Hildegund von Geseke

Hildegund von Geseke (Hildegundis) (* 10th century ; † 1024 ) was abbess of the Geseke women's monastery from 1014 to 1024 .

Life

Hildegund was a granddaughter of Count Hahold . A Bernhard is named as the father.

Before she entered Geseke Abbey, she was married. Her husband was Amelung, son of Ekbert (one eye) von Saksen-Billung, Count in Ambergau, and his wife Frederuna von Meiszen. Ekbert vom Ambergau was the son of Wichman I. von Saksen-Billung. With Amelung she had sons Dodiko and Sigebode I.

Hildegund was the last abbess of Geseke from the founding family of the Haholde . She named prayer commemoration for the donors from her family as a central task of the monastery. She transferred the pen in 1014 to the protection of the Archbishops of Cologne in the person of Heribert . Her position as a member of the founding family was so strong that this could take place without the involvement of the king. The archbishop awarded the monastery a tithe of fifty days' work and received recognition interest of 50 shillings annually. Thus the monastery had to accept a Vogt to be determined by the Cologne church and the consent of the archbishop to elect the freely elected abbess. As a reason for the step, Hildegund gave, among other things, her age. However, the fact that she wanted to prevent the pen from falling into the hands of Bishop Meinwerk von Paderborn , who acquired the rights of a count and brought her family into distress, may also have played a role . She saw herself as the last member of the sex and wanted to see the pen in greater safety. This step meant a dependence on Cologne and was the legal basis of the community for the following centuries.

The certificate received about the protection status has turned out to be a forgery. The content itself is considered to be secure. The Archbishop's Vogt Thiemo took the place of the Count. The former Vogt was a Count Sikko. A Sikko and an abbess Hildegund are also mentioned in a document from the Dietkirchen monastery near Bonn , so that it has been assumed that Hildegund was also abbess there. It may also be she who handed over the chapel belonging to the monastery on the Borberg near Brilon to an undisclosed recipient without consulting the convent.

Already in 1011 and 1014 she had reservations about Bishop Meinwerk von Paderborn. With her consent, however, her son Dodiko handed over his allod property to the Bishop of Paderborn in 1018 after the accidental death of his only son . Heinrich II transferred the feudal share of his property to Meinwerk in 1021. Hildegund was passed over as mother and heiress. In 1018 she had agreed to an exchange between her second son Sigibodo and the Paderborn church. As the heir to her son Sigibodo and his wife - who had since died - she challenged their donations at the Fürstentag in Herzfeld after the election of Konrad II in 1024, but was unable to prevail. It is possible that one of her grandchildren was Vogt at the time and accompanied her to the meeting.

Together with the first abbess Wichburga , she was thought of as the foundress of the monastery at least in the 17th century.

literature

• Ulrich Löer: The noble Kanonissenstift St. Cyriakus zu Geseke (Germania Sacra new part 50: The dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Cologne. The archbishopric of Cologne,  6). Berlin / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019923-9 , pp. 40, 70f. 113, 119f. 127, 291f.