Eibingen Abbey (German: Abtei St. Hildegard, full name: Benedictine Abbey St. Hildegard) is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen near Rüdesheim in Hesse, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but restored, with new buildings, in 1904. The nuns produce wine and crafts. They sing regular services, which have been at times recorded. The church is also used as a concert venue. The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site.
History
The original community was founded in 1165 by Hildegard of Bingen. This was the second community founded by her. It was disestablished in 1804.[1] After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (German mediatization), the land once owned by the convent became part of the domains of the prince of Nassau-Weilburg who, in 1831, even bought both the monastery and its church.
The nuns work in the vineyard and in the craft workshops, besides undertaking the traditional duties of hospitality.[2] They are singing or reciting the canonical hours. The nuns have recorded their Vespers and other parts of the liturgy.[3] A first recording was made in 1973 and contained only two works by Hildegard of Bingen, a Kyrie and O virga ac diadema. A second recording appeared in 1979, to remember the 800th anniversary of Hildegard's death, including the same pieces and antiphones, a hymn, a responsory and parts of Ordo virtutum. In 1989, a third recording appeared, conducted by P. Johannes Berchmans Göschl, a scholar of Gregorian chant.[4] A reviewer of Gramophone noted about a 1998 recording: "These nuns are living the same life as that of Hildegard's community, singing daily the same Benedictine Office, breathing the same air and trying to capture the spirit of their great twelfth-century predecessor."[5]
