Catherine of the Palatinate (1499–1526)

Catherine of the Palatinate (1499–1526)
Contemporary tombstone in the Klosterkirche Neuburg
Born	14 October 1499 Heidelberg
Died	16 January 1526(1526-01-16) (aged 26) Neuburg Abbey
Buried	Abbey church of Neuburg Abbey.
Noble family	Wittelsbach
Father	Philip, Elector Palatine
Mother	Margaret of Bavaria-Landshut

Catherine of the Palatinate (14 October 1499 in Heidelberg – 16 January 1526 in Neuburg Abbey) was a member of the Wittelsbach family and a titular Countess Palatine of Simmern. She was abbess of Neuburg Abbey.

Life

Catherine was the youngest child of Elector Palatine Philip (1448–1508) from his marriage to Margaret (1456–1501), the daughter of Duke Louis IX of Bavaria-Landshut. In 1515, Catherine renounced her inheritance and entered the Benedictine Neuburg Abbey.[1] She became abbess of the abbey.

Catherine died in 1526, at the age of 26. She was buried in the abbey church of Neuburg. Her grave stone can be found on the north wall of the nave, opposite the monastery portal. It is made of red sandstone and it shows, in bas-relief, Catherine wearing a nun's habit, with the abbess's staff and a book in her hands and a lion at her feet.[2]

References

• August Benedict Michaelis: Einleitung zu einer volständigen geschichte der chur- und fürstlichen häuser in Teutschland vol. 2, 1760, p. 32

Footnotes

1. Neues Archiv für die Geschichte der Stadt Heidelberg und der Kurpfalz, vol. 6, 1905, p. 22
2. Renate Neumüllers-Klauser: Die Inschriften der Stadt und des Landkreises Heidelberg, Reichert, 1970, p. 121