So genannte Nonnen-Fratres? Double Monasteries of Franciscans and Poor Clares in Znojmo and Cheb. The Boundaries and the Connections of the Male and the Female Units
So genannte Nonnen-Fratres? Double Monasteries of Franciscans and Poor Clares in Znojmo and Cheb. The Boundaries and the Connections of the Male and the Female Units

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we explore two ‘double monasteries’ of Clarisses, one in Znojmo and the other in Cheb. In both cases, a ‘double monastery’ refers to a complex combining male and female units. In both cases, the double monasteries had the office of a confessor who was shared by both the male and female units. In this way, the confessor was the only office joining the male and female monasteries. The study deals with the process of appointing to the position of confessor in two convents of Poor Clares belonging to the jurisdiction of the Franciscan order – in Cheb and in Znojmo. Both of the women’s monasteries functioned for at least part of their existence in close connection with the male Franciscan convent, as part of the so-called ‘double monastery’. The male community then belonged to the Franciscans, i.e. an order living according to a stricter concept of the order’s rules. The study shows that the Poor Clares’ confessor, regularly elected to the provincial chapter, belonged to a neighbouring male community. He could also hold or not hold other positions there. The Poor Clares in Cheb were assigned a confessor who was, at the same time or in the past, guardianus of the male community. A person combining multiple functions then naturally became a negotiator with other important persons outside the monastery, for example donors, and very effectively participated in the preparation and rebuilding of the monastery and the church at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. On the other hand, the Poor Clares in Znojmo were assigned a confessor who had no power in the male community. He did not act as a helper of the Poor Clares community in the outside world.

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