Leoba (Leoba, Leobgytha, Truthgeba), Saint (LIOBA (LEOBA, LEOBGYTHA, TRUTHGEBA), SANTA)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

LIOBA (LEOBA, LEOBGYTHA, TRUTHGEBA), saint. — Benedictine; the date and place of her birth are unknown. She died at Schörnsheim near Mainz on 28 September 782 (or 779 or 780). Related on her mother’s side to St Boniface, she received her education in the monastery on the island of Thanet and then in the convent of Wimborne, where St Tetta (Thetta) exerted a great influence over her.

In 735 she was called as abbess to Tauberbischofsheim, where she formed a friendship with the blessed Hildegard, the second wife of Charlemagne. Buried at Fulda in 782, she was transferred to Petersberg on 28 September 838. She took part with St Boniface in the Christianization of Germany, as demonstrated by her extensive correspondence with this Saint.

BIBL.: J. Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. S. Benedetti, IV, Venice 1734, pp. 291–34; Acta SS. Septembris, VII, Paris 1856, pp. 760–68; Rodolfo di Fulda, Vita Leobae abbatisse, in MGH, Scriptores, XV, pp. 121–31.

Miroslav Štumpf