Sabina von Steinbach

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Sabina von Steinbach, legendary sculptor in the 13th century, who was responsible for the South Portal group of statuary in the Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, (English Our Lady's Cathedral or Cathedral of Strasbourg), in Strasbourg, France.

A tradition, which is constantly cited, appears to have been first published in 1617 by Schadeus in his description of Strasbourg Cathedral. It runs to the effect that the cathedral, being completed in 1275, the tower was begun in 1277 by the famous architect and master builder Erwin von Steinbach and that his daughter, Sabina, being a skilful mason, carved the porch.

Women were admitted to membership in the majority of the medieval craft guilds, but membership in a guild did not carry with it the right of being apprenticed, although it implied that a female member might share in all its benefits, pious and pecuniary, and in the event of her husband’s death (he being a master) might carry on his trade. This was easily done with the help of a managing journeyman and it is well known that provision was made for the journeyman's promptly acquiring the master’s rights by marrying such a widow. Stonemasons often traveled to distant sites for work that might be decades in construction and would naturally have taken their wives and children with them.

Von Steinbach's employment of his daughter Sabina among the Strasbourg stonemasons was not merely an irregularity perpetrated by a provincial lodge, lax in the proper guild observances. Until the capture of the city by France in 1681, the headquarters of the German stonemasons was in Strasbourg (even as late as 1760 the Strasbourg lodge still claimed tribute from the lodges of Germany). Indeed, Albert Mackey, in his Encyclopedia cites the theory "which places the organization of the Order of Freemasonry at the building of the Cathedral of Strasbourg, in the year 1275."

Some contend that Sabina took over the contract on her father's job at Strasbourg after the master builder died and brought it to completion. Others maintain that she merely assisted her father. It is commonly agreed, however, that Sabina was responsible for the statues personifying the Church and the Synagogue (both 13th century), which are located near the south portals of the cathedral.

It is interesting to note that the statue of St. John the Evangelist holds a scroll that reads: "Thanks to the hold piety of this woman, Sabina, who has given me form from this hard stone."