Helena von Freyberg
Helena von Freyberg (* 1491 in Münichau , Tyrol , † 1545 in Augsburg ) was a leading representative of the Austro-South German Anabaptist movement . She came from the noble family of Freyberger . There are also the name forms Helene von Freyberg and Helene von Freiberg .
Life
Helena von Freyberg was born around 1491 in Münichau in Tyrol. She received her school education from a private tutor . In March 1528 von Freyberg joined the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement and, like her servants, was baptized at the family home in Münichau. She had probably already sympathized with the ideas of the Reformation before she turned to the Anabaptist movement . As a result, she supported regional Anabaptist preachers and made Münichau Castle a center of the early Austrian Anabaptist movement. She was also in contact with Pilgram Marpeck , who probably himself had attended several Anabaptist meetings in Münichau. She visited imprisoned Anabaptists and also provided financial support.
After the threat of arrest in December 1529, she fled to Konstanz , where she continued to be involved in the Anabaptist movement in the following years. In 1532 her return to Tyrol was finally allowed, provided she should revoke her Anabaptist views. She returned to Tyrol for a short time, revoked against the governor in Innsbruck and then emigrated to Augsburg . Here she was imprisoned after the takeover of the city of Münster by the militant Münster Anabaptists and finally expelled. She probably lived in Tyrol again during this time. In 1539, however, she was able to return to Augsburg and continue her commitment to the Anabaptist movement there. Among other things, she mediated the dispute between Pilgram Marpeck and Kaspar von Schwenckfeld . In the last years of her life she wrote a confession of guilt in which she turned to the congregation in Augsburg and Pilgram Marpeck and in which she addressed, among other things, the serenity in following Christ . She also admitted that with her revocation in Tyrol she had given in to the authorities and had been guilty of guilt. The confession of guilt was later also included in the art book , a collection of letters and writings from the Marpeck circle . Helena von Freyberg died of natural causes in 1545.
Baroness Helena von Freyberg is regarded as one of the most important representatives of the Upper German Anabaptist movement . She was married to Baron Onophrius von Freyberg, who was of Swiss and Bavarian origin and lived at Hohenaschau Castle near Aschau in Chiemgau . They had four sons together. Her son Pankraz von Freyberg zu Hohenaschau later joined the Bavarian government as court marshal, Duke Albrechts .
Web links
- Linda A. Huebert Hecht: Freyberg, Helena von. In: Mennonite Lexicon . Volume 5 (MennLex 5).
- Robert Friedmann: Freyberg, Helene von (16th century) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Freyberg, Helena von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Freyberg, Helene von; Freiberg, Helene von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian person in the Anabaptist movement |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1491 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Münichau , Tyrol |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1545 |
| Place of death | augsburg |