Sibculo Abbey

Geschiedenis

Sibculo Abbey, also called Groot Galilea, was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1403 by followers of the Modern Devotion movement and dissolved in 1579 during the Protestant Reformation of the Netherlands. Its remains are near the village of Sibculo in the municipality of Hardenberg in Overijssel.FoundationAfter the Battle of Ane in 1227, it was one of the terms of the Bishopric of Utrecht that on the spot where Bishop Otto of Lippe was killed, as a sign of reconciliation, a nunnery for twenty-five nuns should be built. After that site proved to be too marshy, in 1253 Zybbekeloe was selected as a possible alternative location. It was not however until 1403 that a group of followers of the Modern Devotion, men rather than women, under the leadership of Johan Clemme, a priest from Hesse, fought their way through the surrounding bog onto the sand ridge in the peat under very difficult conditions to begin the construction of a viable community.In 1406 the chapel was dedicated and in 1412 the new community affiliated itself, as a daughter house of Kamp Abbey in Westphalia (of the filiation of Morimond), to the successful Cistercian Order, which had a long tradition of establishing monasteries in remote places and carrying out land reclamation and clearance projects, and thus had valuable knowledge and experience to offer.