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Standsmæssig begravelse
Karen Brahe havde også tænkt på klosterjomfruernes
begravelse. Var afdøde over atten år, betalte klosteret
begravelsen. Hvem der betalte, hvis afdøde var mellem
fjorten og atten år, nævnes ikke, men det blev heldigvis
ikke aktuelt. Der står intet om, hvor og hvordan frøkenerne
skulle begraves. Til godserne hørte som oftest en
eller flere kirker, hvor ejerne gennem århundreder
havde deres gravsteder inde i kirken, enten under gulvet,
markeret med store gravplader eller epitafier, eller
i kapeller. I slutningen af 1600-tallet kunne begravelsesceremoni
og gravsted ikke blive overdådige nok,
og den sidste generation af rig adel fik gravmæler med
svulmende marmor, store sarkofager og gitre med forgyldninger
– som f.eks. Karen Brahes morbroder, Marcus
Gøye, hvis enke lod opføre et af landets prægtigste
gravmæler i Herlufsholm Kirke. Frøkenernes forfædre,
også de ugifte døtre, var således stedt standsmæssigt til
hvile, men nu havde mange familier af den gamle jordadel
mistet deres kirker sammen med godset, og kun
nogle få af frøkenerne i Jomfruklosteret blev nedsat i
et familiegravsted. De øvrige kunne se frem til at blive
jordet på St. Knuds Kirkegård ligesom jævne folk, og
den tanke har uden tvivl været en pind til deres ligkiste
i en tid, hvor begravelser mere end nogen anden livsbegivenhed
signalerede ens stand.
Frøkenernes redning blev Beate Margrethe Bielke,
enke efter Anders Bille til Løgismose. Hun ønskede at
give dem en standsmæssig begravelse, og i 1732 skænkede
hun Jomfruklosteret slægten Billes murede familiegravsted
i Haarby Kirke, som hørte under hendes
gods.
The tomb was used for the first time in 1758
when Prioress Parsberg died. Over the next 30 years,
St. Knud’s church register records 14 times, almost as
a fixed expression, that on such and such a date, “the
Honourable Miss XX’s body at Jomfruklosteret was
carried off at eight o’clock in the morning for interment
in their burial plot in the country.” And in the Haarby
church register on the same day: “Graveside ceremony
for the Honourable Miss XX” and the lady’s age. The
whole ceremony was in accordance with the ancient
noble fashion of bringing the coffin to the estate
church.
Almost 30 years later, Prioress Parsberg’s sister
was the second-last person to be entombed at Haarby.
But after a burial in 1788 there was no more room, and
the burial chamber was bricked up. In 1856, the crypt
and coffins were found during a restoration of the
church. In 1943 the ladies’ coffins were buried in the
churchyard and marked with a common gravestone.
The coffin plates in lead and silver with their long and
movingly devote texts, now hardly readable, are kept in
Haarby Church. 12
Burial inside churches was forbidden in 1805,
and from 1811 the ladies who died at the Convent
were buried at the Assistens Cemetery like all other
Odense citizens. Some of the ladies did not die at
Jomfruklosteret, either because they were away at
the time of death or because they lived elsewhere, as
mentioned before, generally with family or friends.
Some families had perhaps completely forgotten that
the lady was a conventual – in one case it was four years
before a brother informed the Patron about her death.
The owner of Haarby Church donated a burial vault to the Secular Convent for Noblewomen,
and almost all the ladies were buried here from 1758 to 1788, when there was no room for
more coffins. The lead and tin coffin plates are still in the church. Most of them are in such poor
condition, that they are almost unreadable. 2013. Photos: Rasmus Agertoft.
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