other abbesses than Hildegard

While Hildegard was certainly amazing,
some other abbesses were pretty darn admirable as well. 

This page is an example of why it takes me so long to get anything done! I had never heard of Herrad, but discov­ered her as I was looking up some­thing else...me3

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You might want to take a look at some other very impres­sive abbesses at SaintsPreserved.
 (click on your choice)

Herrad of Landsberg abbess, poet

Herrad of Landsberg Selfportrait from Hortus deli­ciarum, ca. 1180.  These are the initial words of the descrip­tion from the last minia­ture (fol.322 – 323) of the Hortus deliciarum.

Herrad of Landsberg (1125÷30 — 1195) was from 1167 – 95 abbess of the Chorfrauenstift in Hohenburg (Alsace) and is known as writer and illus­trator of the “Hortus Deliciarum” (“Garden of delights”, ca. 1180), consid­ered one of the best medieval minia­ture works (an ency­clo­pedia for nuns). It contains parts of the bible, writ­ings of the church fathers among others, as well as poetry by Herrad and others. Its 324 pages included 344 minia­tures, but the orig­inal was partly destroyed in Strassburg in the German/French war of 1870.

Hohenburg Abbey at the Mount St. Odile

Hohenburg Abbey at the Mount St. Odile

Born about 1130 at the castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered the Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges moun­tains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. The Hohenburg Abbey, also known as Mont St. Odile, was run by Abbess Relinda, a nun sent from the Benedictine monastery of Bergen in Bavaria to Hohenburg Abbey. Due to her support from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa the abbey was extremely successful and powerful, as well as a source for reform. At the abbey Herrad received the most compre­hen­sive educa­tion avail­able to women during the 12th century. As she grew older she rose to a high posi­tion in office at the abbey, and was soon put in charge of governing and educating her fellow nuns. After Relinda’s death, Herrad was elected abbess in 1167.

As abbess, Herrad worked on rebuilding the monastery, as well as consol­i­dating the land surrounding the monastery under its owner­ship. She proved herself to be a capable and well loved abbess, and it was at this time that she began her work on the Hortus Deliciarum. (source wikipedia)

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