The Catholic Church in Harxheim
After the end of the simultaneity in 1869, the Catholics built their own church directly opposite the Protestant church in 1870. It was dedicated to St. Lawrence.
The church is listed in the monument register of the Mainz-Bingen district.
Catholic church, still unplastered
Image source: Ralf Walter
In 1869, the Catholic community had renounced its judicially awarded co-ownership of the Protestant church in a settlement in exchange for compensation. This paved the way for the establishment of a church of its own. It was to be located diagonally opposite the already existing church – as subsequently agreed to the settlement provisions between Catholics and Protestants. Master mason Philipp Nostadt from Ebersheim carried out the construction. The church was completed as early as the end of 1870 and was consecrated to St. Lawrence on December 22 of that year.
The church building is a single-nave brick building, plastered in the meantime, with round-arched windows. On the roof sits a square ridge turret crowned by a pointed helmet. The church organ, which is still used today, first sounded in the church in 1880. The Catholic parish in Harxheim had acquired it at that time for 185 marks. It was built in 1852 by the organ builder Ratzmann in Gelnhausen for the parish church of Mühlheim am Main.
Already 14 years after its construction, in 1884, the church building was restored for the first time. Master mason Johann Kreuzberg from Lörzweiler carried out the work. During this time, weekday services were held in the Lambinet family home at Untergasse 21. The Lambinet family also donated the stone cross to the left of the entrance in 1893. Incidentally, the chapel, built in 1864, also goes back to the initiative of this family.
Former appearance of the altar room of the Catholic church, on the left the valuable picture of the Virgin Mary by Hilarius Kleinhanß
Image source: Ralf Walter
After completion of the church building, the church had to be equipped and was dependent on donations for this. Hilarius Kleinhanß from Rochester in the state of New York made a special contribution in this context. The native of Harxheim had emigrated with his family to the USA decades earlier as a poor man and had made it rich there. The church owes him a valuable picture of the Madonna, which is now in the gallery. Hilarius Kleinhanß acquired this painting on a trip to Europe in Rome and had it blessed by the then Pope Leo XIII before he presented it as a gift in Harxheim. He also donated other pictures to the church and financed chasubles.
By the way, the Madonna painting from Rome was made in a larger edition. Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, Archbishop of Mainz from 1850 – 1877 and known as one of the important pioneers of Catholic social teaching, received an identical image of the Madonna as a gift during a trip to Rome. It hangs today in the St. Gotthard Chapel in Mainz Cathedral.
Particularly noteworthy in today’s church interior is also the richly decorated Neo-Gothic shrine altar (around 1900) with statues of St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas on either side (both Baroque, mid-18th century). Among the special decorations are a Pietà on the left side of the nave and a Maria Immaculata (Immaculate Mary) on the right side of the back, depicted with a halo and standing on a globe entwined with a snake. Both works of art are by Martin Biterich (1691 to 1759), who came from South Tyrol and settled in Mainz. He created a very large number of figures in wood and stone for our region in his Mainz workshop.
By the way, in Mainz there is a statue known as the Harxheimer Madonna, also an Immacultata with globe and snake. It stands on the fountain erected in 1932 in the Kirschgarten in the old town of Mainz. It is a copy of the Harxheim Madonna, which is in the possession of the Landesmuseum in Mainz. Unfortunately, there is no preserved documentation of when and under what circumstances the Madonna came into possession of the museum. It is also not known why the name of the figure refers to Harxheim. (1)
References:
Krienke, Dieter (2011): Verbandsgemeinden Bodenheim, Guntersblum and Nieder-Olm. . .
Rick, Josef (1967): Weinbaugemeinde Harxheim. In: Gemeinde Harxheim (Hrsg.): Festschrift. 1200 Jahre Weinbaugemeinde Harxheim.
Walter, Ralf (2017): Die katholische Kirchengemeinde. In: Ortgemeinde Harxheim (Hrsg.): Festbuch 2017. Harxheim. Eintausendzweihundertfünfzig. Selzen. p. 62 – 67.
Familie Friedrich: Aus der Chronik über Harxheim. Sammlung verschiedener Überlieferungen. (“Hausbuch Friedrich“).
(1) Auskunft des Landesmuseums Mainz, Museologie/ Dokumentation
