Francis Christina Pfalz-Sulzbach

Francis Cristina of Pfalz-Sulzbach ( German: Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach ; May 16, 1696 , Sulzbach - July 16, 1776 , Essen ) - princess from the Wittelsbach dynasty and abbess of free secular monasteries Essen and Thorne (Limburg province) for almost fifty years from 1726 to 1776).

Francis Cristina was born in the family of Prince Theodore Eustache of Palatinate-Sulzbach and his wife Maria Eleanor Amalia, a landgrafine of Hesse-Reinfels-Rothenburg. She was the third child in the family and second daughter.

Five years old, she was introduced to the main female abbey of Thorn, where her aunt Eleanor von Lowenstein-Rochefort was abbess, who announced in 1706 Francis Cristina as her first successor. She became abbess on October 15, 1726 in Essen. Her residence was located in the Borbek Palace in Essen, which was under reconstruction on her orders from 1744 to 1762.

Francis Christine founded an orphanage, which in 1769 adopted the first children. Her valet was Ignatius Fortuna , one of the first Africans to live in Europe and make a successful court career.

Princess Francis Christina died at the age of eighty on July 16, 1776 in Essen. On July 18, her sarcophagus in a chariot drawn by six horses covered in black blankets was delivered from Essen to Calm. According to her will, she was buried in a chapel in the orphanage founded by her.