Ash Wednesday

All great things must come to an end. The Fasching (German phrase “to pour from a barrel”) season of masquerades, formal balls & street parades is now officially over in Munich. Given Bavaria’s strong Roman Catholic background, we now begin a much more somber Lent season. This image was taken from the façade of little known St. Benno’s church, in Munich’s quiet Neuhausen neighborhood. St. Benno was named Bishop of Meissen in Saxony in 1066, and is well known for standing up to Emperor Henry IV, who tried to make the church dependent on the state. Benno was buried in Meissen, but at the time of the Germany reformation (400 years later) as the countryside turned from Catholic to Protestant, his body was moved to Munich and from that time St. Benno has been considered the patron saint of the city.