Paulina of Thuringia

Paulina of Thuringia or Pauline von Arnstadt (died 13 March 1107) was a pious and wealthy noblewoman of the Holy Roman Empire who founded the double monastery of Paulinzella.[1] She is recognized as a saint in the Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church. Her feast day is March 14.[1][2]

Biography

Paulina was born around 1050 in Calw to a nobleman named Moricho, who himself became a lay brother of Hirsau Abbey. She was twice married and twice widowed. After the death of her second husband, Ulrich von Scharplan, she retired to establish a hermitage in the forest which became Paulinzella. Her daughter and her son Werner joined her.[3]

Paulina became famous for her needlework.[4] She "had no superior and scarcely any equal in the province of Thuringia where she lived, in the making of gold borders and stoles."[5] Her nuns, too, practised needlework and weaving to support the foundation.[3]

Paulina went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and also to Rome. During the latter trip she received the approval of the pope for Paulinzella.[6] On her return journey, she fell from her horse and broke her arm.[6] It never fully healed and she died at Münsterschwarzach Abbey while on her way to Hirsau to escort her monks to their newly built cloisters.[1][6] She was immediately hailed as a saint by the people.[5] She was interred in her basilica at Paulinzella in 1122.[6] The main source for her life is her Latin biography, Vita Paulinae, written by her confessor, Sigeboto, around 1150.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Watkins 2016, p. 578.
  2. ^ Holböck 2017, p. 150, gives her date of death and feast as 13 March.
  3. ^ a b c Holböck 2017, p. 149.
  4. ^ Schulenburg 2009, p. 100.
  5. ^ a b Dodwell 1993, p. 29.
  6. ^ a b c d Holböck 2017, p. 150.

Sources

  • Dodwell, C. R. (1993). The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800–1200. Yale University Press.
  • Holböck, Ferdinand (2017). Married Saints and Blesseds Through the Centuries. Ignatius Press.
  • Schulenburg, Jane Tibbetts (2009). "Holy Women and the Needle Arts: Piety, Devotion, and Stitching the Sacred, ca. 500–1150". In Katherine Smith; Scott Wells (eds.). Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom. Brill. pp. 83–110.
  • Watkins, Basil (2016). The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary (8th ed.). Bloomsbury.
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