ÅS (ASYLUM), ABBEY OF

A former cistercian monastery located at the mouth of the Viska River, Halland, Sweden, in the former Archdiocese of Lund (also known as Aos, Aas, Asylum ). It was founded in 1194, probably by Waldemar (d. c. 1237), a son of King Canute V of Denmark and Bishop of Schleswig, and placed in the care of Cistercian monks who had been encouraged to come to the area by Abp. eskil of lund. It was affiliated to the abbey of Sorö, near Copenhagen, which was in turn a daughterhouse of Esrom, founded directly from clairvaux. Very little is known of the history of the abbey. Two daughters of the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson were buried there c. 1340, and Queen Margaret of Denmark gave the monastery a gilded table with relics, asking the community for remembrance in its prayers; in return, her deceased father, King Waldemar, was affiliated with the order. During the last decades of the 14th century two of the abbots later became abbots of Sorö. The records show that the abbey was devastated by fire in 1397, and a document of 1441 notes that the church of the monastery was damaged and had no roof. In 1535 the last abbot, Mats Eriksson, was appointed as the first Protestant rector of the parishes of Veddige and Ås. The abbey was later destroyed.

Bibliography: p. von mÖller, Bidrag till Hallands historia (Lund 1874), v. 1. j. m. canivez, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 4:865–867. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 1:168–169.

[o. odenius]