Kornelimünster Abbey

Kornelimünster Abbey, also known as Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius, is a Benedictine monastery that has been integrated since 1972. The abbey is located in Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.HistoryThe monastery was founded in 814 on the river Inde by Benedict of Aniane, an adviser to Emperor Louis the Pious (successor to Charlemagne). The monastery was at first known as the "Monastery of the Redeemer on the Inde".In the mid-9th century, the monastery became an Imperial abbey ("Reichsunmittelbar") and received large endowments of land, as well as Biblical or Saviour's relics: a loincloth, a sudarium and a shroud.In 875, half of the shroud was exchanged for a relic of the head of the martyred Pope Cornelius (died in 253), after which the abbey was known as Sancti Cornelii ad Indam, and later as Kornelimünster. (The full official title of the present monastery is the Abbey of the Abbot Saint Benedict of Aniane and Pope Cornelius).In the 12th century, a Priest of Aachen composed the famous Tafelgüterverzeichnis, a registry of royal estates and what they owed the king's court. It is one of the earliest pieces of evidence for the extent of the German royal fisc.