STEIN AM RHEIN, ABBEY OF

Former Benedictine abbey in the canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Its patron was St. George. It was founded in the latter half of the 10th century on the Hohentwiel by Duke Burkhard II of Swabia and his consort Hadwig and was moved to Stein c. 1020 by the Emperor henry ii, Hadwig's nephew. Relics of SS. George and Cyril were brought there. In 1007 the monastery was given to the Diocese of Bamberg. Bishop otto of bam berg (d. 1139) favored the introduction of statutes of hirsau. In 1223 Pope honorius iii confirmed all the rights of monastery. The advocates of the monastery were the Zähringer (14th-century Dukes of Austria, then Dukes of Klingenberg), and after 1478, the city of Zurich. Stein was suppressed in 1525 during the Reformation but had two further abbots. Zurich impounded the holdings in Switzerland, and the abbey's German possessions were taken over in 1698 by the abbey of petershausen. The monastery, a fine Gothic structure of the 15th and 16th centuries, has been used as a museum since 1927.

Bibliography: l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:3087–88. r. henggeler, Professbücher der Benediktinerabteien… St. Georg zu Stein am Rhein (Monasticon-Benedictinum Helvetiae 4; August 1957) 387–409, with bibliog. u. engelmann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:1029.

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