Simeonstift

Place to visit in the Mosel region

Photo: Oktobersonne · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The St. Simeon’s Collegiate Church (German: Simeonstift) was a collegiate church in Trier, Germany, near the Roman city gate of the Porta Nigra (Latin for 'Black Gate'). Named after the Greek monk, St. Simeon of Trier, it is now a city museum in the former collegiate church’s buildings under the name, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift ('City Museum of the Simeonstift').

The church was created in 1037. In 1028 Simeon of Trier settled at the Porta Nigra as a hermit. He was supposed to have walled himself up there at the gate’s east tower. After his death on 1 June 1035, he was buried in his room on the ground floor. In the same year, probably for Christmas, he was canonized by Pope Benedict IX, in one of the first canonizations ever made by a Pope. In honor of the new saint, they built the Simeonstift and converted the former tower to a Doppelkirche ('twin church'). The Archbishop of Trier at that time, Poppo von Babenberg, personally had known the hermit and travelled with him. But a certificate of incorporation of the Simeonstift could not be obtained from him and it was probably never given. However, recent research showed that the church was founded soon after the canonization of Simeon...