Christina Ebner (also Christine), (26 March 1277 – 27 December 1356) was a German Dominican

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

, writer and mystic.

Life

Ebner was born in the

Imperial City of Nuremberg The Imperial City of Nuremberg (german: Reichsstadt Nürnberg) was a free imperial city — independent city-state — within the Holy Roman Empire. After Nuremberg gained piecemeal independence from the Burgraviate of Nuremberg in the High Midd ...

, the child of the

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

Seyfried Ebner and his wife, Elizabeth Kuhdorf. In 1289, at the age of twelve, she entered the

Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

of St. John the Baptist in

Engelthal Engelthal is a municipality near Nürnberg (Nuremberg) in the Frankenalb ( Frankish Alb). The municipality has a population of approximately 1100 people. History The place was named ''Swinnahe'' in former times and mentioned first in 1058/1059 ...

, which was a community of

s of the Dominican Second Order outside the city, in the

Burgraviate of Nuremberg The Burgraviate of Nuremberg (german: Burggrafschaft Nürnberg) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire from the early 12th to the late 15th centuries. As a burgraviate, it was a county seated in the town of Nuremberg; almost two centuries pass ...

. Founded as a

beguinage A beguinage, from the French term ''béguinage'', is an architectural complex which was created to house beguines: lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world. Originally the beguine institution was ...

some fifty years earlier, over the next hundred years this monastery was to become a much-renowned center of spirituality and learning. According to some, it might very well have been the foremost center of mystical life during the early fourteenth century in Germany, if not all of Europe. Less than a year later after her admission, Ebner fell gravely ill. This affliction would reappear up to three times a year for the next decade. Also, later, she frequently suffered from various illnesses. About this time, she began experiencing frequent religious visions, which her

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

Conrad of

Füssen Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau cast ...

, encouraged her to write down. So she began writing her first book, ''Leben und Offenbarungen'' ('' Life and Revelations'') in 1317. She continued to work on it at least until 1324. In 1338, she began a correspondence with the

secular priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogr ...

Henry of Nördlingen Henry of Nördlingen (german: Heinrich von Nördlingen) was a German Catholic priest from Bavaria, who lived in the 14th century, his date of death being unknown. He was the spiritual adviser of Margaretha Ebner (died 1351), the mystic nun of Medin ...

, who was an enthusiastic propagator of mystic

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

and literature. Through him, she started a correspondence with Margareta Ebner, who was also a Dominican nun actively involved in the spiritual movement of the period; but Margareta was no relative of Ebner's in spite of the same family name "Ebner". Around 1340, Ebner started compiling the ''Book of Sisters'' (''Schwesternbuch''), a record of the mystical visions and life experiences of the other nuns in her monastery, called ''Von der genaden uberlast'' (''Of the Burden of Grace''). It can be attributed to Ebner based on a 1451 manuscript and belongs to a genre known as the

Sister-books Sister-books (german: Schwesternbuch) is the term for a group of texts in the medieval literature. These works were written by Dominican nuns in the first half of the fourteenth century in South Germany and Switzerland. They relate the mystical e ...

. Between 1344 and 1352, she wrote a second book of ''Revelations'' (''Offenbarungen''). In it, she deals with historical and political events of the time such as the riots at Nuremberg in 1348; the earthquake of the same year; the outbreak of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

; the Flagellants' processions of 1349; and the long quarrel between the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Louis IV and the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

. Ebner does not limit herself to the role of a bystander. Instead, she takes a deep interest in the events, develops her own opinions about them and even actively tries to influence their course. By that time, her reputation had spread widely through Northern Europe. In 1350, the Emperor Charles IV himself came to visit her at the monastery, seeking her guidance and prayers. In 1351 she was finally visited for the first time by her long-time confidant, Henry of Nördlingen, who spent three weeks as a visitor to the monastery. At that time he gave her a copy of Mechthild's of Magdeburg mystic work ''Das fließende Licht der Gottheit'' (''The Flowing Light of the Godhead''), which is found reflected in her own later works and in those of the other nuns in the community.Monastic Matrix "Christine Ebner"
Ebner died in her monastery at Engelthal on 27 December 1356, in her 67th year of monastic life.

Works

References

Literature

* ''This article incorporates text from the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

''.''

External links

*
Monastic Matrix
* Rebecca LR Garber (1996)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebner, Christina 1277 births 1355 deaths 14th-century Christian mystics Dominican mystics Dominican nuns German diarists German Christian mystics German spiritual writers 14th-century German nuns People from Nuremberg Rhineland mystics Roman Catholic writers Roman Catholic mystics 14th-century German writers 14th-century German women writers Women diarists 13th-century German nuns