The founding of Kloosterrade and its development into an abbey

Right on the present-day border between the towns of Kerkrade in the Netherlands and 's-Hertogenrade in Germany stand the buildings of Kloosterrade Abbey. The element "rade" in these names is a later variant of the toponym "red," a form etymologically related to a verb meaning "to dig up," "to clear," or "to clear the ground of trees and roots." This indicates that these areas were forested. It was here in 1104 that the priest Ailbertus (c. 1065–1122) arrived, having come from Wallonia in search of a place where he could realize his life’s goal: achieving the ideal poverty of a hermit. Ailbertus was a scion of the noble lineage of the lords of Antoing near Tournai on the Scheldt. He was educated at the chapter school in nearby Tournai, where he became proficient in philosophy and devoted himself to the seven liberal arts. After completing his education and being ordained a priest, he remained attached to the cathedral chapter as a canon and taught at the cathedral school there. In Ailbertus’s time, there was growing interest in the ideas of church reform initiated by Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085). Among the canons, the desire for a strictly regulated life of asceticism and total poverty grew ever stronger. This renewal movement did not leave the Chapter of Tournai unmoved either. Ailbertus himself became so influenced by this Christian ideal of poverty and abstinence and inspired by the life of the apostles and the first Christian congregations that he gave up his life as a canon and left Tournai. Together with his brothers Walgerus and Thyemo, he went in search of a place between the Meuse and the Rhine, suitable for devoting himself to a life of contemplation and mortification, of work and prayer. Near the castrum Rodense, the fortress of Rode in 's Hertogenrade, he recognized the place that had “previously been repeatedly shown to him by God in his dreams,” as the writer mentions in the Annales Rodenses, the twelfth-century chronicle describing the first decades of the abbey. Landlord Count Adelbert of Saffenberg, lord of the castle of Rode, ceded a piece of land on which Ailbertus and his brothers built a hermitage as their lodging. Walgerus left shortly thereafter as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, while Ailbertus and Thyemo devoted themselves to manual labor and helping the poor. For worship, they built a wooden chapel, which was demolished in 1106 and replaced by a presbytery with a stone vault on the site of the present crypt. Attracted by the fame of his holiness, local residents from the neighborhood came in large numbers to ask him for counsel and prayer. Lay brothers and sisters joined the religious community. Among them was the wealthy minister Embrico from Mayschoss on the Ahr, who, along with his wife Adeleida and his children Heriman and Margaretha, joined Ailbertus and his followers. On that occasion, Embrico transferred all his possessions—his serfs, fields, and vineyards—to what had now become a fledgling monastic community. Ailbertus was regarded there not only as a founder, but especially as verus doctor animarum, a true teacher of souls.

By donating his entire estate, Embrico gained a certain degree of authority and thus exerted influence over the course of events. He managed to persuade Ailbertus to demolish the stone chapel, and construction began on the same site on a larger church that would consist of a crypt and an upper church. One year later, on December 13, 1108, Bishop Otbert of Liège dedicated the crypt to Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. On that occasion, Otbert issued a charter bearing the date of the dedication. In this charter—the authenticity of which has been disputed for many years—the Bishop of Liège recognized the community of Rode and granted the monastery ecclesiastical immunity for all its land holdings. At the same time, Otbert granted the community the right to freely choose its superior, baptize the children of freemen, admit them to communion, and bury them. In turn, Lord Count Adelbert of Saffenberg granted secular immunity for all his possessions in the land of Rode that he had donated. The acquisition of secular and ecclesiastical independence marked the decisive step toward an existence as an independent monastery. The charter of December 13, 1108, can therefore rightly be considered the founding charter of the abbey.

