On 23 January 2015, Dr. Eva Baumann-Neuhaus and Simon Foppa of the Swiss Institute of Pastoral Sociology in St. Gallen presented the report ‘Mariastein in Transition – An Empirical Analysis of the Place of Pilgrimage and Its Visitors’.

In March 2015, Theres Brunner, operations manager of Mariastein Abbey from 2010-2022, wrote her master’s thesis ‘Pilgrimage in Mariastein – Economic Planning of a Religious Mission’.

Both studies formed the basis for further discussions and analyses.

In December 2017, the final project report ‘Being a blessing – Mariastein 2025’ was published, prepared by working groups on various topics such as ‘business’, ‘infrastructure’, ‘culture’, and ‘pilgrimage’. External experts, employees of the monastery businesses, and members of the monastic community developed solutions for the future of Mariastein as a place of pilgrimage.

Project architecture

Organizational chart