The History of
Augustinian canony in Šternberk 1371-1784
The Order of regular
canons of St. Augustin brought into Bohemia by a Prague bishop Jan IV. from
Dražice in the 30´s of the 14. century, penetrated in the second half of the
same century also into Moravia. The canony of the Annunciation of Virgin Mary
in Šternberk became the first Moravian foundation , established on the 4. of
March 1371 by the then holder of Šternberk dominion, Albert II. from
Šternberk,,
an archbishop in Magdeburg and counsellor of emperor Charles IV. The first
fourteen friars, arriving from their motherly cloister in Roudnice nad Labem,
led by their superior provost Wenceslas, at first settled on parsonage at the
older town church of St. George (the first mention about the parish comes from
1296). After the construction of the new convent in the 80´s of the 14. century
had been finished , the friars definitely moved into the new canony on the mild
hilltop at the northern outskirts. There had been a Gothic two-aisle church of
the Annunciation, to which on its southern part clung
a quadrature
and not very extensive convent buildings. In consequence of disagreement and
problems with the transport of friars into the new convent, the canony as a
matter of fact had been founded for the second time in 1384 by Peter from
Šternberk.There were 25 canon members. Canonry assumed into rights Šternberk
parish, a parish school and a hospital at the chapel of Purification of Virgin
Mary in the suburbs of Šternberk.
Except the canony in
Šternberk, the order thanks to Beneš from Kravaře had been installed to Fulnek
(1389), and with the contribution of Peter from Kravaře the last pre-hussite
foundation of the order had been done in Prostějov (1391). On the turn of the
14 and 15 century in Moravia, the Augustinian canonry represented a new
reformatively order concentrated on spiritual administration in towns. The
representatives of the order had been up against the then church vices and
tried to remedy the situation in pre-hussite church, as we can see in
literature - there are for example a postil by an unknown Šternberk augustinian
friar or The interpretation of psalms and kantiks written by a second
Šternberk provost Bedřich.
Hussite wars very heavily affected Šternberk
canony, and similarly many other Moravian cloisters. Friars returned into the
ruined cloister at the beginning of the 50´s of the 15 century and started with
its gradual renovation and corrections of monasterial estates. Successful
government of provost Nicholas Veleka was rewarded in 1489 with the right for
his successors to use pontifical emblems (mitre, crutch, pontifical glove etc
..) in terms of monasterial divine service. The development of the cloister,
which together with the canonies in Fulnek and Olomouc (here the canony came
into being at the end of 15. century) joined the Lateran congregation at the
beginning of the 16 century, stopped in 1538 with fire and a critical lack of
friars. The last mentioned problem caused crisis in majority of Czech and
Moravian cloisters in the post-hussite period. Also penetrating Protestantism
led monasterial life into deep crisis. Provost Šalomoun revolted to heresy and
ran away from an almost empty convent. His successor, postulated Bedřich
Boříkovský, lived a dissolute life and put the cloister in debt. A similar
situation was at the same time in remaining canonies in Fulnek and
Olomouc.
Not
until a newly postulated provost Jan Rozenplut from Švarcenbach managed to
bring the canony out of the worst decline, in spite of Lutheran atmosphere in
Šternberk. Rozenplut belonged to the elite of the then Moravian church and the
Czech catholic counter-reformation. His best-known preserved work was in 1601
published, first printed catholic hymn-book. At the time of denominational
contentions among Catholics, Protestants and Czech brethren at the beginning of
the 17. century, the hymn book represented an action of church in terms of
proceeding re-catholicization. A chronic lack of novices in augustinian
canonies made Olomouc bishop intervene into their situation.. He inducted new
provosts, who were close to him. War events (1619 - 1650) affected heavily the
total development of canony . Cloister suffered at Danish campaign and later at
the time of Swedish occupation. After Swedish troop had left in the year 1650
there was a slow renewal of devastated canony.
The last six successive
provosts had the biggest meaning from the viewpoint of building development of
the contemporary object of canony . Between the years 1718-1723 a bricklayer
master Karel Antonin Reiny constructed
the building of prelatura,, which
was a house of baroque prelates in 18. century. Ten years later a Viennese
theatre engineer and decorator Antonio Nicola Beduzzi designed and erected a
summer house, which was a precious decoration of a new and extensive convent
garden. Perhaps the most important for local canony had been prelate John
Joseph Glätzl, a mastered builder and good manager of monasterial estates.
