Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633–1694)

Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg was born at Schloss Seyssenegg in Viehdorf, Austria to an aristocratic family. The family converted from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism and had to cross the border into Nuremberg, Germany to attend church services. Following the death of her father when she was a child, her uncle Hans Rudolf von Greiffenberg became her guardian and mentor. She received an unusually comprehensive education for a girl of her time and began writing poetry at a young age. She became a member of the Pegnesischer Blumenorden (Pegnitz Order of Flowers), a literary society based in Nuremberg. She came to the attention of Sigmund von Birken, a German poet, who was impressed by the quality of her work and encouraged her to publish. In 1659, her uncle, who was 25 years her senior, proposed marriage to her. After refusing for several years, she finally consented, and they were married in 1664. Catharina traveled several times to Vienna with the idea of converting the Emperor Leopold I to the Protestant faith, but was unsuccessful. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1662. The mystical language and imagery of her poems made them difficult to understand, even for her contemporaries. The following year, she fled with her mother to Nuremberg to escape the Austro-Turkish War. She spent many years in legal wrangling to regain possession of her property, and finally settled permanently in Nuremberg in 1680.