Elsbeth from Oye

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Illustration from the manuscript Breslau, UB, IV F 194 a , fol. 1 vb

Elsbeth von Oye (around 1280/1350, exact life dates unknown) was a Swiss mystic of the late 13th century from the Oetenbach monastery in Zurich .

Life

Elsbeth von Oye ( from Ey , de Ogge , from Eicken ) is mentioned in chronicles of the orders, further details of her life - apart from the limitation of her lifetime to the period from 1280 to 1350 - cannot be inferred.

It is assumed that Elsbeth entered the Dominican Sisters' monastery at Oetenbach when she was six and died there at the age of around 50. Elsbeth is said to have lived through nine years in cruel self-mortification, an exact date of this phase of life cannot be determined. Mechthild von Opfikon and Elsbeth von Beggenhofen are among her contemporaries. A connection to Meister Eckhart can be established through his function as spiritual advisor to her contemporary Elsbeth von Beggenhofen and through his probable preaching activity in the Oetenbach monastery in the early 14th century.

plant

Elsbeth von Oye's work can be assigned to the autobiographical vision literature in German. Visions of God and auditions with saints are at the center of their testimonies. Elsbeth's revelations of God (mystical visions ) take place above all in a state of practiced self-mortification. In the Dominican monasteries around 1300, this willingness to practice the ascetic of suffering, which could lead to the mysticism of suffering, was well known, as the lives of saints and books of sisters tell us.

Elsbeth's text documents are characterized by a love-mystical, speculative-abstract language. Their revelations from God coincide above all with practiced self-flagellation. These diary-like self-testimonies depict compassion, the compassio with Christ, which enables the mystical union with God. Elsbeth's practice of mortification is particularly illustrated by being scourged with a needle cross or by carrying a heavy cross. The following text example of the self-made pin scourge exemplifies their torture: “I was really young, because I make myself a hostage with needles and vilt myself domit, so that they stuck me deeply deep in the flesh that I hardly pulled them against. "

These revelations are highlighted in research for the total self-centeredness of compassion. Her descriptions of suffering and revelation are unique because of this egocentricity, as there is no reference to political and social circumstances.

The descriptions of the nun were sometimes very drastic and also had a disturbing effect on contemporaries. That is why they were defused by the authorities in numerous places.

Text example

Wi susiklich got in ir In what sweet way God worked in her

Got gave me an inner thirst for his sympathy, so
that pain was never so sweet for me,
and han got
something to give up my life, of course, so bevinden as pitter waz in quite a while.
If I have absorbed my external senses,
then I have nothing else to do with tanning into
the origin, from which I have flowed a pin;
and because of that it works with such a sensual jamer, because
at the time pitter is me giving external things, because
I can not match
when he physically wears me or sores.

God gave me a deep thirst (urge) for his compassion, so
that pain was never so sweet and pleasant to me,
and I gave my life for God early on,
so that my condition was often very bitter.
When I close my exterior
, I cannot help but look
again at the source from which I flowed,
and so God works with such a longing pity
that I surrender myself bitterly to external things
that I cannot be like him
when he is me physically injured or inflicting wounds on me.

Lore

Elsbeth von Oye's revelations are handed down in some manuscripts. The main sources include the Codex of the Zurich Central Library Ms. Rh. 159 and the Codices of the Abbey Libraries in Einsiedeln ( Cod. 470 ) and Melk ( Cod. 1920 ).

In addition, there is a notable number of scattered traditions with texts by Elsbeth, such as B. Codices of the Nuremberg City Library, the State Library of Munich, the Abbey Library of St. Gallen etc.

The manuscript of the Wroclaw University Library Cod. IV F 194 a , which contains the puchlet of life and the revelation of swester Elsbethen von Oÿe , was only discovered in 1994.

Codex Zurich, ZB, Ms. Rh. 159

Elsbeth's tradition in Codex Rh. 159 of the Zurich Central Library occupies a special position in the corpus of the writings of mystics because of the following aspects : Codex Rh. 159 of the Zurich Central Library is an autograph manuscript. Handwritten documents ( autographs ) are seldom found in the Middle Ages. Elsbeth's autograph also stands out from other traditions and revelations as the "only 'self-testimony' of a woman".

