Henriette von Seckendorff-Gutend

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henriette Louise Mathilde Freiin von Seckendorff-Gutend (born April 22, 1819 in Obernzenn / Middle Franconia ; † June 25, 1878 in Cannstatt ) was a German benefactor, "healer" and founder of the Villa Seckendorff in Cannstatt.

origin

Henriette von Seckendorff came from one of the oldest Franconian noble families. She was the youngest of eight siblings. Her parents were Baron Carl Alexander Wilhelm von Seckendorff-Gutend (* August 20, 1783; † October 17, 1822) and Janette von Seckendorff-Gutend (* February 4, 1783; † February 13, 1820). Henriette's mother died just six months after she was born, her father two years later.

Life

While her brothers embarked on a military career and the older sisters stayed with relatives, the two youngest sisters stayed in their parents' castle. Her training was entrusted to a French educator. Since her guardian, the brother of the late mother, Ernst Carl Johann Freiherr von Seckendorff-Gutend, did not like the French education, he took the girls into his own family after his marriage.

Henriette was looking for inner clarity and certainty of God's love early on, which the various educators could not show her. Although she was very young then, she remembered her father blessing her shortly before he went home. At the age of 22 she came across a book with songs and poems by Christoph Karl Ludwig von Pfeil , her great-grandfather. Here she found the faith she was looking for.

Soon afterwards she moved to Stuttgart. After enduring various serious illnesses, she felt a desire to serve Jesus and to become active through active mercy. She began to realize this project by visiting the residents of the community hospital in Stuttgart. Poor, old and disabled women lived there in very modest circumstances. She tried to bring the love of God to the sick and dying by reading the Bible to them and praying for them. During this time her servant fell ill with severe toothache, which is why she asked Henriette von Seckendorff to pray for her with the laying on of hands. This prayer actually made the toothache go away. The incident was to lay the foundation for the later work of Seckendorffs.

Henriette von Seckendorff was in contact with the important Pietists Sixt Karl Kapff , Jakob Johann Staudt and Johann Christoph Blumhardt , who supported her in her pastoral work. Blumhardt also attracted attention in Möttlingen with wonderful healings. Visits to him let Henriette von Seckendorff experience the effect of prayer in the name of Jesus . In the house of the factory owner's wife and pietist Charlotte Reihlen , she met Dorothea Trudel , who in turn brought healing to people through prayer in Männedorf , Switzerland . She saw this encounter as God's guidance and moved to Männedorf, where she accompanied Dorothea Trudel's work for a year and made many visits to the sick herself.

After returning to Stuttgart, she continued her visits to the citizen hospital. More and more sick people came to her with the request that she pray for them with the laying on of hands. Healings occurred again and again, and word quickly got around in the Stuttgart area. On the part of the church, von Seckendorff was rated extremely negatively, whereby it was exposed to contempt, hostility, ridicule and even slander. Nevertheless, people looking for help flocked to her. Some found temporary admission in their apartment and were cared for with pastoral talks and persistent prayer, without completely forgoing the help of doctors. The large number of people seeking help led to the plan to build an own hospital for the sick. In the spring of 1869 the newly built "Villa Seckendorff" was opened in Cannstatt, where many sufferers from different church backgrounds were accepted in the following period. Word of the healings spread widely, so that even from the Baltic States many wealthy people in search of help came.

In addition to the sick, healthy people from Cannstatt, Stuttgart and the surrounding area also showed interest in what was going on in the “Villa Seckendorff”. Many came to the villa on Sunday afternoons to hear the house mother's devotions. Upon repeated insistence, von Seckendorff published some of her devotions in 1875 under the title “Post-recorded house devotions held in the Villa Seckendorff in Cannstatt”. Since then, over 30 editions of this book have appeared.

Henriette von Seckendorff died on June 25, 1878 after a short illness and was buried two days later in Stuttgart with great sympathy.

aftermath

The "Villa Seckendorff" founded by Henriette von Seckendorff was for a long time run as a retirement and nursing home by the " Deaconess Mother House St. Chrischona" and has been run in the same function by the BruderhausDiakonie since August 2007 .

Works (selection)

  • Evangelical songs of faith, prayer and sickness by Christoph Carl Ludwig von Pfeil. Stuttgart 1908.
  • House devotions. Giessen / Basel 1953.
  • Look at him. House devotions in the Villa Seckendorff in Cannstatt. Asslar 1985.

Literature (selection)

  • Ernst Heinrich Kneschke (ed.): New general German nobility lexicon . Volume 8. Voigt, Leipzig 1868, pp. 421-423 ( full text in the Google book search)
  • Heinrich Petri: Henriette Freiin von Seckendorff. A mother of the sick and the melancholy. Brunnen, Gießen and Basel 1951.
  • Evang. Chrischona Community, proclamation work / pastoral work (ed.): 125 years of Villa Seckendorff 1868–1993. Pastoral care, old people's home, nursing home, community work. Stuttgart 1968, p. 6 ff.
  • Manfred Berger:  Seckendorff-Gutend, Henriette von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 1334-1342.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Michaela von Held: Henriette von Seckendorff-Gutend (1819–1879) , in: Adelheid M. von Hauff (ed.): Women shape diakonia. Volume 2: From the 18th to the 20th century. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 264-276.
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1861, p.748

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The information follows Manfred Berger:  Henriette von Seckendorff-Gutend. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 1334-1342.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
personal data
SURNAME Seckendorff-Gutend, Henriette von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seckendorff, Henriette von; Seckendorff-Gutend, Henriette Louise Mathilde Freiin von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German benefactress and "healer"
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Obernzenn , Middle Franconia
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1878
Place of death Cannstatt