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The Canons of St. George's Abbey at Prague Castle

Publication at Protestant Theological Faculty, Faculty of Arts |
2022

Abstract

Benedictine nuns were not the sole users of the church of St. George at Prague Castle.

In the later Middle Ages, the liturgical life of the conventual church was also governed by a group of nine clerics, the so-called St. George's canons.

Although they shared many features with members of "standard" collegiate chapters, others made them very different, e. g. no other canons in Bohemia were subordinated to a woman (in this case to the abbess of St. George's convent).

The beginnings as well as the decline of this organized group of clerics were not yet clearly clarified. A memorial book of the canons written in the 1350s (Czech National Library, XIII A 2) is the only surviving source describing their activities in detail.

Although it deepens our knowledge about their role in the dailiness of the abbey, it also raises new questions. The manuscript reflects certain changes in the position of St.

George's canons in the mid-14th century and together with other sources, it shows that their tasks were not always the same.