This manuscript was written by the Freiburg University Theology
Professor Jodocus Lorichius (1540-1612) for the Cistercian nuns of
Günterstal. It was dedicated to the convent’s abbess, Maria
Störin von Störenberg. Following a prologue by Lorichius on the
usefulness of liturgical ceremonies, the author provides the nuns
with German translations of two of the founding texts of the
Cistercian order from the twelfth century: the Exordium Cistercii,
a narrative of the early history of the order, and the
Ecclesiastica Officia, a set of regulations for liturgical and
monastic life. It concludes with a short justification of why
Cistercians pray the Seven Penitential Psalms on a Friday. A set of
statutes (the Usus Conversorum) for lay brothers, translated into
German, is appended. Lorichius dedicated four printed books to the
nuns of Günterstal between 1581 and 1598, all in German, and this
manuscript must be seen as part of this wider relationship.
