De Wohn mett Parra unn Paada

The biggest event in the village is the so called "Bruder-Konrad-Ritt", a procession to hail the holy Brother Konrad, the holy of the farmers. It takes place every year on Whit Monday. The priest Günter Broy of the local parish together with father Siegbert, prior of the Monastery in Blieskastel transfer a relic of the holy from Medelsheim to Utweiler, where tractors and horses are blessed to serve the people using them. In Utweiler, there is then an open air Mass. The collection is for the work of brother Beatus, a Utweiler born missionary working in West-Timor, Indonesia.
On the way, decorated tractors and horses join the procession and houses and streets are decorated with flags.
After the Mass, everybody is invited to eat and drink in a big tent at the end of the village set up by the local fire department and a lot of people of the village help to run the event.
Each year more than thousand pilgrims come to the little village on that day.
A german article about the 99 event in the local newspaper "Saarbrücker Zeitung" can be read here.




(c) Bernd Meyer