Very little is known of her actual life, not even her real name. We do know she wrote two texts in English on her visions and their meaning
Feminine Love in the Twelfth Century – A Case Study: The Mulier in the Lost Love Letters and the Work of Female Mystics
November 10, 2014 By
This article compares the twelfth-century writings of the secular mulier in the Lost Love Letters with the work of religious female ‘mystics’ to draw comparisons about the way these authors chose to express love.
The influence of conflicting medieval church and social discourses on individual consciousness : dissociation in the visions of Hadewijch of Brabant
October 10, 2014 By
This article examines the influence of the conflicting dis- courses in the medieval church and its social context on the subconscious experiences of Hadewijch of Brabant, a 13th century Flemish visionary, mystical author, vernacular theologian and Beguine leader
INTERVIEW: A Conversation with SD Sykes about Plague Land
October 3, 2014 By
My interview with fiction author, SD Sykes about her fantastic medieval crime novel, Plague Land.
An outside for the inside : a psychoanalytic reading of The Book of Margery Kempe
February 3, 2014 By
It is evident in Margery Kempe’s visions of holy family life that Virgin and Christ dyad is an oedipal fantasy of the child who is the father of himself.
Medieval mystic Angela da Foligno is named a Saint
October 15, 2013 By
Pope Francis made the surprising announcement last week that Angela da Foligno, an Italian Franciscan and mystic, has been named a saint.
Vision and Revision: The Female Mystics as Writers in Late Medieval Northern Europe
October 4, 2013 By
When I first encountered the writings of the medieval mystics years ago, I began this study with a simple question: why has so much writing been produced about a topic considered to be ineffable, inexpressible?
The Privileging of Visio over Vox in the Mystical Experiences of Hildegard of Bingen and Joan of Arc
May 25, 2013 By
Even though medieval women mystics have enjoyed increased attention in recent scholarly discussion, a topic that still has not been tackled is the possible difference between seeing a vision and hearing a voice during a mystical experience
Corpus Christi Plays and the Stations of the Cross: Medieval York and Modern Sydney
April 1, 2013 By
The earliest surviving reference to the Corpus Christi festival in York is dated 1322, when Archbishop William Melton commended it as „the glorious feast of the most precious sacrament of the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ‟. In 1408 the York Guild of Corpus Christi was established „as a confraternity of chaplains and lay persons, with the encouragement of the city government, probably to form the focus of the civic Corpus Christi Day procession‟.
Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines
March 17, 2013 By
The origins of the Beguines can be traced to two important medieval religious reform movements: monastic mysticism and the vita apostolica, or “apostolic life.”
The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias
January 13, 2013 By
The image thatis the subjectof this essay is one of thirty-five miniatures that once illuminated the lost Rupertsberg manuscript (Wiesbaden, Hessisches Landesbibl., MS 1, ca. 1165-75), a deluxe copy of Scivias.
Transitional Holiness in the Twelfth Century: The Social and Spiritual Identity of Domina Christina of Markyate
January 13, 2013 By
Visions flourish within particular domestic contexts and disciplines, and Christina enables us to glimpse a sub-culture of visionary experience in twelfth-century England, which rarely shows up in sources and is given little authority in the dominant narratives.
Abandoned to Love: The Proceso of María de Cazalla and the Mirror of Simple Souls
December 4, 2012 By
In comparing the trial of María de Cazalla with Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls, one of the most notable works of medieval mysticism, the present study aims to demonstrate how the main components of alumbradismo may be discerned in a single normative example of medieval mystical theology.
Rhetorics of Pain and Desire: The Writings of the Middle English Mystics
December 3, 2012 By
This dissertation “Rhetorics of Pain and Desire: The Writings of the Middle English Mystics,” seeks to explore the connections between desire and pain in the writings of Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe and Walter Hilton. All four writers develop a rhetoric that allows them to use pain and/or desire as a catalyst through which their writing becomes embodied.
Late-Medieval Women: Ascetic Performance and Subversive Mysticism
September 20, 2012 By
Christina the Astonishing (1150-1224), Mary of Oignies (1177-1213), and Margaret of Ypres (1216-1237) are examples of such lay women who used the accepted role of Female Mystic to effect and secure alternative lifestyles, and also to gain authority that equalled, and often surpassed, the male voices that made up their communities.
Devotion to the Name of Jesus in Medieval England
September 17, 2012 By
Denis Renevey discusses the medieval mystic tradition from the 11th century to the Reformation, the significance of the name of Jesus during this period, and its impact on religious attitudes in the Middle Ages.
Teaching the Visions: Female Mystics’ Participation in Thirteenth-Century Education
September 5, 2012 By
Female visionaries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries brought to their readers vivid accounts of spiritual meetings with God regarding the religious life.
Christian Mysticism as a Threat to Papal Traditions
September 4, 2012 By
Several aspects of the mystic Christianity in the Middle Ages challenged the traditions of the church, including the mystics’ theological interpretation of scripture, their graphic visions, and their threat to established gender roles.
Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds
May 6, 2012 By
Albertus Magnus’s thirteenth-century work, De animalibus, a lengthy compilation based on Aristotle and on a handful of commentators, is as close as the Middle Ages comes to a systematic natural history in our understanding of the term.
An introduction to the investigation into the mental health of female medieval mystics
May 2, 2012 By
While the Medieval ascription to madness is known, in the light of recent psychological and medical insights, I will explore alternative explanations for the extreme behaviour of devout women in the Middle Ages.
The female body, animal imagery, and authoritarian discourse in the Ancrene Riwle
April 17, 2012 By
Through close reading and rhetorical analysis of numerous passages in the guide, this dissertation re-examines the importance of the body and authority in this work and notes the points at which the discourse of the Ancrene Riwle tends to place restrictions on its audience of medieval women religious.
VAGANTES: Necessary Imperfection: The Body of Sainte Marie l’Egyptienne
March 30, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine the role of the body and its relationship to the world around it in the “vie de sainte” of Marie l’Egyptienne, who is an excellent example of a female saint who begins life as a sinner and transforms her body into something holy. This presentation will focus on the version of Marie l’Egyptienne’s life written by Rutebeuf in the 13th century, but will also bring in elements of other versions and of the stories of other female saints who transform their bodies for comparison.
Convents, Courts and Colleges: The Prioress and the Second Nun
March 22, 2012 By
Pilgrimage, after Whitby, and before Vatican II, was a secular activity, a performance of piety by the laity, not by the clergy; although there were a few exceptions.7 Chaucer’s Monk, Friar, Prioress, Nun, Priest, Summoner, Pardoner and Parson ought not to be here. Their presence is outrageous comedy. Inns were forbidden to the cloistered clergy who, if they had to travel, were enjoined to stay in other monastic establishments along their route.
Englishwomen as Pilgrims to Jerusalem: Isolda Parewastell, 1365
March 22, 2012 By
Isolda Parewastell from Somerset, who was in Jerusalem in 1365, fitted into this fourteenth-century pattern. Despite the risks involved, women pilgrims were inspired by an instinct for travel and change, as well as by a sense of religious obligation and the hope of spiritual reward.
St. Birgitta: The Disjunction Between Women and Ecclesiastical Power
March 21, 2012 By
However, if one theoretically unseats the primacy of the Papal cause and instead places its importance within the context of Birgitta’s life as a woman, a more sympathetic portrait emerges. When I re-examine her visions and her life in this light, I find that Birgitta was divided in her allegiance to the Papal Father in her concern for women.
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