Our Lady the Garden Enclosed
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The Hermitage of Our Lady, the Garden Enclosed is situated in the former parish-church of Warfhuizen, a village in the extreme north of the Netherlands.
It was founded in 2001 as the dwelling of a Roman Catholic Consecrated Hermit and revives the tradition of Dutch hermits that originated in the counter-reformation. For typical of Dutch hermitages, it includes a public chapel that has a distinct role in popular devotions, namely to Our Lady.
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[edit] The hermitage
Dutch hermits often had a role in nearby parishes as catechists and altar servers. They would also hold a wake with the dying and care for patients with contaminating or infectious diseases.
After 1983 wrought iron enclosure-grills were built inside the hermitage-church which separate the sanctuary from the nave to ensure the seclusion of the hermit, brother Hugo.
As in contemplative communities, the divine office is sung daily in Latin. The counter-reformation spirituality of the Dutch tradition reveals itself by means of several devotions honored throughout the day.
This influence is also stressed by baroque elements in the decoration of the sanctuary, in particular by the statue of "Our Lady, the Garden Enclosed", by the Spanish sculptor Miguel Bejarano Moreno, a "Mother of Sorrows".
[edit] Marian devotion
The statue of Our Lady is very popular with people worried about their children. Soon after the founding of the hermitage in 2001 the church began to function as an unofficial Marian shrine for expatriate Spaniards living in the Netherlands. The Dutch began to follow their example, since there is no other Marian shrine in the region. In 2007 the Hermitage of Our Lady, the Garden Enclosed is the second most visited shrine of the diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden after Dokkum.
A unique devotional practice is the 'Swapping of the handkerchief'. According to Spanish tradition the statue of the crying Virgin usually holds a white handkerchief. The faithfull bring a new white handkerchief and give it to the hermit to swap it with the one the Virgin has been holding which, in turn, is then given to someone sick or lonely. Students take it to their exams to calm their nerves. Warfhuizen is especially popular with troubled parents and the physically impaired, the latter because of the proximity of special needs accommodation in Wehe den Hoorn, which lies 2 km. to the North.
Warfhuizen is sometimes referred to as the northernmost Marian shrine of Europe (i.e. Continental Europe), since it lies further north than Bethen near Cloppenburg in Germany.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Website of the shrine and the hermitage (in Dutch)
- Virtual visit to the hermitage-church (with a photo of the hermit's choir stall)
- Diary of Brother Hugo (in Dutch)
- about Miguel Bejarano Moreno (Spanish)
- The Code of Canon Law (1983, Latin edition), canon 603, re: Consecrated Hermits
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