Sabina von Steinbach

[Tamrin]

Sabina von Steinbach

(Operative, 13th century)

Sabina sculpturing the figure of 'Synagogue'
by Moritz von Schwind, 1840

Sabina assisted her father, the famous architect Erwin von Steinbach, in the construction of Strasbourg's Notre-Dame Cathedral. Among her works are statues at the South Portal. The most famous of these are a pair representing “Church” and “Synagogue” (below) of which the suggestion has been raised that they are both self-portrayals of the artist, while a statue of St. John the Evangelist has him holding a scroll which reads: "Thanks to the hold piety of this woman, Sabina, who has given me form from this hard stone."

"Synagogue" & "Church," sculptured by Sabina von Steinbach

Nor was the employment of Sabina and others among the Strasbourg stonemasons merely an irregularity perpetrated by a provincial lodge, lax in the proper observances. According to Gould (v.1, p.173) until the capture of the city by France in 1681, the headquarters of the German stonemasons was in Strasbourg (even as late as 1760 the Strasbourg lodge still claimed tribute from the lodges of Germany). Indeed, Albert Mackey, in his Encyclopedia (1917, p.704), cites, the theory ‘which places the organization of the Order of Freemasonry at the building of the Cathedral of Strasburg, in the year 1275.’ If so, Erwin would have been, in effect, the first grand master and Sabina would have been numbered among Freemasonry’s founders!

Sabina is said to have accepted responsibility for the work on Strasbourg Cathedral after her father's death (Prof. Jan Snoek of Heidelberg University has reported, at the inaugural, International Conference on the History of Freemasonry, recent confirmation of Sabina having undertaken that role). If so, and if Erwin was, in effect, the first grand master, Sabina may have been the second!

Later statues erected to commemorate
Erwin (holding a plan of the cathedral) & Sabina (holding a hammer and her Guild's Constitutions)

[Tamrin]

[Excerpt - Is CoMasonry the Antidote? - Carlos Antonio Martinez, Jnr. - Linked Here]

Another fact comes to contradict the exaggerated misogyny of a vast number of Masons, Grand Jurisdictions and Concordant Bodies: There is a great feminine name, among those “admirable cathedral builders”, that of Sabine de Pierrefonds, daughter of Herve de Pierrefonds, better known by the germanic name of Erwin Von Steinbach. Sabine participated in the construction of the cathedral of Strasburg, and also sculpted some of the most prominent statues of Notre Dame in Paris. Evidently, however, the construction of these cathedrals, which, usually took up to a couple of centuries to be built, required more than one Master of the Work, and it is highly probable that Sabine de Pierrefonds was not the only woman who toiled in these labors.