Anna Lerch from Dirmstein

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Family coat of arms Lerch von Dirmstein

Anna Lerch von Dirmstein OSB (born November 11, 1580 in Dirmstein , † September 11, 1660 in Kitzingen ) was a Palatine noblewoman from the Lerch von Dirmstein family who , as the abbess of the Benedictine monasteries Rupertsberg and Eibingen, kept the relics of St. Hildegard von Bingen saved from destruction.

Parentage and family

Anna Lerch was the daughter of Caspar III. Lerch von Dirmstein (1540–1590) and his second wife Dorothea von Eltz-Langenau († 1603) were born. Her brother, the regionally significant Caspar IV. Lerch von Dirmstein (1575–1642), was married to Martha Brendel von Homburg , a niece of Archbishop of Mainz Daniel Brendel von Homburg (1523–1582). Her sister Agatha Lerch von Dirmstein joined in 1608 with Gottfried von Heppenheim called vom Saal . They were the parents of the Mainz cathedral dean and chancellor of Heidelberg University , Johann von Heppenheim called vom Saal († 1672), who founded the Mainz seminary together with his grand cousin, Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn, in 1660 . Anna's half-brother Christoph Lerch von Dirmstein (from the father's first marriage) had married Agnes von Rodenstein, the sister of Worms Prince-Bishop Philipp von Rodenstein (1564-1604).

Life

Rupertsberg Monastery before destruction
Shrine with the relics of St. Mary saved by Anna Lerch von Dirmstein Hildegard
Parts of the other relics saved by Anna Lerch von Dirmstein

Anna and her sister Barbara became Benedictines and both entered the Rupertsberg monastery near Bingen founded by Hildegard . In 1599 they made their profession together, in 1602 they renounced their parental inheritance in a document. Barbara died of the plague in 1612 and was buried in the monastery area.

In 1611 Anna Lerch von Dirmstein was elected abbess of the Rupertsberg Monastery, which made her successor in office to the founder Hildegard and also received the title of Abbess of the Eibingen Monastery , which was also under her control. She was also the successor to her own older sister Kunigunde Lerch von Dirmstein († 1607) as head of Rupertsberg.

When the Swedes threatened Rupertsberg Monastery during the Thirty Years' War , the abbess and five other sisters fled to Cologne on November 30, 1631, to the Benedictine monastery of St. Agatha , taking the head, heart and tongue of St. Hildegard took with him, as well as the head, the right foot and the right hand of the monastery patron St. Rupert von Bingen . Anna Lerch von Dirmstein hid the remaining sanctuaries of the monastery, including the remaining part of the bone relics of Rupert and Hildegard and their religious dress, in the grave vault under the Rupertsberg church. On April 19, 1632, the Swedish major Alexander Hanna (from the Jakob Ramsay regiment ) had the monastery looted and set on fire. Afterwards, residents of the area also attacked the ruins in order to rob them again. The hiding place under the nuns choir of the church remained undiscovered and unscathed despite the fire. Lay sisters from Rupertsberg cleared it later and brought the relics to the town church of Bingen .

After the Swedes had evacuated the Rheingau in 1636 , the nuns returned. In 1638 Anna Lerch von Dirmstein lived with the sisters who accompanied her in a house in Bingen. In 1641 she moved to Eibingen monastery, united this convent with the remaining Benedictine nuns from Rupertsberg and headed the monastery. All relics from Rupertsberg were now there. The Archbishop of Mainz, Elector Anselm Casimir Wambolt von Umstadt, lacked the means to rebuild the devastated Rupertsberg. He therefore ordered the permanent unification of the two monasteries and their settlement in Eibingen . The abbess refused and asked him to rebuild the historic Hildegard monastery in Rupertsberg. Thereupon the Archbishop forced Anna Lerch von Dirmstein to resign from her office in 1642, the reason given being her supposedly “bad administration”.

The abbess resigned as ordered and left the Eibingen monastery accompanied by the sisters Kunigunde Schütz von Holzhausen and Ursula Müller. At first they lived with Anna's brother Caspar IV. Lerch von Dirmstein in Mainz , who soon died. Further stations of her stay were Worms , the Hardenburg and Seebach Monastery near Dürkheim , before the three sisters were accepted into the Benedictine monastery in Kitzingen , where Anna Lerch von Dirmstein lived in seclusion for many years and died on September 11, 1660.

In 1642 Magdalena Ursula von Sickingen was elected abbess in Eibingen; she died of the plague in 1666. She was followed by Kunigunde Schütz von Holzhausen, who had meanwhile returned from Kitzingen, and Anna Lerch von Dirmstein's confidante, as abbess.

Historical meaning

Anna Lerch von Dirmstein through her resolute action has all relics of St. Hildegard and St. Rupertus and all other sanctuaries saved, which are now in the so-called Eibinger reliquary . When a church fire in Eibingen in 1932, the relics remained undamaged, but Hildegard's vestments were destroyed. There is only a small piece left in the Rochus Chapel in Bingen , which Bishop Peter Joseph Blum gave away here in 1863 and which survived the church fire there in 1889.

literature

  • Michael Martin: Sources on the history of Dirmstein and the Lerch von Dirmstein family , Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research , 2004, p. 147 and other sources , ISBN 3980830446 ; (Detail scan)
  • Michael Martin (Ed.): Dirmstein - Adel, Bauern und Bürger , self-published by the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, 2005, ISBN = 3-9808304-6-2, p. 69 and 70
  • Anton Philipp Brück (editor): Hildegard von Bingen: 1179–1979 - Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the death of the saints . Verlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 2nd edition, Mainz 1998, pp. 374–376, ISBN 3-929135-19-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website on the couple's history.
  2. ^ Website of the diocese of Mainz on Domdean Johann von Heppenheim, named by the hall.
  3. ^ Document regist , from which the sisterhood between Christoph Lerch von Dirmstein and Bishop Philipp von Rodenstein results,  in the German Digital Library .
  4. ↑ Michael Martin: Sources on the history of Dirmstein and the Lerch von Dirmstein family , 2004, ISBN 3980830446 , p. 154 ( text excerpt from the source ).
  5. ↑ Document proposal for renunciation of inheritance 1602, with the naming of Barbara and Anna Lerch von Dirmstein, as Rupertsberg nuns,  in the German Digital Library .
  6. ↑ Rosel Termolen: Hildegard von Bingen, biography , Pattloch Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3629005330 , p. 106 ( detail scan ).
  7. ^ Rudolf Engelhardt: Rupertus von Bingen: Bingen and the Binger Land in Rupertine times , Association of Heimatfreunde am Mittelrhein e. V., 1968, p. 227 ( detail scan ).
  8. ↑ Erbe und Einsatz , Volume 39, Erzabtei Beuron, 1963, p. 393 ( detail scan ).
  9. ^ Archive for Middle Rhine Church History , Society for Middle Rhine Church History , Volume 35, 1983, p. 88 ( detail scan ).
  10. ^ Anton Philipp Brück (editor): Hildegard von Bingen: 1179–1979 - Festschrift for the 800th anniversary of the death of the saints. Verlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 2nd edition, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-929135-19-1 , pp. 380–382.
personal data
SURNAME Lerch von Dirmstein, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Palatine nobles, Benedictines, abbess of the monasteries Rupertsberg and Eibingen
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1580
PLACE OF BIRTH Dirmstein
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1660
Place of death Kitzingen