July 16 to July 23, 2010

This trip takes place from July 16 until July 23. We will travel to southern Bavaria on the Austrian border and make our way by ferry to the ancient Benedictine monastery of Frauenwörth on “the Dames’ Isle” on Chiemsee, the Bavarian Sea. The monastery was founded in 740, predating the crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in 800. In fact, one of Charlemagne’s great granddaughters, Blessed Irmengard, was Abbess of Frauenwörth in the 9 th Century. The men’s monastery on the Men’s Isle is long gone, and the island now boasts one of King Ludwig’s grand castles. Excursions will include Ludwig’s castle on Herreninsel (the Men’s Isle), Marktl am Inn, the birthplace of Pope Benedict; Altötting, his favorite Marian shrine known as the Lourdes of Bavaria; a cable car ride to an Alpine peak crowned with a cross overlooking the Bavarian Sea and countryside, and a falcon show at the Hohenaschau Castle. Leaving the region of Chiemsee, we will travel to Freising, the original site of the Archdiocese of Munich with its great cathedral and bishops’ fortress. Father Ratzinger taught at the seminary here. Then a day will be spent in Catholic Munich with its Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, its lively markets, and the playful bells and statuary of the Town Hall clock. Lectures will cover the early history of Catholicism in Germany, Church-State relations today, the intellectual tradition of Pope Benedict and his efforts at liturgical restoration.