Suanhild (food)
Suanhild († July 30, 1085 in Essen ), in more modern spellings often also Swanhild , Svanhild or Schwanhild , was abbess of the Essen monastery from probably 1058 until her death . Like her predecessors, she had a church built and added works of art to the Essen cathedral treasure . Suanhild donated the Essen-Stoppenberg collegiate church as a parish chapel in 1073 . She added an arm reliquary of St. Basil to the Essen cathedral treasure .
Life
There are few written sources on Suanhild. She was probably the direct successor of the last Essen abbess Theophanu (1039-1058), who was related to an emperor , in whose undated will she is mentioned as a witness. This is also the first written mention of Suanhild. Your date of birth is unknown. The canonical minimum age to become an abbess was 30 years; if she were actually the direct successor of Theophanus, she would have to be born before 1028. Suanhild's date of entry into the Essen Abbey is just as unknown as her family origins. Their hereditary properties are known, but not who owned them before Suanhild, so that no assignment to a noble family is possible. The assignment to the sex of the Counts of Hückeswagen , which can be found more frequently in the literature on the Essen monastery and which is based on an early modern abbess catalog of the Essen monastery, which is also unreliable in other points, suffers from the fact that the sex of the Count of Hückeswagen was first mentioned in 1133.
In the Theophanu Testament, Suanhild appears among the canonesses called in as witnesses, but had no mentioned office such as provost or dean . However, such an office was not a prerequisite for the office of abbess. The Abbatiat Suanhilds is only secured for the year 1073 by a document of the Archdiocese of Cologne, in which the church in Stoppenberg, which it founded and which the Archbishop of Cologne had consecrated Anno II. , Received privileges from Anno.
In May / June 1085 Suanhild attempted at a synod in Mainz from Emperor Heinrich IV. A confirmation and declaration of protection for the donation of her inherited estates Gesseron , Vuedereke and Hukengesuage (goats near Wachtendonk and Hückeswagen , the third place is unknown) to the monastery To get food. However, the deed was not executed, although there is an execution mark on it . However, the seal mentioned in the document text and the date line are missing , so that it is assumed that the execution mark was placed on a draft by an unknown hand. Possibly this was done to fend off claims by relatives of Suanhilds, because the donation was carried out: The property at Wachtendonk was still part of the monastery when the monastery was dissolved in 1803 . It is also possible that this document is a total forgery after Suanhild's death for the same reasons, but the incompleteness of the document speaks against this thesis.
According to the Essen necrology, Suanhild died on July 30th, probably in 1085, as no further attempt was made to obtain confirmation of the donation from the emperor. Suanhild was buried in front of the main altar of the crypt of the Essen Minster , probably in a high grave above the grave of the important Essen Abbess Mathilde II.
Works
The Stoppenberg collegiate church
The Stoppenberg district of Essen today is more than an hour's walk from Essen Minster.In the 11th century, the way to church services from there was even longer and more arduous for the peasants belonging to the monastery, so that they stayed away from church services, especially in winter. For this reason, Suanhild arranged for a parish chapel to be built there from her own resources, i.e. her personal fortune. This chapel was consecrated on January 29, 1073. It is a three-aisled pillar basilica with a square choir , consecrated to St. Nicholas . The Archbishop of Cologne, Anno II, who consecrated the chapel, gave the chapel the privilege of being able to receive the sacrament and hold the burial office in emergencies. The parish chapel became the monastery church of a Premonstratensian monastery in the 12th century , which is why it is now called a collegiate church.
The basil arm reliquary
An arm reliquary from the Essen cathedral treasure is also considered to be the Suanhild Foundation. It is a 46 cm high reliquary, carved in the shape of a right forearm from oak wood, which was then covered with silver and gilded copper sheet. Since St. Basil was one of the patrons of the church in Stoppenberg and the reliquary was transferred from the Münsterkirche to Stoppenberg every year in the Middle Ages, the attribution to Suanhild is undisputed.
The reliquary itself shows that not the best artists were involved. The middle part of the hand is too short in relation to the fingers. The metal plates that cover the fingers are pieced together. The arm turned out better. There the reliquary shows the sleeves of an upper and an undergarment, whereby the folds of fabrics of different weights are imitated. On both sleeves, the garment border is indicated by riveted metal strips. One of these shows a diamond pattern that includes small leaf ornaments, the other has a tendril pattern and the inscription † Serve Dei Vivi Benedic Nos Sancte Basili † ( Eng .: Servant of the living God bless us Saint Basil ). The two borders, the sleeve of the upper garment and the base of the reliquary, which is fastened with two hinges, are made of gold-plated copper sheet, the other fittings are made of silver sheet.
The hand has two other special features: On the one hand, a round plate made of sheet gold is riveted on its outside, on which a cross with a hand pointing upwards is engraved. On the edge of this plate is the inscription † Dextera Di , which can be read as "the right hand of God". Comparable medallions were found on gloves, which were part of the liturgical clothing of bishops from the 10th century, and were under Innocent III. required. A comparable glove is preserved in the treasury of Werden Abbey . The other special feature is a 1.2 cm by 0.6 cm, 6 cm deep hole in the wooden core between the thumb and forefinger, the purpose of which is unclear. It may have been used to attach a smaller reliquary, a cross or an iconographic attribute of St. Basil.
The Basilius arm reliquary is one of the oldest surviving arm reliquaries, and the Liber ordinarius from Essen can also prove that the reliquary was used to bestow the blessing with it.
