Sophie I, Abbess of Gandersheim

Sophia I
Adelaide of Quedlinburg and Sophia of Gandersheim, by Lucas Cranach (1546)
Abbess of Gandersheim
Reign	1002–1039
Predecessor	Gerberga II
Successor	Adelaide II
Abbess of Essen
Reign	1011–1039
Predecessor	Mathilde
Successor	Theophanu
Born	September 975(?)
Died	30 January 1039 Gandersheim Abbey, Saxony
Burial	Gandersheim Abbey
Dynasty	Ottonian
Father	Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Empress Theophanu
Religion	Roman Catholic

Sophia I (September 975 – 30 January 1039), a member of the royal Ottonian dynasty, was Abbess of Gandersheim from 1002, and from 1011 also Abbess of Essen. The daughter of Emperor Otto II and his consort Theophanu, she was an important kingmaker in medieval Germany.

According to the chronicles by Thietmar of Merseburg, Sophia was born to Emperor Otto II and Theophanu. She may have been the first surviving daughter, born in 975, though other sources indicate that her sister Adelaide, born 977, was in fact the eldest. Sophia is first documented in a 979 deed of donation, when her father entrusted her education to his first cousin, Abbess Gerberga II of Gandersheim. Sophia was raised and educated in the Gandersheim Abbey to become abbess since childhood. Abbess Gerberga taught her convent discipline and common law, both of which she mastered. Sophia received many grants of rights and property by her father as well as by her brother, Otto III, who succeeded as King of the Romans in 983.

Sophia took the vows to become a canoness in 989. As an emperor's daughter, she insisted to receive the veil from the hands of Archbishop Willigis of Mainz, the archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, affronting the local Bishop Osdag of Hildesheim. The contemporary chronicler Thangmar, in his Vita Bernwardi (Life of Saint Bernward), reveals a fierce row between the church leaders in front of King Otto III, his mother Theophanu and the royal court. She was finally consecrated by both. In Hildesheim sources, Sophia is portrayed as a haughty and imperious woman, though these depictions may be biased.