Bodem family) is a testimonial to past times.

Because Nikolaus Bodem, as mayor, was a senior Prussian official with a superior position, his entire family was considered to be "upper class. The family tomb (not surprisingly) is the largest of the Beurig village cemetery. Even the wife of the Herr Bürgermeister Bodem is dubbed the "Frau Bürgermeister" in the engraving on the far left of the tombstone (where she is buried).

The mayorality of Irsch-Beurig was then a relatively small administrative area. It included the towns of Irsch, Beurig, Ockfen, Schoden and Serrig with a total of about 3,000 inhabitants. The administrative office was in Irsch, the largest village, which in 1810 had 982 inhabitants. But on November 1, 1833, the Prussian government moved the mayor's office to Beurig, a village of about 500.

Nicholas Bodem was born in 1803 in Irsch and died in 1885 in Beurig (where he had moved when Beurig became the mayor's administrative office). By the time he died, Beurig was the largest city of the mayorality, surpassing Irsch. It had become a railway stop for the area (including Saarburg, the district office for the Kreis) in 1860.

The cemetery in Beurig is now owned by the city Saarburg, because the two communities were incorporated in 1935 into the county seat Beurig-Saarburg. Now graves have defined periods of use. After no more than 30 years (from the date of the burial), a grave will be leveled and prepared as a new resting place.

The Bodem tomb which still stands in the cemetery is in a special section. These are the burial plots that are from the Prussian period of the 19th Century. They were the resting places of the wealthy families of the time, and regarded as self-acquired property. These are tombs for officials who were in royal service (eg, mayors and foresters) or for estate owners. Some of these family graves are still used by descendants. In other cases, there are no longer descendants. These graves are neglected as is the burial place of Herr Bürgermeister Bodem. Frau Trimborn (whose name can be seen at the far right of the photo) was the last descendant of the Bodem family.

It seems that the Herr Bodem, who was the mayor for 48 years, from 1831 to 1879, has a monument as tall as his term was long. Unfortunately, his family line's time in Beurig was much shorter.