Landgravine Anna Sophia of Hesse-Darmstadt (17 December 1638 – 13 December 1683) was a German noblewoman who reigned as a

Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg This is a list of the princess-abbesses of Quedlinburg Abbey.Johann Heinrich Fritsch: ''Geschichte des vormaligen Reichsstifts Quedlinburg'' pt 2, 1828, pp. 26–28online version)/ref>Hermann Lorenz: ''Quedlinburgische Geschichte. Band 1: Werd ...

under the name Anna Sophia II.

Early life

Anna Sophia was a daughter of

George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, (17 March 1605, in Darmstadt – 11 June 1661) was the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1626 to 1661. Early life and ancestry Born into the House of Hesse The House of Hesse is a European dynasty, directly ...

and his wife, Duchess Sophia Eleonore of Saxony. She was raised as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, received a good education and grew up to be strictly religious.

As writer

In 1655, at the age of 17, Anna Sophia entered the

Quedlinburg Abbey Quedlinburg Abbey ( or ) is a former abbey of secular canonesses ''( Frauenstift)'' in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Matilda, the widow of the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler, as h ...

. In 1658, she published a book of spiritual meditations called ''Der treue Seelenfreund Christus Jesus''. At first, Lutheran theologians regarded her book as suspect; they argued that the book equalized women with men, but it was later approved. Anna Sophia justified her work, as was standard in the 17th century, by saying that it was God's order. Being an abbess and a Lutheran at the same time, Anna Sophia defended her choice to remain unmarried in her book. Her hymn ''Rede, liebster Jesu, rede'' was translated as ''Speak, O Lord, Thy Servant Heareth''.

As nun and abbess

Anna Sophia had a lapse of faith after her elder sister Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. She thought of leaving Quedlinburg to follow her sister's example but ultimately changed her mind. In her later years, Anna Sophia suffered from a " chronic cough". Nevertheless, she was elected to succeed Anna Sophia I as princess-abbess of Quedlinburg in 1681 under the name Anna Sophia II. The sick abbess selected Duchess Anna Dorothea of Saxe-Weimar as her

coadjutor The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadjutor bishop ...

in 1683.

Death

Anna Sophia II succumbed to her illness (likely tuberculosis) later that year, on 13 December 1683, aged 44, after only two years of reign, and was succeeded by Anna Dorothea.https://hymnary.org/person/AnnaSophia_HessenDarmstadt

References

Ancestry

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anna Sophia, Abbess Of Quedlinburgii Abbesses of Quedlinburg Lutheran abbesses 17th-century Lutheran nuns 17th-century German women writers House of Hesse-Darmstadt 1638 births 1683 deaths Landgravines of Hesse-Darmstadt Daughters of monarchs Tuberculosis deaths in Germany