St. Felizitas (Vreden)

The Damenstift Vreden stands in the small town of Vreden in the Münster region of North Rhine-Westphalia. Founded at least as early as 839, it was one of the first women’s collegiate foundations in Westphalia. The founder Walbert brought relics of several saints to Vreden, witnessed by Bishop Altfried of Münster. The community was dedicated to Saint Felicitas and admitted only noblewomen. Its first church stood where the present parish church of St Georg now stands. The collegiate church of St Felicitas preserves a ninth-century crypt beneath its choir. A three-aisled hall with ribbed vaulting, it dates from the 11th century and survived the Second World War despite bomb damage. The church itself is a long, single-aisled Romanesque structure with a crossing and square transepts. Its Gothic choir was rebuilt in 1427, and the eastern vault was renewed in the 16th century. After the collegiate foundation was dissolved in 1810, the buildings were altered and later restored. Inside, the Felicitas retable shows scenes from the life and martyrdom of Saint Felicitas and her seven sons. The altarpiece, once on the ladies’ gallery, was moved and restored before returning to the church in 2011. Nearby stands a five-barred cross by the local artist Adolf Erning, and a cycle of Stations of the Cross marks the former hospital grounds. The surrounding lawn now lies between the church and the old town moat, linking the site’s medieval past with the modern town.