Propylaeum

The Bodenseekloster Reichenau, founded around 724 by the Bishop Bishop Pirmin, has left in Reichenauer Fraternity Book and in two death books extensive name directories from the time before the millennium. Around 40,000 people were enrolled in these commemorative books during the earlier Middle Ages for the purpose of liturgical prayer. With the entry of the name in the commemorative books placed on the altar, the medieval man combined the idea of ​​the entrance into the "heavenly book of life"; he hoped to have an everlasting presence in the liturgy and the prayers of the monks, closeness to God and the salvation of his soul. The core of the Reichenau memorial tradition, the lists of names concerning the Reichenau Convention and the memorial in the island monastery are the subject of this book. The traditionally edited and presented transmission complex not only reflects the varied history of the Abbey in Lake Constance and its monastic community from its founding to the Golden Age to the High Middle Ages, but also provides an insight into the history of Western monasticism and many aspects of social, political and ecclesiastical life of that time.