Matilda

Matilda, daughter of the emperor Otto I, was the first princess-⁠abbess of Quedlinburg, from 966 until her death on 7 or 8 February 999, and regent of Germany. She is honored as a blessed, especially in the diocese of Magdeburg.

She was born at the beginning of 955, the daughter of Otto I and his second wife, Adelaide of Italy. Her grandmother, Saint Matilda, had founded Quedlinburg Abbey in 936 as a house of secular canonesses. In April 966, in a splendid ceremony requested by her father, the eleven-⁠year-⁠old girl, granddaughter and namesake of the foundress, was elected abbess.

A year later, in 967, she was regent of the kingdom while her father and her brother Otto were in Italy, and she held a reforming synod at Dornberg. In 968 the chronicler Widukind of Corvey dedicated to her his History of the Saxons, calling her the mistress of all Europe. In 984 she held an imperial diet at her abbey, where she defeated Henry the Wrangler, who questioned her nephew's right to the throne, and secured his election as emperor, holding the empire together. A chronicler called her regency without female levity. She was co-⁠regent with her mother, Empress Adelaide, and her sister-⁠in-⁠law, Empress Theophanu, for the young Otto III. In 994 she obtained for Quedlinburg market, coinage and customs rights, and the town grew from a few huts into a prosperous city. In 997, when Otto III shifted his attention more and more to Italy, he handed her the rule of Germany, overriding the authority of all bishops and dukes; for seven years she was the only member of the dynasty present in Saxony. In 998 she held a diet at Derenburg.

She is honored as a blessed in the Western tradition; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.