The Liebenau monastery was a Dominican monastery. It was located outside the city gates of Worms in today's Worms-Hochheim district.
Location
Liebenau was located in the east of Hochheim district, close to the border with the Neuhausen district, near the bridge across the Pfrimm and today's . There are streets named and in the area, named after the monastery's founders, Johann Engelmann and Lieba Holderbaum.
History
The monastery Liebenau is closely linked to the nearby St. Cyriacus abbey in Worms-Neuhausen, which was disestablished in 1565. St. Cyriacus was very old and was probably originally a Franconian royal court. In 630, King Dagobert I converted it into a church dedicated to St. Denis. In the 9th century, Bishop Samuel of Worms (841-856), who was also abbot of Lorsch Abbey, acquired the relics of St. Cyriacus, one of the highly revered Fourteen Holy Helpers, in Rome and placed them in the church in Neuhausen, which soon adopted St. Cyriacus as its patron saint and was linked to a collegiate church. Thus, the church at Neuhausen became a pilgrimage destination.
Emperor Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor visited the abbey in 1111 and built a castle in the vicinity. This castle had a polygonal shield wall and was located slightly west of Neuhausen Abbey on a peninsula between the rivers Pfrimm and Mühlbach. The castle was damaged in 1124 and definitively destroyed in 1288, during a conflict between the city and the clergy. The site was acquired by Konrad Holderbaum, a citizen of Worms. Via his son Johann Holderbaum, the site came into the possession his sister Lieba, who had married Jacob Engelmann.
In 1299, Jacob and Lieba Engelmann found a nunnery at this site, on the condition that they would be buried in the nunnery. According to Johann Friedrich Schannat in his of 1734, the name Liebenau is derived from the founder's first name Lieba. Eberwin von Kronenberg (d. 22 April 1308), the Bishop of Worms, laid the foundation stone in 1300 and also oversaw the completion of the building after the founders had died. The monastery owned the parish of Einselthum. Over time, the monastery acquired more territory. By the early 16th century, the monastery held possessions in Osthofen, Pfeddersheim, Alsheim, Einselthum, Westhofen, Gundersheim, Blödesheim, Eich, Hochheim, Leiselheim and Pfiffligheim.
In 1327, Count Palatine Adolph of the Rhine died and his widow, Irmengard of Oettingen moved into Liebenau monastery with her children. Initially, she lived in the convent as a guest In 1347, however, she became a Dominican nun. She lived in the monastery until she died in 1389 (some sources say 1399). On 1 December 1381, she founded the so-called Convent Mass, which was to be sung daily
Irmengard was buried in the monastery. The historian Johann Friedrich Schannat provides the inscription on her grave, which no longer exists, on 172 of his . The inscription mentioned how the princess lived as a nun in the monastery for more than 40 years.
Irmengards brother Louis died in 1346, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He had bequeathed the gift of a beautiful cross to the Liebenau monastery. According to the inscription, the cross had been commissioned by Irmengard's father, Count Louis VI of Oettingen. The cross came to Freiburg im Breisgau in a roundabout way and is now among the special treasures of the local Augustiner Museum.
Irmengard's daughter-in-law Beatrice of Aragon-Sicily would occasionally visit her mother-in-law. The Dominican chronicler Johannes Meyer (1422-1482) reports that during one of these visits, Beatrice gave birth to Rupert, who would be raised by Irmengard in Liebenau until age 7. Rupert would later become King of the Germans.
Margaret of the Palatinate, a disabled daughter of Elector Palatine Louis III, lived in the monastery as a lay sister from . She was reported as having been very pious. She died on 24 November 1466. Her cousins Barbara (1439-1482) and Dorothea (1444-1486), daughters of Otto I, Count Palatine of Mosbach, were also nuns at Liebenau. Dorothea even served as prioress of the monastery.
The Liebenau monastery enjoyed the very special favour and affection of the Palatinate ruling family, because Irmengard and her princely relatives had resided there. This led many noble women and daughters of high-ranking citizens to become nuns at Liebenau. Among them was Irmengard of Nassau, née Princess of Hohenlohe-Weikersheim. She was a maternal cousin of Irmengard of Oettingen and the widow of Gerlach I, Count of Nassau, who had been a cousin of the late Count Palatine Adolph. Irmengard of Nassau died at Liebenau in January 1371, in the odor of sanctity as the Historical Society for Hesse puts it.