Bilhildis from Altmünster

St. Bilhildis, 1731

Bilhildis von Altmünster , also Bilihild , Bilehild or Bilihilt (* in the 7th century in Veitshöchheim ; † around 734 in Mainz ) was a Franconian noblewoman, founder of a monastery and abbess. Bilhildis is Old High German and means "the one who fights with the ax". She wears an abbess robe or princess hermelin in depictions and is shown with a church model as an attribute in her hand or while caring for the sick.

Life

Little is known about the life of Saint Bilhildis von Altmünster. Her cult is attested for the first time in a Mainz calendar around 1000. Her imaginatively decorated vita was only written after 1060/62.

According to legend, she came from the Bavarian town of Veitshöchheim and was a daughter of Count Iberin / Jberin from the Franconian aristocratic family of the Haganones and his wife Mathilda. Around 672 she was married against her will to the unbaptized Duke Heden ( dux militum gentilis ... vocabulo Hetan ) from the Hedenen family, who resided in Würzburg . It is not clear whether Heden I or Heden II was her husband. Perhaps it was neither, and Bilhildis had a different, but no longer transparent, way of affection with the Würzburg ducal dynasty or the mainland-Thuringian nobility.

She is said to have been expecting a child when her husband set out on a campaign and returned to Veitshochheim during this time. From there she secretly traveled by ship on the Main to Mainz to see her uncle ( avunculus ), Bishop Rigibertus . Her son who was born there soon died. According to tradition, Bilhildis stayed in Mainz even when her husband returned from the campaign; other traditions report that she converted him to Christianity.

After the death of her husband, Bishop Rigibert bought a plot of land near Mainz. There, with his support, she founded a small women's convent, initially called Hagenmüster or Hohenmünster and, since the early Middle Ages, Altmünster , Benedictine monastery , which she furnished with goods near Würzburg and of which she was the head until her death. Recently, however, the monastery has been viewed more as a foundation of the Iro-Scottish Mission. The original monastery complex stood between what is now Bahnhofstrasse and Münsterstrasse, Bilhildisstrasse and Alicenstrasse. The church was St. Consecrated to Mary.

Adoration

After her death, Bilhildis was buried in the choir of the monastery church. In 1289 an altar and her own reliquary with her head were built in the monastery. The monastery was incorporated into the Cistercian order in 1243 and abolished in 1781. The relics were first placed in the Emmeranskirche in Mainz and, after it was bombed and destroyed in 1945, in the sacristy of Mainz Cathedral . The head relic was scientifically examined in 1991 and found to be genuine.

Their veneration experienced a great boom in Mainz and Main Franconia in the 18th century, especially after their reliquary translation in 1722 to Veitshöchheim, but fell sharply after the dissolution of the Altmünster monastery. In Veitshöchheim there is a church service every year on November 27th. In addition, the Bilhildis procession takes place on a Sunday in May , during which her bust is carried through the courtyard garden and streets.

In the Catholic Church she is the patroness of the sick.

literature

Brigitte Flug: External bond and internal order: The Altmünster Monastery in Mainz in its history and constitution from the beginning to the end of the 14th century. (Geschichtliche Landeskunde; Vol. 61), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006, ISBN 978-3-515-08241-9
Margarete Weidemann, Mainz: Certificate and vita of St. Bilhildis from Mainz . In: Francia - Research on West European History, 21/1 (1994) francia.digitale-sammlungen.de
Ingrid Adam and Horst Reber (eds.): 1300 years of the Altmünsterkloster in Mainz. Treatises and catalog of the exhibition in the Landesmuseum Mainz 1993/94, Mainz, 1993
Ingrid Adam: Bilhildis and others in: Vierteljahreshefte for culture, politics, economy, history. Ed .: City of Mainz; Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz, Issue 3 1992
Manfred Stimming: The holy Bilhildis. A contribution to research on forgery of documents and legend of saints , in: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 37, 1917, 234ff.
Ekkart Sauser: Bilhildis. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 770-771. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Wikisource: Sankt Bilhildis - Sources and full texts

Commons : Saint Bilhildis - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Bilhildis from Altmünster
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bilihild; Bilehild; Bilihilt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Franconian nobleman, founder of the monastery and abbess
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Veitshochheim
DATE OF DEATH	at 734
Place of death	Mainz