#also I might have queued that post at 2am and didn’t even think about what day of the week it was

[hellsite-hall-of-fame]

Why couldn't you have waited like three more days to rb the Wednesday post. On a wednesday

because why not

[owakoblack-portspa]

Christmas with the Teutonic Order

This is going to be my first diary on Tumblr. It seems most people post very short entries here, so I wonder if it’s proper to post a long diary here. But here I am, and I’m going to post it.

Christmas this year is the second one I spent in Germany. In fact, last year I didn’t spend Christmas at all, so I felt miserable during the holidays. This year I tried to avoid such a gloomy mood by attending Christmas ceremonies at church.

I’m not religious, but almost every year when I’m in China, I’ll go to the church on Christmas’s Eve, regardless how crowded the local church becomes. It’s indeed a fashion for curious young Chinese people to visit christian churches during Christmas even though they’ve no idea christian rituals.

The cathedral in the city that now I live in is far away from my residence, so I don’t feel like going there on Xmas Eve for it’s difficult to walk an hour in a cold midnight.

Just three days before Eve, an idea came to me: why not visit a Teutonic church to watch the Teutonic Order perform Christmas mass?

In fact, even though Europeans think that the ancient military orders are boring, I’m very interested in the Teutonic Order, because of Gilbert. Therefore, I wrote an e-mail to the lady of the Order whom I met at the guesthouse in Rome. She replied promptly, and told me that even though I think it’s inconvenient to visit their headquarters in Weyarn, I can visit the Teutonic church in Frankfurt.

I checked the train plan, and indeed, there’re direct trains to Frankfurt. I booked a hotel very close to the Teutonic church, and everything was well prepared.

I’ve already heard of this church before, and I know it had been the Order’s headquarters in Germany until two years ago, so I had not been very keen to visit it. However, according to the church’s calendar, the Xmas ceremonies were performed by priests with names ending with ‘OT’, which means they’re the priests from the Order. One thing to note is that nowadays the Teutonic Order doesn’t have any knight any more, sadly. Anyways, I was sure I was able to watch the Order perform Xmas mass--if I want to watch Xmas mass, nothing could be better than watching the one by the Order.

The Teutonic church (Deutschordenskirche) is not near the old town. The old town is on the other side of the Main River. That is to say, less visitors go to the Teutonic church. I went to the Cathedral of Frankfurt around 4pm, and it was very crowded. The staff in the cathedral seemed afraid of Chinese, for most of us have no idea of christian rituals, and tend to disturb them. Indeed, we’re very curious. For me, I’m more curious about the Order.

On Xmas Eve, this big city seemed rather bleak, for many people who work here had gone home. Actually, many pedestrians in the quiet streets were Chinese.

After I left the cathedral, I went across the bridge on the Main, and I can see the Teutonic church exactly located at the end of the bridge--what a good location!

This block of buildings might be a cloister in the past, with the church as its facade, and behind the church, there’s a courtyard, surrounded by several office buildings of the Order.

This is the biggest gate of the church. The two Teutonic knights statues are very iconic.

The picture below is the other side of the church, viewed from the courtyard.

The office buildings facing the church. The sign ‘Deutscher Orden’ is fading. Perhaps it means this cloister is no longer the headquarters. However, there’re still several Teutonic priests here, and I believe this church had the biggest Xmas masses among other Teutonic churches in Germany. You can see in this picture, several windows are decorated with the black cross.

I discovered at least three cars owned by the Teutonic priests, for these car plates begin with ‘MB OT’. MB is a town nearby Weyarn, and OT are the Latin initiate letters for the Teutonic Order.

The entrance of the church is the door under the clock tower. The church is not as big as a cathedral, but it was beautifully decorated for Xmas. The Gothic arches tell the long history of the church, which could be traced back to 13th century. I especially like the medieval chandeliers hanging under the high ceiling.

Nearby the choir, there’re more murals on the walls of both sides, but there’s no Teutonic heraldry.

There are two niches on either side of the nave.On a wall of a niche on the left, is a fading mural. At the foot of the pictures, there’s a knight with a Teutonic banner.

Here is the beautiful altar. Two huge Xmas trees are beside it. Later at night, the lights in the trees and behind the alter were turned on.

You can see more crosses in the church.

The cribs at the entrance.

The organ. Later on, the choir sang here.

The sacristy to the right of the altar. Later on, the priests prepared themselves here, so it was closed to the public.

The reliquary holds the fragments of the (kind of) true cross, which was bestowed a couple of centuries ago by the headquarters at Mergenthaim. Since there’re many churches claiming they possess the fragments of the true cross, this church doesn’t confirm the identity of this relic, but I kind of believe that it’s part of the true cross. After all, the Teutonic Order was one of the most powerful orders in the Holy Land. If there’re fragments left in the world, it’s very likely they possess some of them.

The church was busy on Eve. At 4pm, it was a ceremony especially for children. The staff gave children candies at the gate.

At 6pm, it was the Christmas mass for the Holy Virgin. I came half hour early, and sat in the middle of the audience. Among the three masses I attended on Eve, this one had the most audience, so it was the easiest to understand. The mass procession entered the nave from the gate, led by a server with a censer. When they arrived the altar, people stood up to sing ‘O come all ye faithful’ in German. I had a booklet in hand to help me sing the German lyrics. After the priests gave one or two speeches, (sometimes they chanted instead of reading), the choir on the balcony sang, and then we joined them. In the later section, the priests kneeled for a while in front of a golden box placed on the altar, and then the leading priest brought out the bread of life from the box. At this moment, everyone made a sign of the cross. Then the priests gave the bread to the queuing people. I also joined them, and ate the bread in the face of the priest. At the ending section, people sang ‘Stile Nacht, Heilige Nacht’ in German. The opening and ending songs were the same in the three masses.

The second mass began at 10pm. It was a mass performed in the name of the Teutonic Order, so I heard several times the word ‘Deutschordern’ mentioned. All of the people in the procession changed their clothes. Two of the priests wore black cassocks, each with a Teutonic cross pinned on the chest, and a chain with another cross--so this is the evidence that they are the priests of the Teutonic Order. But later on, they put on surplices to cover the crosses. Other two priests dresses kind of Teutonic priest uniforms, but without the huge Teutonic shield pinned to their shoulders. There was a lady singing solo on the balcony, and some men playing the instruments.

The third mass was at the midnight. It was called usus antiqurior, which was invented by the pope about ten years ago, but was based on antient liturgy. Therefore, it was the most solemn mass of the three. This time, all priests put on the white surplices. People became solemn too. We kneeled most of the time. The priests’ sermons were partly in Latin. I also felt this mass was the most holy of the three. Each mass lasted one and half hour, and when I went back to the hotel, it was 2am.

On Xmas morning, there was a ceremony called ‘Hochamt’ at 10am. I attended it for only half hour, for I had a train to catch.

Even though during the masses, I had felt bored once or twice, and awkward most of the time, I am very happy to witness this holy moment on Christmas at the Teutonic church. Above all, I have spent Christmas with the Order.