Trier - St. Matthias

Christianity had reached Trier early and so since Roman times monks had lived here. In 977 the monks adopted the Rule of St. Benedict. The Benedictian Abbey was named after St. Eucharius, as the relics of St. Eucharius and St. Valerius, the first Bishops of Trier, were kept here.

During the demolition work of the predecessing church a tomb containing the relics of Apostle Matthias (St. Mathew) were discovered! Legends arose, that there were sent to the monastery by Empress Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who had lived in Trier.

The monastery´s name was changed to "Abtei St. Matthias" immediately and this was a center of pilgrimage from then on.
Though "perfectly" placed to the North of Europe it never gained the importance of Santiago de Compostela (about 1800 kms southwest) or Rome (1200 kms south). There are still pilgrims today, heading to this church, offering the only grave of an Apostle north of the Alps. When I started to walk to Santiago, I started exactly here.

The abbey existed upto 1794, when the last monks left it. The abbey got secularised and sold to a local entrepeneur. In the 1920s monks returned to St. Matthias. Today the church is used as an abbey- and a parish church.

St. Matthias, seen today is the result of many renovations and rebuildings over the centuries, but it is still a Romanesque structure.

The crypt is the destination for the pilgrims since about 800 years. Placed In it´s center is this old reliquary box containing the holy bones of apostle Matthias.