Near Essen
Saint Ludger founded a monastery in 799 and became its first abbot. The little church which Saint Ludger built here in honor of
Saint Stephen was completed in 804 and dedicated by Saint Ludger himself, who had meanwhile become
Bishop of Münster. Upon the death of Ludger on 26 March 809, the abbacy of Werden passed by inheritance first to his younger brother
Hildigrim I (809–827), then successively to four of his nephews: Gerfried (827–839), Thiadgrim (ruled less than a year), Altfried (839–848), Hildigrim II (849–887). Under Hildigrim I, also
Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, the new monastery of
Helmstedt in the
Diocese of Halberstadt was founded from Werden. It was ruled over by a
provost, and remained a dependency of Werden till its secularization in 1803. Werden was a wealthy abbey with possessions in
Westphalia,
Frisia, eastern
Saxony and around the abbey itself, where it had a territory of 125 km2. On 22 May 877, under Hildigrim II, the monastery, which up to that time had been the property of the family of Saint Ludger, obtained
Imperial immediacy, which amounted to the right of free abbatical election and immunity. Henceforth the abbots of Werden were
imperial princes and had a seat in the
Imperial Diet. The abbey church of Werden, destroyed by fire in 1256, was rebuilt in the late-
Romanesque style (1256–75). Two of the most obscure yet intriguing men to hold seats of authority in Werden Abbey (found in the Archives in North Rhine-Westphalia), were Abt Johann I., (1330–44) and Abt Johann II. von Arscheid (Arscheyt, Arschott-Brabant), (1344–60). Thereafter the monastery began to decline to such an extent that under Abbot Conrad von Gleichen (1454–74), who was a married layman, the whole community consisted of only three men, who divided the possessions of the abbey among themselves. After a complete reform, instituted in 1477, by Abbot Adam von Eschweiler of the
Bursfelde Congregation, Werden continued in existence until its secularization in 1803. == Early modern times ==