Monastery Library

Since the Middle Ages, the monastery library has served as a repository for the world’s knowledge. It preserves the intellectual heritage of the medieval period, alongside remnants of ancient Greek and Latin literature. The Bible, the works of the Church Fathers, sermon materials, and monastic rules formed the core of every monastery library. From this foundation grew an interest in history, governance, fine arts, music, philosophy, and the natural sciences—resulting in a vast, universal collection meticulously gathered and used over centuries.

All this has been thrown out of kilter by the turbulent history of the Benedictine Monastery of Mariastein from 1800 to the present day, and the aim of the reorganisation of the Monastery Library is to restore it to its former – contemporary – glory.

The library is open to the public by appointment.

Library holdings

• The book collections from the original Beinwil Monastery.
• A collection of “old books” from all areas of the collection: Manuscripts, incunabula (cradle prints), old prints that open up access to the intellectual world of the 16th, 17th and 18th century.
• The libraries of the monks’ places of exile and activity from the abolition of the monastery in 1874 (Delle in France, Bregenz in Austria) to the abandonment of the College of Karl Borromäus in Altdorf UR (1981).
• Current holdings: new arrivals and acquisitions of the last decades, acquisition of the book collections of deceased monks and external bequests.

You can find more information about the monastery library here:

Library (PDF)