NONNBERG, ABBEY OF

In Salzburg, Austria; the oldest abbey of Benedictine nuns in Germany or Austria. It was founded c. 700 by St. rupert and endowed by Duke Theodo of Bavaria and his wife St. Regintrude. Until 987 Nonnberg was part of the mensal possessions of the archbishop of Salzburg. In 1043 the abbey was rebuilt in honor of St. Erentrude (d. c. 718), the first abbess and probably the niece of St. Rupert. The rich abbey was reserved for the nobility until the 18th century. In 1242 Abbess Gertrude of Stein received pontifical privileges, the faldstool, and a golden crown; the abbess sat with prelates in the Land-tag. After a fire in 1423 the church was rebuilt (1464–1509). Archbishop Paris Lodron introduced the Tridentine reform (1623). The abbey, which founded or restored several other convents and was never suppressed, has always been a center of learning and education.

Bibliography: m. regintrudis von reichlin-meldegg, Stift Nonnberg in Salzburg (Salzburg 1953). l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2089. o. l. kapsner, A Benedictine Bibliography: An Author-Subject Union List, 2 v. (2d ed. Collegeville, Minn. 1962):v. 1, author part; v. 2, subject part, 2:244. f. hermann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:1026–27. h. schmidinger, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 15:697–698.

[n. backmund]