PIRKHEIMER, CHARITAS. -
Poor Clare nun, b. at Eichstätt on 21 March 1466, d. at
Nuremberg on 19 Aug. 1532.

Sister of the humanist Willibald P., she was highly learned,
a friend of many humanists, venerated by Erasmus. Of profound piety, she entered in 1478 among the Poor Clares of Nuremberg,
was elected abbess there on 20 Dec. 1503 and attracted there also her
sister Chiara and her brother's daughters. She attained deserved
celebrity especially from the time when Nuremberg was the theater of the
most violent Protestantism and all the convents were suppressed, the churches closed
and the priests driven out. Before
the steadfastness of the abbess of St. Clare even
the ferocity of the Protestants bent. The influence of her brother protected
the poor nuns somewhat, but it was above all thanks to the greatness of soul of the abbess that her convent was able to
continue until its extinction, though without a priest,
without Mass, with a heroic life of sacrifices, sustained by the example of the word of the abbess, who assumed
the entire spiritual direction of the nuns. Noteworthy are her
memoirs: Denkwürdigkeiten (edited by K. Höfler, Bamberg
1852; then in 1926 in the Religiöse Quellenschriften, vol. XXXI,
by H. J. Schmitt; and finally by J. K. Gabler in the Corpus
Catholicorum, Münster 1936). She died in her poor monastery, admired by Catholics and Protestants.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: among the many writings dedicated to her: P. Binder, Ch. P., Freiburg im Br. 1873; 2nd ed. 1880; French trans., Paris 1878; H. Riesch, Frauengeist der Vergangenheit, Ch. P., Freiburg im Br. 1921; S. Kasbauer, Ch. P., eine Heldin des Glaubens, ibid. 1932; G. Krabbel, C. P. Ein Lebensbild aus der Zeit der Reformation, 4th ed. Münster in W. 1947; J. Kist, C. P., Bamberg 1948.

Giuseppe Löw

@incollection{ec9_pirkheimer_pirkheimer_charitas, author = {Lów, Giuseppe}, title = {Pirkheimer (Pirkheimer), charitas}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1559}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pirkheimer-pirkheimer-charitas} }

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Pirkheimer, Charitas

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