Medieval Female Mystics

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses female mysticism and visionary women in the Middle Ages. The paper begins by discussing how Christianity views women in general and then focuses on Mechtild of Magdeburg and the Helfta Community and the impact that they had on Christianity. The paper ends by describing medieval monasteries and their mystics.

Table of Contents:
The Feminine Mystique of the Middle Ages
Mechtild of Magdeburg and the Helfta Community
Love as the Power of the Mystic
The Medieval Monasteries and Their Mystics

From the Paper:

"The female visionaries and mystics from these monasteries expressed a slightly different point of view than their male counterparts. Although they kept the stress placed on physical suffering and mortification, their message was less severe and carrying more love and more emotional involvement in the world. The message of love was stressed particularly by the community of women from Helfta, a family monastery where enlighten minds allowed the rigorous St. Gertrude and the tormented Mechtild as well to live and to write about their experience of ecstasy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beer, Frances, "Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages", Woodbridge: Boydell P., 1992
• Elias, Norbert, "The Society of Individuals", Oxford Press, 1991, volume II
• English, Leona M., "An Analysis of Power in the Writing of Mechtild of Magdeburg", Feminist Theology, 14 (2), 2006, pp. 189-204
• Finnegan, Mary Jeremy, "The Women of Helfta: Scholars and Mystics", London: University of Georgia Press, 1991
• Franklin, James, "Mystical Transformations: the Imagery of Liquids in the Works of Mechtild of Magdeburg", London: Associated University Press, 1978

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