# Kloster Marienburger ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1862 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Wutöschingen-Ofteringen | | Status | Active | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/ | Kloster Marienburger is the name under which the herbal remedies of Kloster Marienburg, a Catholic convent in Ofteringen in southern Germany, reach shoppers. The convent was founded in 1862, when four Benedictine sisters took a lease on the former castle of Ofteringen [8]. Its product tradition is younger: a distribution company called OPHAS was set up in 1933 to sell remedies made to the convent's recipes [8]. Today the line is small. The convent's shop offers a single skincare product, the herbal salve Panavulsin, alongside a few herbal drinks and spirits. The salve is also listed by a German online pharmacy, which names Ophas GmbH, based at the convent's own street address, as its maker [9]. The brand is active: the convent is inhabited and its shop is operating. ## Origin & founders Ofteringen is a district of the municipality of Wutöschingen, in the Waldshut district of Baden-Württemberg, in the Black Forest. Its castle had once belonged to a local family of knights. After that family died out, the "castle of Ofteringen" passed to Rheinau Abbey [8]. In 1862 the property was leased by four sisters: Sabina Schneider, who took the religious name Josepha Meinrada, together with Scholastika Weiß, Benedikta Reck and Walburga Stoll [8]. According to the convent, Schneider was born in Sinzheim near Baden-Baden in 1831 and joined the work of Benedictine renewal around 1855. Acting on a directive from Archbishop Hermann von Vicari, she set out to establish a Benedictine community in Baden devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The convent's own account dates the sisters' arrival in Ofteringen to 4 June 1862 [5]. Two weeks later, on the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi, they began the "perpetual adoration", a continuous rota of prayer before the sacrament. The convent says the practice has continued ever since, through wars and other upheavals. Schneider died in 1891; her remains were moved to the convent cemetery in Ofteringen in 1949. ## History & milestones The convent's working life has always reached beyond prayer. German Wikipedia describes gardening and farming at the site, along with beekeeping and winemaking, and notes that the sisters are known for embroidering liturgical textiles, the vestments and cloths used in church services. The step towards a product business came in 1933, when the OPHAS distribution company was founded [8]. Among the remedies produced were one called Haimakainizon and a salve named Myrisma, made to a formula attributed to Josef Häusle [8]. Neither product is offered in the convent's shop today. The buildings themselves carry much of the site's history. The baroque chapel has stucco work by Hans Georg Leiner and paintings by Judas Thaddäus Sichelbein. A large barn, the Große Schüer, was built in 1713 and now serves as a cultural centre. In the twenty-first century the community faced a common problem for religious houses: falling membership. To secure the convent's future, Passionist sisters from Warsaw came to Ofteringen in 2009 [8]. The convent gives the date of their arrival as 26 August 2009 and says they settled within the Benedictine convent of Marienburg [4]. The Passionists are a Polish order founded by Mother Józefa Joanna Hałacińska, who was born in 1867 and received Vatican approval for the new congregation on 13 July 1918. Their spirituality, the convent writes, has from the start centred on devotion to the suffering of Christ. According to the same page, around 155 Passionist sisters live in 23 convents worldwide, most of them in Poland, with further houses in Canada, Italy and Cameroon. ## Ownership The products are sold through a shop on the convent's website that is titled "Klosterladen Ophas", linking it to the company name of 1933. The website's legal notice names the operator as Kloster Marienburg Ofteringen, entered in the commercial register in Freiburg, with Werner Büche as managing director. The pharmacy listing for Panavulsin names Ophas GmbH, Klosterstraße 6, Wutöschingen, as the supplier [9], the same address as the convent. The precise legal relationship between the convent and Ophas GmbH is not set out in public sources, and no outside parent company is known. ## Philosophy & positioning The convent does not publish a mission statement, tagline or set of brand values for its products. The clearest description comes from German Wikipedia, which states that natural remedies are still sold according to the convent's recipes [8]. The products are presented less as a cosmetics range than as part of the house's long-standing work, sold next to herbal drinks in the same small shop. ## Products & innovation The single skincare product in the current range is Panavulsin, a salve sold in a 50-gram tube [2]. The convent lists seven plants among its ingredients: arnica, calendula, horsetail, St John's wort, rue, arbor vitae and chickweed. The online pharmacy aponeo.de describes it as a care ointment with plant extracts, intended for dry and cracked skin [9]. Its description adds camphor and the essential oils of lavender and aniseed. The base combines lanolin, a wax taken from sheep's wool, with olive oil. The retailer says the salve forms a protective layer on the skin while still letting it breathe, and that it also helps to revive strained muscles. The rest of the shop lies outside skincare. It sells Edeltropfen, a herbal spirit; Kräuter-Met, a herbal mead; and Spitzwegerich, a ribwort plantain syrup made with honey and sold for coughs. No third-party certifications, patents or clinical studies are documented for any of the products. ## Current status Kloster Marienburg remains an inhabited convent, and German Wikipedia describes it as active despite declining numbers [8]. Its online shop is operating, with current products and delivery terms, and ships within Germany. The convent's news page carries no dated announcements, so there is no recent product launch to point to; the brand's activity rests on the shop itself. Distribution is limited to the convent's own shop and an online pharmacy listing in Germany. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1862 | Four Benedictine sisters lease the former Ofteringen castle and found the convent; perpetual adoration begins on the eve of Corpus Christi 1862 (quote: 'Seit dem Vorabend des Fronleichnamsfestes 1862 zelebrierten die Benediktinerinnen die „Ewige Anbatung“') | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Marienburg_(Ofteringen) | | 1933 | OPHAS distribution company founded (quote: '1933 war die _OPHAS_ Vertriebsgesellschaft gegründet worden.'); remedies produced included Haimakainizon and the salve Myrisma after Josef Häusle | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Marienburg_(Ofteringen) | | 2009 | Passionist sisters arrive in Ofteringen and settle in the Benedictine convent (quote: 'Am 26. August 2009 kamen die Passionistinnen nach Deutschland nach Wutöschingen-Ofteringen im Schwarzwald.') | https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/schwestern/passionistinnen/ | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Panavulsin (salve, 50 g tube)** — "Panavulsin (50 g Tube)" – 10,00 € enthält "Arnika, Ringelblume, Schachtelhalm, Johanniskraut, Gartenraute, Lebensbaum und Sternmiere" — https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/aktuelles/klosterladen/ - **Myrisma (historical salve, after Josef Häusle)** — An Heilmitteln wurden u. a. Haimakainizon und die Salbe Myrisma nach Josef Häusle hergestellt. — https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Marienburg_(Ofteringen) ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Arnika (arnica) · Ringelblume (calendula) · Schachtelhalm (horsetail) · Johanniskraut (St. John's wort) · Gartenraute (rue) · Lebensbaum (arbor vitae) · Sternmiere (chickweed) Source: https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/aktuelles/klosterladen/ ## Sources 2. (T2) https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/aktuelles/klosterladen/ 4. (T2) https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/schwestern/passionistinnen/ 5. (T2) https://www.kloster-ofteringen.de/schwestern/benediktinerinnen/ 8. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Marienburg_(Ofteringen) 9. (T4) https://www.aponeo.de/02194184-panavulsin-pflegesalbe.html --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-06 Please cite with a link to the article URL.