Äbtissin

An Äbtissin is the female head of a monastery or convent in German-speaking areas. The title designates the superior of a monastic community of nuns and is the feminine counterpart to Abt (abbot). The role exists across various orders, including Benedictine, Cistercian, and other conventual traditions. The term derives from Latin abbas, with the feminine form developing in medieval German to denote a woman who governs a house of nuns.

As abbess, she is elected by the convent according to its constitution and, in many cases, requires confirmation by a diocesan bishop or another church authority. She holds spiritual leadership, presides over the convent's liturgy and daily life, and administers the property, finances, and external affairs of the house. The abbess represents the community in its relations with the church hierarchy and with civil authorities, and may chair the convent's chapter. In certain medieval contexts within the Holy Roman Empire, abbesses of imperial abbeys exercised a degree of secular authority over their territories (imperial immediacy).

Today, the position persists in traditional monasteries and women's abbeys, particularly within Catholicism and in some Protestant or historic houses. An abbess typically presides over chapters, oversees the admission and education of novices, and governs endowments and sponsorships. Notable historical abbesses include Hildegard von Bingen, who served as abbess of the Rupertsberg and later Eibingen monasteries and is celebrated as a mystic, composer, and reformer.