St. Anna-Orden

The Order of Saint Anne (Bavaria) [Sankt-Anna-Orden (Bayern)] was established on 19 September 1783 by Maria Anna of Saxony, the widow of the late Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria, for unmarried noble Catholic women of the Electorate of Bavaria. The order was endowed with the formerly dissolved Osterhofen Monastery. The former Salesian convent in Munich was designated as the ladies’ convent. To be admitted to the order, applicants had to be at least fifteen years old and able to prove sixteen noble ancestors.

In 1802, Maximilian IV Joseph abolished the common residence and emoluments, so that the ladies’ convent was effectively secularized and the order became a purely female order for the support of noble girls and women, similar to the Order of Saint Theresa, established later. The ten existing prebends were set at 1,000 gulden each, and eight more, worth 500 gulden each, were created, including six for the daughters of non-noble officers and officials. For the other ladies, the number of ancestors they had to prove was reduced to eight.