Mariefred Charterhouse

The Charterhouse Marie Fred, also known as Charterhouse Gripsholm was a monastery of the Carthusian Order in today's village Marie Fred, community Strängnäs in Sweden. The Charterhouse is the namesake of the place which was called Gripsholm prior to its creation. Marie Fred was the only Carthusian monastery in Scandinavia and one of the last monastic foundations in Sweden before the Reformation.

History

The Charterhouse Pax Mariae was in 1493 by Jakob Ulvsson (around 1430-1521 ), founded Archbishop of Uppsala. Sten Sture the Elder, Regent (Swedish: riksföreståndare ) of Sweden, endowed the monastery with goods in Gripsholm, Södermanland and further from land in the area.

The monastery was built on the Gripsholm bay of Lake Mälaren on a hill near the present castle Gripsholm. The monastery church was consecrated on 15 February 1504. The first monks came from the Charterhouse Marienehe near Rostock.

Already in 1498 a printing press was set up in the monastery. The only work that is now known from this workshop, is a devotional book for the worship of the Rosary. The book was distributed throughout Europe and had a strong effect on the religious life in the late Middle Ages.

The existence of the monastery Marie Fred was short-lived. In 1526 it was secularized as one of the first monasteries of Gustav I Vasa. In December 1525 he claimed the monastery assets from the inheritance of Sten Sture. This had given the land on the condition of the monastery that he should fall back upon dissolution of the monastery to his heirs, Gustav Vasa. This claim was confirmed to him by the Swedish Imperial Council in January 1526.

Building

After the dissolution of the monastery, Gustav Vasa had to cancel the monastery and use the material for the expansion of Gripsholm Castle. In the 1620s the village church Marie Fred was built on the foundations of the monastery church.

During excavations in the south of the church, a cellar and some remains of walls were discovered. A small collection of stones of the monastery is on display in the tower of the church. Visible remains of buildings of the monastery do not exist.

Literary adaptation

August Strindberg describes in his collection of short stories " Svenska och äfventyr desolate " ( 1882-91 ), German: "Swedish fates and Adventure " (1911 ), in a fictional narrative to create an altarpiece for the newly built monastery.