For the portrait session with Pater Ephrem we had the opportunity to have the mother of god in the background of the freshly renovated church. The Telgte pietà, which has one of the largest pilgrimages in Germany, is normally housed in its own chapel. Since some construction work was being carried out in the chapel, it provided for a unique frame inside St Clement.

Father Ephrem, an Indian Benedictine monk who came to Münster in 2009 from the Benedictine Abbey of Kappadu in Kerala to study, opened the Benedictine House of St Thomas in Telgte at the end of 2016. The domus religiosa, with three priests the smallest possible community, is located in a small flat above the parish office, right next to St Clement’s Provost Church in Telgte. Father Ephrem Maniyamprayil supports the pastoral team of the Provost Church of St Mary; his two fellow monks, Father Jerome Kuttickattu and Father Stephen Vattodiyil, serve at St Petronilla in Münster-Handorf and at St Bartholomew & St John the Baptist in Warendorf-Milte and -Einen.

Beneditine Pater Ephrem at St Clement church in Telgte with the wooden statue of the Mother of God in the background.

Beneditine Pater Ephrem at St Clement church in Telgte with the wooden statue of the Mother of God in the background.

Beneditine Pater Ephrem at St Clement church in Telgte with the wooden statue of the Mother of God in the background.

Background

More on Father Ephrem:

More on the Pilgrimage and the mater dolorosa