Diemoth

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Diemoth (born about 1060; died 30 March, probably in 1130) was the name of a recluse at Wessobrunn Abbey in Upper Bavaria, Germany. ("Diemoth" is the Middle High German word for "humility" or "modesty").

[edit] Life and works

She was born of a noble Bavarian or Swabian family, and while still a child entered the Benedictine nunnery connected with the Benedictine monastery of Wessobrunn. After a long period of harsh probation in the nunnery she obtained permission to live the life of a recluse and, following the custom of many recluses of those times, had herself enclosed in a cell adjoining the church, where she spent the remainder of her life in prayer and in transcribing valuable books.

On account of her exceptionally beautiful handwriting she was styled "the beautiful scribe". She copied about 45 volumes ^[1], of which the most important are: the Bible; the Moralia and other works of Saint Gregory the Great; 7 works of Saint Augustine; 4 of Saint Jerome; 2 of Origen; and about 15 liturgical works.

Diemoth was a great friend of the Blessed Herluka with whom she exchanged numerous letters while the latter was a recluse at the neighbouring monastery of Epfach. The letters were long preserved at the monastery of Bernried where Herluka spent the last years of her life, but they unhappily fell a prey to the ravages of the forces of Sweden during the Thirty Years War. A few of Diemoth's manuscripts are still preserved at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, where they were taken after the secularisation of Wessobrunn in 1803.

Diemoth was buried in the basilica of Our Lady at Wessobrunn, beside the bodies of Abbot Thiento and his six companions, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Hungarians in 955. In 1709 her remains were transferred to the abbey church of St. Peter. She is sometimes referred to as "Blessed," though she has never received public veneration and was never formally beatified.