9. List of Superiors and Rectors

Three periods - Spiritual leadership in the different periods.

The following is a list of the Superiors and Rectors of the Schoenstatt Convent as far as their names have been handed down to us. For the sake of completeness, the list continues also after the Sisters left Vallendar until the community was suppressed in 1803. According the development falls into three periods: from the foundation to the reform, then until the transfer to Koblenz, and finally until the suppression.

First Period

Few names have been handed down from the first period of the convent. The Superiors in the first period were know as Magistra. They were assisted by a Prior and Prioress. The ones we know of are:

• Bertulf, Prior in Vallindre 1167.
• Godefried, Prior 1220.
• Julius, Prior 1260.
• Margareta, Magistra; Mefried, Prior 1292.
• Gertrudis, Magistra; Engelbert, Prior 1305.
• Johannes, Prior 1321.
• Mechthildis, Magistra; Hermann, Prior 1340.
• Ignoldis, Magistra 1348 – 1356; Nikolaus, Prior 1348.
• Leiffmut, Priorissa 1356.
• Gezelin von Steinenbach, Magistra 1378 – 1382.
• Bela, Priorissa 1378.
• Paulina von Nassau, Priorissa 1382.
• Gerburgis, Magistra 1384 – 1393.
• Lina, Magistra; Greta, Priorissa 1408.
• Elisabeth von Breysich, Magistra 1413.
• Martha von Steinenbach, Magistra 1423, gestorben 1439.
• Gertrud von Kayne, genannt Reuber, Magistra, 1439 erwählt und noch 1466 genannt. Katharina von Mele, Priorissa 1439.
• Irmgard von Seelbach, Magistra 1469 – 1484.
• Gutgen von Steinenbach, Magistra 1484.

 

Second Period

These are the Sisters from Mühlenheim. Their superiors before their move to Schoenstatt were:

• Margareta Kesgin, Mater ord. s. Francisc. 1450.
• Bela Johels von Lind, Mater 1457. Under her leadership the convent adopted the Augustinian Rule in 1460. From then on the Superior was called Prioress. The second Mother Prioress was Klara von Köln 1479.
• Under the third, Elisabeth Goitzmoitz (Gutsmutz) 1489 – 1493, the Mühlheimer nuns of the Windesheim Congregation moved to Schönstatt. She was the first new superior.

She was followed by:

• Sophia Gupges, Prioress 1493; Johannes von Koblenz, Rector 1497.
• Agnes Reuber, Prioress 1529; Johannes Reifferscheidt, Rector 1538.
• Gutgen von Siegen, Prioriss 1538.
• Agnes von Nassau, Prioriss 1546.
• Elisabeth von Berk, Prioriss 1549.
• Anna Merl, Prioress 1567, died 13. Oktober 1573. She was the last superior in Schönstatt. In 1567 she managed to have the Convent to be transferred to St George in Koblenz.

 

Third Periode

The superiors of St George's Convent were:

• Maria Breidenau, Prioress, elected 5. November 1573.
• Johannes Poen, Rector 1573 – 1575.
• Lucia von Polch, Prioress 1585 – 1600.
• Agustinus Glesch, Rector 1585.
• Maria Künzer von Münster, Prioress 1611 – 1624.
• Mathias Denhardt, Rector 1610.
• Laurentius Eichhorn, Rector 1612.
• Johannes von Trier, Rector, died 1615.
• Petrus Beck von Fronhofen, Rector 1622.
• Katharina Mesenich, Prioress 1624 – 1638.
• Maria Kuris, Prioress 1638 – 1647.
• Maria Stolz, Prioress 1650 – 1677, died 1679.
• Anna Klara Puff, Prioress 1677 – 1702.
• Angela Rau, Prioress 1702 – 1721.
• Johannes Gobelius, Rector, died 1703.

Under the superior Angela Rau and the Rector, Nikolaus Matthai, the nuns moved from St George in 1708 to the newly build convent on the Leer.

They were followed by:

• Matthias Coenen, Rector 1712.
• M. Humens, Rector 1713.
• Angela Margareta Hausmann, Prioriss.
• A. M. Josefa Walb. Fuxius, Prioriss 1763 – 1788.
• A. Maria Goblet, Prioriss 1788 – 1802, died 8. Mai 1820.

In the first period, Schoenstatt was subject to the Abbots of Lonnig and Mayen, who appointed the Prior. In the second period the nuns were at first subject to the excellent Choir Monks of the Windesheim Congregation on the Island of Niederwerth near Vallendar, as the decree of transfer of the Muehlheim Sisters shows. In the third period they had secular priests as rectors, the first of which was the last prior, Augustin Glesch, of the monastery of Niederwerth, which was suppressed on 4 May 1580.