According to a charter issued by Archbishop Phillip of heinsberg in 1178, this Benedictine convent had already been established in what was previously a simple chapel. Phillip's charter confirms the transfer of ownership of the chapel from the canons of S. Cunibert to the nuns and grants the nuns archiepiscopal protection. However, the actual origins of this house remain obscure.
The community was a mix of patrician and middle-class women. Of the foureen identified nuns, nine were patrician and five were middle-class.
[1]Lacomblet, Theodor J., ed. Urkundenbuch fur die Geschichte des Niederrheins. 4 vols. Dusseldorf: J. Wolf, 1840-1858.
[1]NULL
[2]Stein, "Die Machabaeerkirche in Koeln" AHVN 30 (1876), 204.
more research necessary