page_title: Crosier Monastery, Maastricht
section_title: Monastic life
hierarchical_section_title: Crosier Monastery, Maastricht / History / Monastic life
caption_attribution_description: English: Register of possessions in Herderen, owned by the Monastery of the Croziers (Kruisherenklooster) in Maastricht around 1550. Archief van het Kruisherenklooster in Maastricht, RHCL, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
context_page_description: The Crosier Monastery or Monastery of the Crutched Friars is a former monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross in Maastricht, Netherlands. The well-preserved convent buildings house a five-star hotel, the Kruisherenhotel. It is a rare example of a Gothic monastery in the Netherlands, having survived more or less in its entirety. The buildings from the 15th and 16th century constitute three listed buildings. The more or less intact monastery archive is unique in the Netherlands.
context_section_description: The Maastricht Crosiers started in 1438 with four friars. In 1468 there were 15; in 1483 this had increased to 23. In 1500, the Maastricht monastery was among the larger foundations of the order. The fifth prior, Walterus of Herentals (1483-1517), accepted 24 new priests, many of whom came from Maastricht.
  The Crutched Friars were canons regular, living a communal life according to the Rule of St. Augustine. Their first and foremost task was to pray and sing the Liturgy of the Hours. Several of them served as priests in nunneries or third order monasteries in Maastricht, such as the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre (Bonnefantenklooster), the Third Order Grey Sisters (Grauwzustersklooster), the Third Order Sisters of St Andrew (Sint-Andriesklooster) and the Alexians (Cellebroedersklooster), or in parish churches in Maastricht or nearby villages, such as Vlijtingen, Bolbeek and Haccourt. Other friars worked as copyists and illuminators of manuscripts, or bookbinders, later also as printers. Others worked in hospitality (the monastery offered accommodation to lay people; the elderly could 'buy themselves into the monastery') or nursing (as during the plague epidemics of 1529 and 1579). A further source of income were mass stipends, as well as the sale of burial rights in the church (for which the church was known). Over the centuries the Crosiers got ever wealthier because of the accumulation of property that people left to them. Most of this property (or income from real estate) was located in the vicinity of Maastricht, mostly in the border region with Belgium.
  The Fraternity of the Holy Cross seems to have existed from 1439 until 1579; after that there is no mention of it. Another fraternity was founded around 1510 and lasted till the dissolution of the monastery. It was devoted to the patron saint of the Crosiers, Saint Michael. The fraternities had their own altars in the Crosier church. The Fraternity of Saint Michael possibly ordered a wooden statue of Saint Michael from the famous wood sculptor Jan van Steffeswert in 1512.
caption: List of Crosiers' possessions in Herderen, 16th-17th century
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