Codex Breslau, UB, Cod. IV F 194 a

The Puchlein des Leben and the Revelation of Sister Elsbethen von Oÿe is divided into three parts: The preface and the table of contents are followed by 20 chapters that address Elsbeth's suffering and her revelations. These experiences of suffering and God are depicted from the narrator's perspective of the first person. Within the first part is an editor's description of Christian authorities and their teachings. The second part of the work is based on the next nine chapters. These are characterized by the anonymization and generalization of the divine revelations, since the first-person perspective is suppressed by an authorial narrative situation. This change in the narrative perspective gives the text passages an apparent generality, which was probably intended. In the third part of Elsbeth's Book of Revelation and Passion, auditions with Mary, John etc., not divine revelations, are described.

literature

  • Martina Wehrli-Johns: Elsbeth von Oye. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Monika Gsell : The flowing blood of the ›Revelations‹ of Elsbeth von Oye. In: German mysticism in an occidental context. Edited by Walter Haug. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2000, pp. 455-482.
  • Otto Langer: Bodily Experience of God. To compassio and spiritual sensuality in women's mysticism. In: Piety in the Middle Ages. Political-social contexts, visual practice, physical forms of expression. Edited by Klaus Schreiner. Munich: Fink 2002, pp. 439–462.
  • Hans Neumann: Elsbeth von Oye. In: The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon. 2., completely reworked. Ed. By Kurt Ruh [u. a.]. Vol. 2. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 1980, Sp. 511-514.
  • Peter Ochsenbein: The revelations of Elsbeth von Oye as a document of mysticism fixated on suffering. In: Western mysticism in the Middle Ages. Edited by Kurt Ruh. Stuttgart: Metzler. (= German symposia report volumes. VII.) Pp. 423–439.
  • Peter Ochsenbein: Mysticism of suffering in Dominican convents of the 14th century using the example of Elsbeth von Oye. In: Religious women's movement and mystical piety in the Middle Ages. Edited by Peter Dinzelbacher and Dieter R. Bauer. Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau 1988. (= Supplements to the archive for cultural history. 28.) pp. 353–372.
  • Wolfram Schneider-Lastin: Life and Revelation of Elsbeth von Oye. Text-critical edition of the vita from the ›Ötenbacher Schwesternbuch‹. In: Cultural topography of the German-speaking south-west in the late Middle Ages. Studies and texts. Edited by Barbara Fleith and René Wetzel. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 2009. (= cultural topography of the Alemannic area. 1.) pp. 395–448.
  • Gregor Wünsche: Imitatio Ioannis or Elsbeth's Apocalypse - The ›Revelations‹ of Elsbeth von Oye in the context of the Dominican devotion to John in the 14th century. In: Pain in the literature of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Edited by Hans Jochen Schiewer. Göttingen: V&R Unipress 2010. (= Transatlantic Studies on the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. 4.) pp. 167–190.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfram Schneider-Lastin: Life and Revelation of Elsbeth von Oye. Text-critical edition of the vita from the ›Ötenbacher Schwesternbuch‹. In: Cultural topography of the German-speaking south-west in the late Middle Ages. Studies and texts. Edited by Barbara Fleith and René Wetzel. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 2009. (= cultural topography of the Alemannic area. 1.) p. 404.
  2. ↑ Peter Ochsenbein: Mysticism of suffering in Dominican convents of the 14th century using the example of Elsbeth von Oye. In: Religious women's movement and mystical piety in the Middle Ages. Edited by Peter Dinzelbacher and Dieter R. Bauer. Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau 1988. (= supplements to the archive for cultural history. 28.) p. 356.
  3. ^ Hans Neumann: Elsbeth von Oye. In: The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon. 2., completely reworked. Ed. By Kurt Ruh [u. a.]. Vol. 2. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 1980, Sp. 511.
  4. ↑ Ochsenbein, Leidensmystik, p. 354f.
  5. ^ Neumann, Elsbeth von Oye, Sp. 513.
  6. ↑ Schneider Lastin, life and manifestation of Elsbeth from Oye, S. 409th
  7. ^ Ibid, pp. 356-360.
  8. ↑ Swiss National Museum | blog.nationalmuseum.ch: Fake news from the nunnery. In: Blog on Swiss History - Swiss National Museum. April 13, 2020, accessed on April 24, 2020 (German).
  9. ↑ Schneider Lastin, life and manifestation of Elsbeth from Oye, S. 425th
  10. ↑ http://www.handschriftencensus.de/werke/2851
  11. ↑ Peter Ochsenbein: The revelations of Elsbeth von Oye as a document of mysticism fixated on suffering. In: Western mysticism in the Middle Ages. Edited by Kurt Ruh. Stuttgart: Metzler. (= German symposia report volumes. VII.) P. 423f.
  12. ↑ Schneider Lastin, life and manifestation of Elsbeth from Oye, p 395ff.
  13. ↑ Monika Gsell : The flowing blood of the ›Revelations‹ of Elsbeth von Oye. In: German mysticism in an occidental context. Edited by Walter Haug. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2000, p. 455.
  14. ^ Ibid, pp. 455f.
  15. ↑ Schneider Lastin, life and manifestation of Elsbeth from Oye, S. 397f.
personal data
SURNAME Oye, Elsbeth from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss mystic
DATE OF BIRTH around 1290
DATE OF DEATH around 1340