Jutta von Ahaus

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Jutta von Ahaus (* around 1352; † January 23, 1408 in Diepenveen ) was abbess at Vreden Abbey .

Life

Origin and family

Jutta von Ahaus was born as the daughter of Hermann II von Ahaus (* before 1300, † 1362) and Agnes' von Steinfurt (1295–1342, aunt of Abbess Lutgard von Steinfurt). The family belonged to a noble family .

Career and work

At the age of about five, Jutta was given to the Vreden canonical monastery in 1357 and accepted there. In 1369 she held the office of waiter and in 1385 she became provess . Thus she held the highest office after the abbess Adelheid von Bentheim . After Adelheid's death on April 23, 1387, she was appointed abbess. The election confirmation was preceded by a seven-year legal battle because of the conflicting outcome of the election. In 1393, on their triumphal entry, a terrible accident happened: their coachman fell from his box and died. This event strongly influenced her and plunged her into a psychological crisis. Through the treatment of her illness, she came into contact with Johannes Brinckerinck, who took care of her conversion to the Devotio moderna . The aim of this stream of faith was to lead people to a simple life in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

In autumn 1395 she decided to leave the monastery. In their place came Elizabeth III. van Voorst. In preparation for the move to the community of devotees in Deventer, Jutta had learned to spin, probably to the incomprehension of the noble Vreden canon ladies, who saw Jutta's behavior as a disgrace for the pen. When she moved to Deventer, she left her little niece Margaretha von Ahaus - later abbess in Nottuln - alone in the Vredener monastery.

She lived in a shared apartment until the summer of 1400 when Johannes Brinckerinck founded the St. Agnes sister house in Diepenveen and installed Jutta there as one of the first sisters. She worked hard to help set up the pen: herding oxen, feeding pigs, mucking out stables, spiders and other heavy-duty activities were now part of everyday life. On January 21, 1408, the sister house adopted the Augustinian rule. The terminally ill Jutta was dressed and she took her religious vows on the sickbed . So she died two days later as an Augustinian nun.

Jutta became a role model because her life was shaped by a contrast between her aristocratic descent / social position as abbess on the one hand and her conversion and subsequent existence as a simple sister on the other.

literature

  • Volker Tschuschke : The noble lords of Ahaus. A contribution to the history of the Westphalian nobility in the Middle Ages (series Westmünsterland, sources and studies, volume 16); ISBN 3-937432-12-4 , Landeskundliches Institut Westmünsterland, Vreden 2007

Web links

  • Von Ahaus pedigrees in the GEDBAS online genealogy database

Individual evidence

  1. Volker Tschuschke: The noble lords of Ahaus. A contribution to the history of the Westphalian nobility in the Middle Ages (series Westmünsterland, sources and studies, volume 16); ISBN 3-937432-12-4 , Landeskundliches Institut Westmünsterland, Vreden 2007, p. 147.