Helfta Priory notched down

On the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart (12 June 2026), it was announced that Helfta Priory has been officially annexed and affiliated to Seligenthal Cistercian Abbey in Landshut. Helfta was re-founded in 1999 and has struggled. The Abbess of Seligenthal, Mother Christiane Hansen, is now the higher superior of Helfta. Since Hansen was prioress there for many years, she has a good sense of the foundation's needs. Sister Katharina Hauschild has been appointed as the local superior of the priory. The upcoming years will be a time for determining if Helfta can regain its independence.
Helfta is a fascinating place for several reasons; it was home to a remarkable surge of devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the 13th century, with Gertrude of Helfta among its most famous mystics. Located near Lutherstadt Eisleben, in Germany, it is also a site which recalls the wounds left by a divided church.