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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture According to her Vita by her former student Bertha of Vilich (BHL 67), Adelaide (in German, Adelheid and Adelheidis) was the youngest daughter of pious comital parents in the lower Rheinland who oblated her at an early age at the convent of St. Ursula that they had founded in Köln. When she was near the age of twenty they founded a house of canonesses at Vilich in what is now a part of Bonn on the east bank of the Rhine and, redeeming her from her conventual obligation by means of a grant of land, put her in charge of their new foundation. After her mother's death Adelaide introduced the Benedictine rule at Vilich, spent a not altogether successful year as abbess, and then put the house under the control of the Benedictine convent in Köln now best known by the name of its church, Santa Maria im Kapitol. The abbess there was an older sister of Adelaide's; when she died Adelaide succeeded her. Adelaide insisted that the sisters in her charge learn Latin in order to understand the Divine Service. She was also noted for kindnesses to the poor and for extraordinary assistance to them during a famine. After her death in ca. 1015 she was buried at Vilich, where miracles were reported and a cult arose. Adelaide's tomb became an object of pilgrimage and water from a spring that came to be associated with her is still thought by some to be helpful to those suffering from diseases of the eye. After a campaign for her canonization that began in earnest in the 1950s (including a letter of support from a former mayor of Bonn who was now chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer) her cult was confirmed by Paul VI in 1966 at the level of Saint. In 2008 Adelaide joined Cassius and Florentius as one of Bonn's patron saints. The convent at Vilich was suppressed early in the nineteenth century. Its church, which has been rebuilt several times, survives as the Pfarrkirche Sankt Peter in Bonn-Beuel. The choir dates from 1280 and parts of the transept are also medieval. Herewith a few views: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Stiftskirche_Vilich.jpg http://tinyurl.com/hnwoh7t http://tinyurl.com/j664sxm http://tinyurl.com/go74dz3 Some illustrated sites on Köln's originally eleventh-century Santa Maria im Kapitol (i.e. on the elevation where the capitolium of the Roman city had stood), badly damaged in World War II and since restored to service: English-language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Maria_im_Kapitol http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-st-maria-im-kapitol German-language: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Maria_im_Kapitol http://www.romanische-kirchen-koeln.de/index.php?id=31 [use the menu at left to reach subordinate pages] A view of the north side of the church (probably taken from the roof of the cathedral): http://www.maria-im-kapitol.de/images/banners/Kirche_Banner.JPG Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion