Church of the Holy Ghost, Copenhagen Church of the Holy Ghost, Copenhagen The Church of the Holy Spirit (Danish: Helligåndskirken) in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the city's oldest churches. The first abbey in Copenhagen was a Franciscan monastery founded in 1238, just 12 years after the death of Francis of Assisi. Prior to that, Archbishop Eskil had founded two Cistercian monasteries, Esrom Abbey and Herrevad Abbey. Typically for the order, they had been founded at more remote locations in Northern Zealand and Skåneland. At first, the new institution in Copenhagen was more of a hostal and workshop for travelling monks than a monastery proper. It
History of Denmark hand, mobs forcibly closed Franciscan abbeys all over Denmark. They beat up monks, two of whom died. The closure of Franciscan houses occurred systematically in Copenhagen, Viborg, Aalborg, Randers, Malmö and ten other cities; in all, 28 monasteries or houses closed. People literally hounded Franciscan monks out of the towns. No other order faced such harsh treatment. Considering how strongly many people felt about removing all traces of Catholic traditions from Danish churches, surprisingly little violence took place. Luther's teaching had become so overwhelmingly popular that Danes systematically cleared churches of statues, paintings, wall-hangings, reliquaries and other Catholic elements without