Christina, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (8 August 1639 – 30 June 1693) was a German noblewoman of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She served as the Abbess of Gandersheim Abbey from 1681 until her death in 1693, holding the title of Princess of the Empire (Reichsfürstin).
Life
Christina was a daughter of Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1588–1658), and his second wife, Marie Katharina of Brunswick-Dannenberg (1616–1665). She was the eleventh child of her father and the third by his second marriage.
Through the mediation of her second cousin, Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, she obtained a benefice at Gandersheim Abbey in 1665, becoming a canoness. On 3 October 1665, she was elected deaconess of the abbey on the recommendation of Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
When the abbess, Dorothea Hedwig, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1677 and resigned in 1678, Christina was initially passed over in favor of Christine Sophie, the young daughter of Duke Rudolph Augustus. However, Christine Sophie left the abbey in 1681 to marry, and Christina was elected abbess on 9 August 1681. Her installation followed on 11 October 1681, and her investiture by the emperor with the appropriate regalia took place on 13 April 1683.
Christina died on 30 June 1693. The cause of death is recorded as "einem Brustschaden" (a damage to the breast), with retrospective speculation suggesting either lung disease leading to pneumonia or breast cancer.
Tomb
While still alive, Christina commissioned an elaborate baroque tomb in the lady chapel of the abbey church at Gandersheim, shared with her sister Marie Elisabeth (1646–1713). The inscriptions are alexandrines dealing with themes of death and transience, attributed to Pastor Arnold Gottfried Ballenstedt. Her sarcophagus was placed in the tomb on 3 August 1693. The tomb was extensively restored in 1892 under the direction of Grand Duke Frederick Francis III.
