Wicburg

Wicburg († August 17, 906 ) was probably the fourth abbess of the Essen monastery .

Wicburg was probably abbess around 895, according to an early modern tradition, her predecessor Adalwi is said to be during the pontificate of Pope Boniface VI. who was Pope for only 15 days in 895. Possibly Wicburg was a relative of Bishop Wigbert von Hildesheim and came into office through his influence, whether the Essen Abbey after the extinction of the founding dynasty around the abbesses Gersuith I, Gersuith II and St. Altfrid , who was Bishop of Hildesheim, came from this was subordinated to the diocese of Hildesheim as a separate church is disputed.

Wicburg is the first Essen abbess to be attested by a contemporary document. At Pentecost in 898 she received the Oberhof Beeck from King Zwentibold of Lotharing in Essen . Interveners of the document are Oda, Zwentibold's wife, as well as an "otto comes" (Count Otto), who is identified as Oda's father Otto "the illustrious" from the Liudolfinger family due to the family relationships . Gerd Althoff has proven that Wicburg and Adalwi were included in the prayer memorial of the Liudolfingers, which speaks of the same interests of the monastery and the Liudolfinger even before the time of the Liudolfing abbesses Hathwig , Mathilde and Sophia . Through the mediation of the Liudolfing family monastery, Stift Gandersheim , Wicburg also succeeded in entering into a prayer fraternity between the Essen monastery and the important St. Gallen monastery .

According to various necrologists, Wicburg died on August 17th, most likely in the year 906. This year, the 16th century historian Heinrich Duden discovered the source of Werden Abbey .

Individual proof

1. ↑ Rheinisches Urkundenbuch, older documents up to 1100, vol. 2 no.162

literature

• Katrinette Bodarwé: Sanctimoniales litteratae: literacy and education in the Ottonian women's communities Gandersheim, Essen and Quedlinburg. Aschendorff'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-402-06249-6 .
• Alfred Pothmann: The abbesses of the Essen monastery. In: Münster am Hellweg, bulletin of the Association for the Preservation of the Essen Minster. Essen 1987, pp. 5-11.
• Ekkart Sauser :  Wigburg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-133-2 , Sp. 1520.