Dominican Monastery of St. Paul

1000 Years of St. Paul’s

St. Paul’s chapter, built by Bishop Burchard from 1002, still has its place in the centre of Worms. The chapter church was originally built as a three-naved buttress basilica. The stone dome-shaped helm roofs of the towers that were built in the 13th century in the Byzantine-early Christian style of the burial church of Jerusalem are a visible monument to these times.

The church’s jubilee “1000 years of St. Paul’s, Worms” was celebrated from 3rd October 2002 to the 5th October 2003 with a row of events, concerts and church services.

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Splendour and Destruction

Over the centuries, the canons of St. Paul’s tried to shape the life of the town both spiritually and culturally. They experienced, and suffered from, all the highs and lows of the town: the splendour of the empirical sessions of parliament, but also the town fires and destruction, like that of 1689. The chapter church with its Romanesque style was almost completely destroyed. But by 1717, the church was rebuilt, this time as a Baroque hall church with ceiling paintings showing scenes from the life of St. Paul.

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Dominicans at St. Paul’s

Spiritual life here was extinguished in the year 1797 with the advent of secularisation. St. Paul’s chapter was dissolved and profaned. Over the following decades it was used as a warehouse, a barn and finally from 1880 as a municipal museum.

The Dominican order also lost its monastery, built in 1226, as a result of secularisation. In the 1920’s, the order was interested in re-establishing itself and on 16th May 1929, the place of worship that is now the Dominican monastery was officially opened, Since then, Dominicans have lived at this monastery and act as a spiritual community. During the bomb attacks of 21st February 1945, large parts of the monastery church fell to dust and ashes. Through the great support from the local population, the church was able to be rebuilt and was once again in use by 1947.

Since 1993, the monastery has also served as a training house for the next generation of monks (novitiate). All our brothers are actively involved in the monastery church with services, prayers, confession and spiritual welfare work. As well as the internal tasks, some of our brothers are also active outside the monastery, as hospital chaplains to the town of Worms, prison chaplain in Darmstadt-Eberstadt or in escorting nuns and doing spiritual work.

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Preservation of the Chapter Church

The monastery church was renovated inside and a new organ installed. The old structure should also be preserved in the future so that the Dominican monastery will continue to be a particular sight worth visiting in Worms.

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Concerts and Events

Special events related to spiritual and cultural themes are held by the Dominicans in the church and in the cloister of the monastery. The concerts in the monastery are very popular. Chamber concerts featuring mainly young performers take place in the cloister generally four times a year.

Detailed information about each event can be found on the Internet under http://www.dominikaner-worms.de (German).

Viewing the Monastery

A tour is only possible when arranged in advance by telephone. Please understand that tours can neither be offered regularly nor often as people do live and work in the monastery. The church, however, can always be viewed.

Address:

Dominikanerkloster St. Paulus
Paulusplatz 5
D-67547 Worms
Telephone: +49 (0) 62 41 / 9 20 40 0
Fax: +49 (0) 62 41 / 2 84 70

view city map (German) 

view gallery (German)