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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (14. March) is the feast day of: 1. Matilda of Saxony (d. prob. 968). The offspring of Saxon and of Danish-Frisian nobility, the pious M. received at the convent at Herford an upbringing suitable for her class and then was married to Henry, son the Duke of Saxony. In 919 H. became king of the Germans and M. became queen. She was the mother of emperor Otto I. Of M.'s many foundations, the one for which she is best remembered is the convent of St. Servatius and St. Dionysius at Quedlinburg in today's Sachsen-Anhalt. This was founded by the royal pair on the castle hill; its original church was the castle's chapel. A new church was built in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, was rebuilt in the early twelfth century, and was later expanded. M. and H. repose in its crypt. The convent lasted until 1802. The church, which underwent a brief period as secularized national shrine during the Third Reich, survives as the Stiftskirche St. Servatius, otherwise known as the Quedlinburger Dom. A couple of distance views are here: http://tinyurl.com/yoxuej http://www.quedlinburg-tourismus.de/images/schloss_1.jpg Some illustrated pages on this UNESCO World Heritage site: http://tinyurl.com/36er8u http://tinyurl.com/2mmbla http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Servatii_(Quedlinburg) A view of M.'s sarcophagus is here: http://www.othersideorg.de/qlb/html/kunst2.htm That's from a virtual tour of the crypt that starts here (to proceed from page to page, click on "weiter"): http://www.othersideorg.de/qlb/navipanos/kunst.htm M.'s Vitae (BHL 5683, 5684) are available in English in Sean Gilsdorf, tr., _Queenship and Sanctity: The Lives of Mathilda and the Epitaph of Adelheid_ (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2004). 2. Pauline of Thuringia (Blessed; d. 1107). In the early years of the twelfth century the recently widowed P., a member of the Saxon nobility, established in the Thüringer Wald a double monastery whose women were herself and a few comrades and whose men were monks of the Benedictine abbey of Hirsau (near Calw in today's Baden-Württemberg). About a year after founding this institution P. undertook a journey to Hirsau but died en route at Münsterschwarzach in Bavaria. From 1112 to 1132 an impressive church was built at P.'s monastery and in 1122 her remains were translated to it from Münsterschwarzach. The monastery, which had been dedicated to the BVM, became known as Paulinzelle (Pauline's Cell) and was for a while very wealthy. A monk of Hirsau, one Sigeboto, wrote P.'s Vita (BHL 6651; in MGH Scriptores, 30.2). The monastery church, built on the model of the one at Hirsau, was consecrated in 1124. The monastery became all male in the fourteenth century and was closed in 1536. Much of the church's fabric was removed in the years that followed but enough survived into the early nineteenth century to stir hearts already touched by German Romanticism. Partial restoration began in the middle of that century. Today the church, located at what is now Paulinzella (Kr. Rudolstadt) in Thüringen, is an important monument of Germany's medieval past. An English-language account of it is here: http://tinyurl.com/yua6oh and better views of what's left are here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Paulinzella and (click on "Bildergalerie"): http://www.paulinzella.net/ Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join 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: leave 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/lists/medieval-religion.html