Parish & Pilgrimage Church Maria Heimsuchung Klausen

We are talking about "St Kommholmich", an image on a tombstone in the church in Klausen. Visitors to a lecture evening learnt what is really behind this legendary figure.

What can be seen on the tomb slab, which according to popular belief depicts the saint? Slender in stature, elegantly dressed and in a coquettish pose, Philipp, Lord of Ottenesch, is depicted as a noble gentleman on his tombstone. The 2.45 metre high relief of the nobleman hangs in the tower hall of the pilgrimage church in Klausen.

This image is popularly known as the "Heiliger Kommholmich" (Holy Kommholmich) because women who wanted to marry used to visit the tomb. There they pulled the Kommholmich by the "Bambelbox". "To do this, they would put their fingers in the sculpted grooves of the pluderhose." This is how Peter Dohms describes the custom in his 1968 book about Eberhardsklausen. This custom led to a parish priest writing a letter to the then Bishop of Trier in 1870, requesting that he arrange for the parish priest of Klausen to remove this image. But it still hangs to this day.