Judith von Ringelheim

Who they were

Born around 925 into a noble Saxon family, Judith of Ringelheim was the sister of Saint Bernward of Hildesheim, the influential tenth-century bishop and scholar. From an early age she was drawn to religious life and entered the monastery of Ringelheim in Lower Saxony, where she was noted for her devotion, humility and care for her fellow nuns, and in time became its abbess, guiding the community with wisdom and compassion.

Her reputation for holiness spread well beyond the convent, and the faithful venerated her for her piety and for miracles attributed to her intercession. She died on 13 March, in a year usually placed around 984; her tomb became a place of pilgrimage, and her relics were raised in 1497, though her veneration faded after the Protestant Reformation.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Abbess of Ringelheim in Lower Saxony, sister of Saint Bernward of Hildesheim; feast kept 13 March.

Connected on this site

• Bernward of Hildesheim Saint Brother or sister
  “Born around 925 into a noble Saxon family, Judith of Ringelheim was the sister of Saint Bernward of Hildesheim, the influential tenth-century bishop and scholar.” — this site's research