Rikinza from Gernrode

Seal of the Abbess Rikinza

Rikinza or Richenza was at least from 1205 to 1206 the abbess of the free secular monastery of Gernrode and Frose . She is since the last documentary mention of the abbess Hedwig III. in 1152, after more than fifty years, the first abbess for whom written sources are available again.

Life

Rikinza comes from an unknown family and is only known from two documents, one of which is dated from 1205 and the other is of unknown date. She probably died soon afterwards, because her successor Adelheid II von Büren appears as the addressee for the first time in August 1207 in a papal document, so she must have been elected in the spring of 1207.

After the death of Abbess Hedwig III. There seems to have been problems in the abbey, because in 1156 Pope Hadrian IV considered it necessary to order a visit to the monastery. If the abbess refused to obey the Pope's instructions, she should be threatened with dismissal. The name of the abbess is not known, so the documented story only begins again with Rikinza.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans K. Schulze: Das Stift Gernrode (...), Böhlau, Cologne 1965, p. 45

literature

• Andreas Popperodt: Historia Ecclesiae Gerenrodenses 1560, first version by Johann Christoph Beckmann in Accesiones Historia Anhaltinae 1716 as Annales Gernrodensis .
• Otto von Heinemann : History of the abbey and description of the collegiate church at Gernrode . HC Huch, Quedlinburg 1877.
• Hans Hartung: On the past of Gernrode . Carl Mittag, Gernrode 1912.
• Hans K. Schulze : The Gernrode Abbey . Using a manuscript by Reinhold Specht. With an art history contribution by Günther W. Vorbrodt. (Central German Research Vol. 38), Böhlau, Cologne 1965.

Web links

Commons : Rikinza von Gernrode  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Documentation of the exhibition SchleierHaft