First in years 1736-1740 he constructed according to the project of geometer
Matyáš Wagner a garden wing
of the new convent, where there was a stately summer refectory
for 25 canons, decorated by an Olomouc painter Jan Kryštof Handke. Handke
participated in decorating of the whole complex of convent buildings including
a provost´s residence and a summer house, together with a sculptor Filip
Sattler, from the beginning of the 3O´s of the 18 century. Sattler was
substituted by another Olomouc sculptor Jan Kammereit,
who decorated the interiors of rooms in the monastery and made a statue of
Christ the Saviour at the western wing. The convent building had been
reconstructed from 1745 to 1748, when the easter wing had been built up. As a
result of the enlargement of the monastery, the town wall had to be put down
partially. Provost Glätzl built and created also on monasterial estates. First,
at the end of the 40´s of the 18. century, he built a new branch church kept by
the augustinians in Štarnov, and constructed ( according to a project by Wagner
), a monasterial parish church in Výšovice, where he also
built up a new summer residence in the centre of farming court. The
reconstruction of monasterial complex in Šternberk had been completed with the
construction of a new convent church, initiated in 1775 by a Šternberk native,
provost Aurelius Jan Augustin,
according to proposal of harness architect
František Antonin Grimm and finished in 1783, only a year before the church was
abolished. In the church
there was above all a rococo interior painting, that was the
biggest and the last fresco work by a Prostejov painter František Antonin Sebastini. There is a
lateral chapel of Virgin Mary the Helper built together with the new church.
The chapel is a burial-place of the founders of the canony, Albert II. and
Peter from Šternberk, and due to the interpretation of Sebastini
ceiling fresco was a place of strong
cult of Virgin Mary the Helper - the Protector of citizens from war and plague.
The chief altar-piece in the chapel is a
baroque replica by Lucas Cranach senior, coming from the earlier convent church
and partly made by painter Jan Kryštof Handke.
The Equipment of the church. The
parish after the secularization of the Augustinian order up to 1972
After the abolition of
the Augustinian canony in September 1784 there remained a newly completed
church together with a former building of provost´s residence kept by Church.
The remaining convent buildings had been divided among four private
proprietors. A stately flight of stairs had been built in the front of the
church in 1784. The next year the main altar had been erected. On the 7 of May
1792 the Olomouc archbishop Antonín Teodor, earl of Colloredo, consecrated the
church. The former provost´s residence was converted to parish building for
parish priests and kooperators, the members of regular monastic community. The
local parish priest Matouš Alois Bernarth (1786-1798), former regular canon,
went on with internal equipment of the church, and at the same time a several
pieces of canvas linens from the former cloister had been saved from successful
auction and became part of the church estates . Let us mention a capacious
canvas made by Jan Kryštof Handke - The Adoration of the Magi- created
in the year 1746 for cloister refectory, or a set of set fourteen oval pictures
of holy helpers created already in 1719.
The present chief altar-piece The Annunciation of our Lady in parish church,
coming from the older convent church, had been made by an excellent baroque
painter of the second half of the 17 century and a regular member of Olomouc
augustinian canony, Antonín Martin Lublinsky. There was also a sculptor Ondřej Schweigl who worked on
the interior church decoration
at the turn of 18. and 19. century . He created four lateral altars - two stone
reliefs (an altar of the Holy Cross and Last supper). and two
altars dedicated to (St. Augustin and St. Jan Nepomucky.) Ondřej
Schweigl made a pulpit and statues of the chief altar (depicting St. . Luke and
the prophet Izaiah).
One of spiritual managers of Šternberk parish
was Jan Babora, an excellent expert and Professor of oriental languages and
hermeneutical of The old and The new testament at the theological faculty of
Olomouc lyceum , the author of German translation of The new testament
and The preface to The old testament, both published at the
beginning of 19. century. He had lived and worked in Šternberk from 1798 to
1810.
Another parish priest Josef Ospald
(1836-1853) had changed considerably the area of the parish and the church. He
let the monasterial summer-house of provost Meixner tear down on parish
gardens. The gardens had been reduced as well because of building of the
imperial way (today´s Opavská street). In 1847 with the financial support of
Šternberk citizens the tower church had been provided with a clock.
After Ospald´s death, Jeroným
Hampel (1854-1867) became a priest here. He used to be a superior of Olomouc
seminary. The church had been supplied an organ. People loved their priest and
transported his tombstone from an abolished town cemetery below the window of
the parish building.
In the 90´s of 19. century, thanks to the effort of the then parish priest
Ferdinand Knirsch (1886-1898), Sebastini painting decoration of the church were
under restoration and new organ
by Karel Neusser from Nový Jičín had been constucted. Unfortunately, in 1931
the fire completely destroyd the organ and destructed also the fresco
decoration of the church, which still has not been repaired.
Dominic Willner (1932-1945) lived
a moved life in his parish. He was a great specialist in town history and
former canony and published many articles in a local periodical. After the WW2
had begun, he was persecuted for his national feelings and finally arrested in
a concentration camp. The German speaking citizens had been transferred after
the end of the war. Willner never returned to Šternberk His new place of work
was an Austrian parish Dürnstein , where he died in 1971.
Parish priest Josef Pospíšil (
1946-1972 ) tried to build up the foundation of parish community out of newly
arriving Czech inhabitants. This process was hard due to anti-church communist
politics and insufficient local roots of the newly arriving people, and has
borne its fruit in the last two decades.
Filip
Hradil