Embrico envisioned a large and grand monastery for both men and women, and he wanted to use the monastery’s property for its construction. This put pressure on Ailbertus’s ideal. Because of disagreements between them, the relationship between the founder and Embrico and Adeleida became increasingly strained. These tensions manifested themselves in two ways. Because of the many donations, the abbey’s assets were constantly increasing. True to his ideal of living in complete poverty, Ailbertus wanted to use this to alleviate the plight of the poor, while Embrico wanted to spend it on the further construction of the church and monastery. Yet above all, for Ailbertus the presence of women, the so-called sorores, within the community was incompatible with his views on monastic life. Since 1109, the number of converses had been steadily increasing, as had the group of women within the community. Adeleida, Embrico’s wife, had taken charge of these monastic nuns. Ailbertus toyed with the idea of providing the nuns with their own quarters near the church of St. Lambert in Kerkrade. However, Adeleida rejected this plan, supported in this by her husband Embrico. Realizing that his original ideal could not be realized and that he would not be able to live in harmony with Embrico, Ailbertus decided to leave the community, only seven years after he had experienced the place where he had thrown himself to the ground in 1104 as having been appointed to him by God. He headed south to northern France, where he founded a new hermitage at Clairefontaine near Vervins to continue his life in solitude in accordance with his original ideal. Passing through Kloosterrade in 1122, as he wished to visit friends and acquaintances in the region, he died at the age of 42 in Sechtem near Bonn on September 19 and was buried there in the cemetery next to the church.

After Ailbertus’s departure, the remaining monks sought a superior who could organize the community in the spirit of Ailbertus. In Richer, a monk from the Abbey of Rottenbuch in distant Bavaria, they found their new superior. Rottenbuch was a thriving reformist monastery of Augustinian canons, a monastic community that had emerged from the ecclesiastical reform movement that Ailbertus had already joined as a canon in Tournai. The canons drew inspiration for leading a vita apostolica from the example of St. Augustine, to whose way of life and community of life two precepts had been attributed. Consequently, within the regular canons, different observances had arisen with varying degrees of strictness. Besides a moderate form, the so-called ordo antiquus, a strict branch developed, the ordo novus. This was characterized by absolute silence, obligatory manual labor, and complete abstinence from meat. The abbey in Rottenbuch belonged to the moderate branch, and Richer introduced in Kloosterrade the rule of order observed there. These so-called Consuetudines, which laid down the customs and habits belonging to the Regula Sancti Augustini, determined how daily affairs were regulated. Among other things, they required the canons to pray the hours together and to perform daily services. In 1119, the new superior received the abbatial blessing from the hands of Frederick of Namur, the Bishop of Liège. Until then, he had held the title of prior. From this time onward, with an abbot as its superior, the abbey came to be known as Abbatia Rodensis, the Abbey of Kloosterrade.

Soon after his election, Richer demonstrated himself to be a proponent of a stricter observance of the monastic rule. Already in the same year he was appointed abbot, he made changes to the Consuetudines.Among other things, the modifications concerned meals. Until then, the monks had been permitted to eat meat three times a week in accordance with Augustine’s rule. Now they were required to abstain from it entirely. In this way, Abbot Richer embraced the ideas of the ordo novus, a movement in which asceticism and abstinence were given a greater role. He placed high demands on the religious development of the lay brothers, whom he admitted only to a limited extent. His attitude toward the lay sisters did not differ from that of Ailbertus, and when he too failed to find a suitable place for them elsewhere, he limited their number to a maximum of eight.

At the same time, Richer sought to forge close ties with monasteries and individuals who were sympathetic to the reform movement. The stay of Norbert of Xanten, founder of the Order of Norbertines, in Kloosterrade between 1115 and 1119 is characteristic of the developments under Richer and of the fame and charisma that the young abbey had already acquired in the meantime. Norbertus meticulously studied the Consuetudines as practiced at Kloosterrade. The way in which Richer and his canons lived greatly inspired Norbertus in drafting the monastic rule for his own order, which he founded in 1120. Likewise, Archbishop Koenraad of Salzburg’s appeal to Richer in 1121, asking his advice on reforming the cathedral chapter there, underscored the prestige Kloosterrade had acquired. Richer sent him four very capable and experienced canons.

On March 25, 1122, Pope Calixtus II signed the bull addressed to “Richero, abbot, and the canons of the Church of Saint Gabriel in Rhodes,” in which he approved the Rule of Life as formulated by Richer. Calixtus personally signed this charter with the words: “I, Calixtus, bishop of the Catholic Church, praise.” Part of the lead seal is still present. However, Abbot Richer was no longer able to read this acknowledgment, as he died on February 5, 1122. The founder, Ailbertus, would die a few months later, on September 19.