Her father was Theodore Eustace, Count Palatine of Sulzbach and her mother was Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg.

Francisca Christina was born on 16 May 1696 as the daughter of Duke Theodore Eustace of Palatinate-Sulzbach and his wife Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg.

Her aunt Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort was abbess of Thorn and made Francisca Christina, her "much-loved cousin", her sole heir in 1706.

She was released from the residency requirement in September 1713 and received the vote two years later, when her sister left Essen Abbey and joined a religious monastery.

(Essen was a secular abbey; this meant that the collegiate ladies kept their own possessions and could leave whenever they wanted, for example, if they decided to marry).

Already on 2 February 1717, a letter from Elector Palatine Charles III Philip arrived in Thorn, recommending the election of his relative Francisca Christina.

On 7 March, an envoy from the Elector arrived in Thorn, "... to make some proposals to the abbey's dignitaries with regards to the Serene Princess Christina of Sulzbach".

Elector Charles III Philip sent two envoys, with a letter of recommendation and instructions to stay in Essen until after the election.

The kingdom of Prussia which regarded itself as the protector of the Protestant city of Essen, spoke out in favour of Francisca Christina.

The population of Essen was less credulous, because the general chapter of the abbey had to deal with a complaint by the Catholic councils, who demanded satisfaction for insults to their quarters.

When the newly elected abbess entered the city of Essen, a four-page brochure entitled Essendia Redeviva was published, in which it was alleged that during the reign of her predecessor Bernardine Sophia of East Frisia and Riedberg "nothing but hostility, distrust and disharmony had continually prevailed" and "the whole country had spent its days in melancholy, waiting in vain for redemption", until Francisca Christina took up office.

The absolutist view on government of her advisors often clashed with the ancestral rights of the chapters of Thorn and Essen, which the latter fiercely defended.

Another dispute, which even led to a lawsuit before the Reichskammergericht in Wetzlar, was about whether the Abbess or her officialis had the right to inspect the fireplace in the private residences of the canons in Essen without prior consultation of the chapter.

In 1775, the collegiate ladies and the citizen together attempted to have Father Thomas Mantels SJ, Francisca Christina's Jesuit confessor, relieved of his religious leadership.

In about 1766, the papal Nuncio wrote this about Francisca Christina to his successor: "She is a pious Princess, full of faith, but she allows her confessor and her canons to celebrate one thousand abominations.

In the mansion in Steele, he had a heated room on the same floor as the princess, a privilege that only he and the treasurer of the congregation and the abbess's personal priest had.

The Baron of Duminique, who later organized the election of Francisca Christina's successor in 1776 as an envoy of the Saxon court, found himself forced, due to the moisture in the masonry, to ask the Jesuits next door to provide him accommodation.

Küppers-Braun[4] has demonstrated that the purchase price of the farms that provide the economic basis of the foundation, must have greatly exceeded her financial resources.

After deducting the cost of housekeeping and her funeral, the surplus from the sale of her entire estate was only 318 Reichstaler, less than the wealth her thrifty Black servant Ignatius Fortuna left when he died.

On 18 July the coffin was transferred from Essen to Steele, which was still independent, on a hearse drawn by six horses covered in black.