 The canonical hours and masses of the order occurred in the Minster, as well as prayers for deceased members of the community, the noble sponsors of the order and their ancestors.The number of nuns from the nobility which the church served varied over the centuries between about seventy during the order's heydey under the Abbess Mathilde in the tenth century and three in the sixteenth century.The church was open to the dependents of the order and the people of the city of Essen only on the high feast days.