Herford Abbey
| Imperial Abbey of Herford | ||||||||||
| Reichsfrauenstift Herford | ||||||||||
| Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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 Former Herford Abbey church, now Herford Minster
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| Capital | Herford Abbey | |||||||||
| Languages | West Low German | |||||||||
| Government | Theocracy | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Dedicated as Imperial abbey under Louis the Pious |
832 |
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| • | Herford gained city rights | 973 | ||||||||
| • | Both abbey and city gained Imperial immediacy |
1147 |
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| • | City joined Hanseatic Lg. | 1342 | ||||||||
| • | City's immediacy confirmed | 1631 | ||||||||
| • | City annexed by Mgvt Brandenburg |
1652 |
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| • | Secularised | 1802 | ||||||||
| • | Annexed by Cty Ravensberg | 25 February 1803 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Germany
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Coat of arms
Herford Abbey (German: Frauenstift Herford) was the oldest women's religious house in the Duchy of Saxony. It was founded as a house of secular canonesses in 789, initially in Müdehorst (near the modern Bielefeld) by a nobleman called Waltger, who moved it in about 800 onto the lands of his estate Herivurth (later Oldenhervorde) which stood at the crossing of a number of important roads and fords over the Aa and the Werre. The present city of Herford grew up on this site around the abbey.
The abbey was dedicated in 832 and was elevated to the status of a Reichsabtei ("Imperial abbey") under Emperor Louis the Pious (d. 840). In ecclesiastical matters it was answerable directly to the Pope and was endowed with a third of the estates originally intended for Corvey Abbey.
In 860, at the instigation of the abbess Haduwy (Hedwig), the bones of Saint Pusinna, later the patron saint of Herford, were brought from her hermitage at Binson ("vicus bausionensis" near Châlons-en-Champagne, Corbie). The presence of these relics in the abbey increased its importance and its dedication was changed in due course to Saints Mary and Pusinna.
In the time of the abbess Matilda I her granddaughter Matilda, later Saint Matilda, was brought up here. In 909, through the negotiations of her grandmother, she was married to Henry, Duke of Saxony and later King Henry I of Germany.
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Wikipedia