Princess Katharina Wilhelmine Maria Josepha of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (19 January 1817 – 15 February 1893) was a member of the House of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst by birth and a member of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Princess consort of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen by marriage.

Early life

Princess Katharina was the only daughter of

Charles Albert III, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst , title = , titles = , image = Carl Albrecht III of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst.jpg , caption = , reign = 1796-1843 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor = , s ...

(1776–1843) by his second marriage with Princess Leopoldine zu Fürstenberg (1791–1844). After the separation of her parents she lived with her mother in

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar '' Kreis''. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river D ...

Marriages

In 1838 she married Franz Erwin, Count von Ingelheim genannt Echter von und zu Mespelbrunn (1812-1845); the marriage was childless. After the death of her first husband, she married in 1848

Charles, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Karl, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (20 February 1785 – 11 March 1853) was the reigning Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1831 to 1848. In 1833, Karl summoned a constitutional assembly (''Landtag'') and promulgated a constitution ...

as his second wife. Charles was a widower of Princess Marie Antoinette Murat, niece of

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

King of the Two Sicilies The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, until the fusion into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. History Joachim Murat was the first king to rule a kingdom called "Two Sicilies" by the Edict of Bayonne, in 1808. Though ...

, by whom he already had four children. For Katharina, this second marriage was also childless.

Widowhood

After Charles' death Katharina entered the convent of

Sant'Ambrogio della Massima Sant'Ambrogio della Massima (also Sant'Ambrogio alla Massima) is a Roman Catholic church in rione Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy, that perhaps dates to the 4th century. It was a convent until it became the subject of a Vatican investigation in the 1 ...

in Rome as a novice. She made complaint where a cult of personality had developed regarding one of the sisters. She then became seriously ill. Convinced she was being poisoned, she managed to get word to her cousin, Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, who immediately removed her from the convent and brought her to his estate, the

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Her ...

in Tivoli, to recover. There she was introduced to the Benedictine monk

Maurus Wolter Maurus Wolter (4 June 1825, in Bonn – 8 July 1890, in Beuron) was the first abbot of the Benedictine Beuron Archabbey, which he founded with his brother Placidus in 1863. William M. Johnston ''Encyclopedia of Monasticism'' (2000, ), pp. 1440- ...

. The princess confided in the monk, who instructed her to report it to the Holy Office. This set in motion an investigation, during which a number of irregularities at the convent came to light."Maurus (Rudolf) Wolter", Portal Rheinische Geschichte
/ref> In 1860 Von Hohenzollern asked the Maurus and his brother Ernst, also a Benedictine, to accompany her on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The princess became sympathetic to their views for the restoration of monastic life in Germany, and had the political and financial resources to assist. The following year, they received permission from their abbot at the Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls to found a daughter house in Germany.Dysinger, Luke. "The Benedictine Missionary Movement", St. Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, CA. In 1863, the Wolters established an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

on the site of a former Augustinian monastery on Hohenzollern land in

Beuron Beuron ( Swabian: ''Beira'') is a municipality in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Beuron is known for the Beuron Archabbey and the Beuron Art School for religious art. Geography Beuron is divided into subdistric ...

References

Bibliography

* Hubert Wolf: ''Die Nonnen von Sant’ Ambrogio. Eine wahre Geschichte''. München, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Katharina of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst 1817 births 1893 deaths Nobility from Stuttgart House of Hohenlohe Princesses of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen