Mail from rome can take a long time: this is what the benedictine abbey of munsterschwarzach has just experienced. A postcard from sant’anselmo, the international study house of the order, took more than 51 years to reach its destination, as the monastery reported on its homepage on thursday. The pit were therefore in rome on 20. Abandoned april 1969. Last week they arrived. The reason given by the post office was an incorrect address. The postcard still shows the old zip code: west-8711. After the reunification it became 97359.
Where exactly the postcard to the novitiate in munsterschwarzach, stamped with two 20-lire stamps, got stuck, the abbey does not know, as spokeswoman julia martin said on request. One suspects that it was in italy. Of the monks excavated from sant’anselmo in 1969, not all are still in the monastery.
Two of them still live there. But one of them is in the infirmary and father anselm grun is away for the long weekend, martin informs us. The latter had studied in rome at the time and "vaguely remembers the situation". In any case, this unusual mail is exciting, he says. "We hope that the woman will come forward", said the press spokeswoman.
Who was the signatory of the postcard??
Of course, after such a long time, it is questionable whether the signatory of the card is still alive. In the text it says: "with the office in sant’anselmo ends today the visit to rome of the oblates of beuron, altogether 120 participants." Exciting detail: the beuron oblates are people who are in close contact with the monastery of beuron (baden-wurttemberg) and live partly according to the rules of saint benedict, but without being part of the archabbey st. Martin to be beuron.
However, the people of munsterschwarzach are part of the archabbey of st. Ottilien. That is why, according to press spokeswoman julia martin, it is quite surprising that a beuronese oblate sent a postcard to the benedictines in munsterschwarzach. In any case, they want to try to find out more about it.