Eibingen Abbey (german: Abtei St. Hildegard, full name: Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard) is a community of

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nuns in

Eibingen Eibingen, now a part of Rüdesheim am Rhein, Hesse, Germany is the location of Eibingen Abbey, the Benedictine monastery founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165 (replacing an Augustine foundation of 1148). Eibingen preserves the treasure of relics ...

near Rüdesheim in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but restored, with new buildings, in 1904. The nuns produce wine and crafts. They sing regular services, which have been at times recorded. The church is also used as a concert venue. The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site.

History

The original community was founded in 1165 by Hildegard of Bingen. This was the second community founded by her. It was disestablished in 1804. After the ''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'' (

German mediatization German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by means of the mass mediatisation and secularisation of a large numbe ...

), the land once owned by the convent became part of the domains of the

prince of Nassau-Weilburg The House of Nassau-Weilburg, a branch of the House of Nassau, ruled a division of the County of Nassau, which was a state in what is now Germany, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1344 to 1806. On 17 July 1806, upon the dissolution of ...

who, in 1831, even bought both the monastery and its church. The community was reestablished by Charles, 6th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1904 and resettled from St. Gabriel's Abbey in Prague. The nunnery belongs to the

Beuronese Congregation The Beuronese Congregation, or Beuron Congregation, is a union of mostly German or German-speaking religious houses of both monks and nuns within the Benedictine Confederation. The congregation stands under the protection of Saint Martin of Tour ...

within the

Benedictine Confederation The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict. Origin The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monasti ...

. A new building was erected in Neo-Romanesque style. In 1941, the nuns were expelled by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

; they were not able to return until 1945. In 1988, the sisters founded Marienrode Priory at

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the ...

, which became independent of Eibingen in 1998. The nuns work in the vineyard and in the craft workshops, besides undertaking the traditional duties of hospitality. A visitor watched the nuns using GPS systems, computers and modern kitchen tools. They can be heard (but not seen) singing their regular services. The nuns have recorded their Vespers. A first recording was made in 1973 and contained only two works by Hildegard of Bingen, a Kyrie and ''O virga ac diadema''. A second recording appeared in 1979, to remember the 800th anniversary of Hildegard's death, including the same pieces and antiphones, a hymn, a

responsory A responsory or respond is a type of chant in western Christian liturgies. Definition The most general definition of a responsory is any psalm, canticle, or other sacred musical work sung responsorially, that is, with a cantor or small group ...

and parts of ''Ordo virtutum''. In 1989, a third recording appeared, conducted by P. Johannes Berchmans Göschl, a scholar of

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe dur ...

. A reviewer of

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

noted about a 1998 recording: "These nuns are living the same life as that of Hildegard's community, singing daily the same Benedictine Office, breathing the same air and trying to capture the spirit of their great twelfth-century predecessor."

Abbesses

* Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), first abbess and founder of the community Karlheinz Oswald Hildegard von Bingen, Eibingen

From 1603 the abbesses held the title of "Abbess of Rupertsberg and Eibingen". * Kunigunde Frey von Dehrn, abbess around 1600 * Anna Lerch von Dirmstein, abbess until 1666 * Kunigunde Schütz von Holtzhausen, abbess from 1666 to 1669 * Scholastica von Manteuffel, abbess from 1670 * Maria Antonetta Mühl zu Ulmen, abbess from 1711 Agatha Philippina zu Guttenberg

* Philippine zu Guttenberg, last abbess from 1790 to 1804. Since the re-establishment of the community in 1904: * Regintrudis Sauter, abbess from 1908 to 1955 * Fortunata Fischer, abbess from 1955 to 1978 * Edeltraut Forster, abbess from 1978 to 1998 * Gisela Happ, prioress-administrator from 1998 to 2000 * Clementia Killewald, abbess from 2000 to 2016 * Dorothea Flandera, abbess from 2016

Heritage

The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site. The church has been used for concerts of the Rheingau Musik Festival, such as a "BachTrompetenGala" with organist Edgar Krapp and a concert with the

New York Polyphony New York Polyphony is a male classical vocal quartet based in New York City. Music of the Renaissance and Medieval music periods constitutes the core of the ensemble’s repertoire, but increasingly, new music occupies an important place both ...

in 2014. The sculptor Karlheinz Oswald made in 1998 a life-size

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

statue called Hildegard of Bingen, with one copy in the Bingen museum, another in the garden in front of the abbey church.

References

External links

*
Hildegardisvesper
Vespers from Eibingen Abbey, YouTube, 20 September 2011
The Hildegard of Bingen Trail in Germany
spiritualtravels.info
Sites › Rüdesheim › Abbey St. Hildegard
landderhildegard.de

thecatholictravelguide.com * Gregor Kollmorgen

newliturgicalmovement.org 11 November 2010 {{authority control Monasteries in Hesse 1160s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1165 establishments in Europe Religious organizations established in the 1160s Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Benedictine nunneries in Germany World Heritage Sites in Germany Buildings and structures in Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis Hildegard of Bingen