According to legend, Hadeloga, the sister of the Frankish king Pepin the Younger, who often stayed at the Carolingian castle on the Schwanberg, was the founder of the convent. A woman of deep faith, she longed for the tranquillity of a convent. The choice of location for the convent was to be made by Heaven itself. On a stormy day, she let her veil be carried away by the gales from the castle garden. On the western bank of the Main, it was found by a shepherd named Kitz, who was tending his sheep there, hanging from a strange bush bearing golden and blue berries. He took it to the Carolingian castle, and the princess regarded the spot where it was found as the site chosen by God for the foundation of a convent. At her request, King Pepin built the convent on the southern slope of the Eselsberg. It was consecrated by Winfried Bonifatius in accordance with ecclesiastical tradition on 23 September 745 and named ‘Chitzinga monasterium’, i.e. Kitzingen Convent, after the finder of the veil, the shepherd Kitz. The first abbess of the Benedictine convent, established according to the Rule of St Benedict, was Princess Hadeloga. Endowed with royal privileges, the Carolingian imperial monastery served the Christian education of the young women of the Frankish nobility and was regarded throughout the region as the most distinguished centre of Christian culture. This ‘Monasterium Chitzinga’ was to become the nucleus of the later town of Kitzingen.¹
¹ from: Hertz Richard, Ahrens Uwe Bernd: Chronicle of the Protestant parish of Kitzingen. History of the town parish. Books on Demand. Chapter 1.