Sarah vom Tal

Statue of Sarah in the courtyard of Sarania Castle

**Sarah vom Tal** (born 750 AD in present-day Sarasroda; died 821 AD in present-day Matria) is a Saalinian abbess, gayanist saint, matriarchal thought leader, politician, and progenitor of the House of Sarania.

## Life

There are few sources about Sarah's family and childhood. Writers and chroniclers of the time deliberately wanted to say little about the parents, as they wanted to maintain the impression that Sarah was the first of the noble family. However, her parents seemed to be feudal lords of their birthplace Tal, as this is mentioned in a book of sisterhood.

Since the Saalenia area was Christianized at the time, she was sure to be baptized. Neither an exact date of birth nor baptism is known. The year of birth 750 can be read well from contemporary sources. In Saalian popular culture, December 24, 750 is often given as Sarah's birthday, since December 24 is "Sarahstag", i.e. the Saalian Christmas. However, this was only taken because of the Christian Christmas and has no historical background whatsoever.

In the year 764, at the age of 14, she was taken by her parents to the nunnery "To the Holy Mary" and began to live there as a nun. At that time the nunnery was in transition. The nuns living there rebelled against patriarchal Christianity and tried to rewrite it as matriarchal. Sarah came into this process and immediately got involved. So was in a group that was supposed to rewrite the Bible where God became a woman and Adam came into being from Eve's rib. However, the project took on a dynamic of its own and ended up with an entirely new sacred text. Since there was no real statehood in Saalenia at that time, other than city-states, there was no authority to stop the monastery from doing so. Sarah herself seemed very talented in theology and politics and was certainly part of the nuns who wanted the convent to get involved in secular politics as well.

In 770 Sarah von Tal became abbess of the nunnery. During this period it had significant political influence and was the lord of a number of estates. So the monastery chose the lord of the place where the monastery stood (the place that was now called Matria). The lord of the castle was called "Consul of Matria" and managed all the lands of the nunnery.

In 782 Sarah left the nunnery to start a family. She was enfeoffed by him with her home town of Tal, which had probably gone to the monastery in the meantime. During this time she was castle scholar for the Consul of Matria and advised him on legal matters. There they implemented ideas of the new matriarchal religion, which is why the first church of the Gaya was founded in 814, the religion being called Gayanism. Sarah became Gayanism's first high priestess that year and remained so until her death in 821. The exact date of her death is unknown. Their children formed the house of Sarania, which exists to this day and provides today's princesses. Gayanism is the state religion of Saalenia.

## Legacy

The town of Tal where Sarah was born was renamed Sarasroda in 950 on the 200th anniversary of her birth, this is in the Barony of Sarastal, also named after her. Until 1873 these were under the rule of the House of Sarania.

Sarah is considered a saint in Gayanism and is sometimes worshiped like Jesus. Sarah's day is celebrated on December 24th, her alleged birthday is celebrated. Centennial anniversaries are celebrated every 100 years on the anniversary of her death and birthday.

The nunnery was renamed Saraskloster from 821 and remained in existence until 1559. Then it was dissolved by Princess Franka I, as she did not want any monastic structures in the country.