The Suanhild Gospel Book
Suanhild also donated a magnificent gospel book , the lid of which was set with gold plates and precious stones. She followed up on her predecessor Theophanu, who had also donated a magnificent gospel book that is still preserved today in the Essen Cathedral Treasury. The Suanhild Gospel Book, on the other hand, was long considered lost, and Küppers and Paul Mikat wrote in their 1966 book about the Essen Cathedral Treasure that it had been lost. In fact, the manuscript has been preserved, albeit without the valuable book cover; it is held under the call number Ms Latin 110 in the John Rylands Library in Manchester . How the manuscript got from Essen to Manchester is not known in detail. There is evidence that the manuscript was still in the possession of the Essen monastery in the 18th century. In 1895 she turned up in an art shop in London , where she bought a Lord Lindsay for £ 300. In 1901 Ms. Rylands acquired the Lindsays collection for the John Rylands Library , which she donated in memory of her late husband . The most probable assumption is that the manuscript was taken over by one of the canons after the pen was mediatized as a result of the Reichsdeputation Hauptschluss in 1803 and that it entered the art trade after his death.
The gospel book is a pleonarius , which was used on high holidays. It is 22 × 15.5 cm in size, the writing area measures 15.5 × 8 cm, the book illuminations 15.5 × 10 cm. The book contains the four complete Gospels as well as four prefaces, which are written in Carolingian minuscule in one column with 28 lines per page, a total of 176 pages from 24 layers of parchment. The decoration of the book consists of six full-page pictures, four decorative pages, five tendril initials and 13 canon tables. A change of handwriting after the end of the Gospel according to Mark shows that two scribes wrote the work.
It is not known where the manuscript originated. Illumination cannot be assigned to any known monastic painting school. In particular, the donor's picture , which, along with Suanhild, identifies the provostess Brigida, her deputy in the Essen monastery, as a co-founder, is unusual, as it shows the mother of God Mary as the recipient of the foundation in a role as " Maria orans ", which is atypical for the western world . Kahsnitz therefore even believes that it is possible that the manuscript was written in Essen itself.
Aftermath
Suanhild donated the proceeds of the goods transferred from her to the monastery, a monastery office, which was always exercised by a canon of the Essen monastery. The duties of the owner of the Schwanhildis office were the administration of the goods she donated and the organization of the memorial service . This included four masses and a vigil every year , which had to be read on the day of their death, the distribution of a certain number of loaves of bread to members of the monastery and donations of money. After the abbey was dissolved, the office continued to exist for five years until 1808, when the former Essen canon Nikolaus Poger died as the last owner. The foundation was then converted by the Prussian state into a "Beneficium" in favor of the parish in Borbeck and the rural school in Frintrop , which was linked to the obligation for the pastor to read a soul mass for Suanhild on the day she died. This obligation was not lifted until 1913 by the Archdiocese of Cologne at the suggestion of the Borbeck pastor, as the annual grant from the foundation was only 8.05 marks.
Suanhild is particularly venerated in the Stoppenberg district of Essen, which developed around her collegiate church. There is also the Schwanhildenbrunnen, which was built in stone and bronze in 1915 according to a design by the Cologne architect Carl Moritz , on which she, Archbishop Anno of Cologne and the canon Henricus von Essen, who supervised the construction work for Suanhild, are depicted. Nearby, the little street Schwanhildenhöhe leads up to the hill on which she had her chapel built. Schwanhildenstraße, which is also named after the abbess, is located in the same district.
evaluation
The classification of Küppers and Mikat in their book on the cathedral treasure, that the actual heyday of the Essen monastery ended with the death of Theophanus, the last abbess from an imperial family, is questionable. Suanhild acted in the tradition of her predecessors in every respect: She increased the assets of her monastery by donating her hereditary property. Since the Essen Minster had been completed under her predecessor (Suanhild, or perhaps her successor first, renewed the atrium there), she built another location with the parish church in Stoppenberg. With the foundation of a valuable reliquary and that of a splendid gospel, she continued the traditions of her predecessors. It was not until Suanhild's successor, Lutgardis, that no art or church foundation was known, despite a long term in office. It therefore seems possible that Suanhild is undervalued due to her unknown ancestry and the poor source of information.
literature
- Sonja Hermann: arm reliquary with relics of St. Basil. In: Birgitta Falk (Ed.): Gold before Black - The Essen Cathedral Treasure on Zollverein. Catalog for the 2008 exhibition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0050-9 .
- Lutger Horstkötter: Abbess Schwanhild (approx. 1058 - approx. 1085), her annual memory and the Schwanhildisamt at the Essen Minster Church (until 1808). In: Münster am Hellweg. Bulletin of the Association for the Preservation of the Essen Minster. Essen 2003, p. 11 ff.
- Martina Junghans: The arm reliquaries in Germany from the 11th to the middle of the 13th century . Dissertation . Bonn 2002, cat.-no. 4th
- Georg Humann : The works of art of the cathedral church to eat. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904.
- Rainer Kahsnitz : The Essen abbess Svanhild and her gospel book in Manchester. In: Essen contributions. Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen 85. Essen 1970, pp. 13–80.
- Leonhard Küppers , Paul Mikat : The Essen Minster Treasure. Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen 1966.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Suanhild |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Swanhild; Svanhild; Schwanhild |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Abbess in the Essen monastery |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 10th century or 11th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 30, 1085 |
| Place of death | eat |