The cemetery of Dormition Abbey belongs to the German speaking, roman-catholic Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition on Mt. Zion, Jerusalem. Only monks and abbots of the monastery are buried there.
After the establishment and dedication of the church and the abbey buildings, the cemetery, about 50 m² in size, was created in a corner of the monastery garden. Due to building rubble, the area was about 1 m above the regular ground level. The small plot was found suitable for a graveyard. It borders directly on the Greek-Orthodox cemetery. In the mid-nineties, the cemetery was redesigned to look as it does today.
Since the time of its establishment, 29 monks have been laid to rest there, including the first Abbot, Fr. Maurus Kaufmann O.S.B. (1871-1949). Generally the graves have double occupancy. On the simple gravestones are inscribed the names of the brothers (monastic and family names) and three dates: birth date, date of monastery entry, and date of death. The stone tablet on one side of the cemetery mentions all the monks who lived in the monastery, but for different reason (for example, war or change of monastery) were buried elsewhere (Nazareth, other places in Jerusalem, Germany, United States etc.).
The first funeral took place in 1932, the most recent in 2017.
Several well known Benedictines are laid to rest in this cemetery. Among them are Fr. Benedikt Stolz O.S.B. (1895-1986), longtime prior of the Abbey, writer and honorary citizen of Jerusalem, Fr. Bargil Pixner O.S.B. (1921-2002), biblical archeologist and expert on the Holy Land.
BillionGraves is the world′s largest resource for searchable GPS cemetery data. For more information about the graves located in the Cemetery of Dormition Abbey click the link below. The website offers GPS data and pictures of graves as well as a search function. For full access you will have to register or log in with Facebook.
