Medieval Mystical Women in the West: Growing in the Height of Love

This book explores the rich and varied mystical writings by and about medieval - and a few early modern - women across Western Europe. Women had a profound and lasting impact on the development of medieval and early modern spiritual and mystical literature, both through their own writing and as a result of the hagiographical texts that they inspired. Bringing together contributions by both established and emerging scholars, the volume provides a valuable overview of medieval mystical women with a special focus on the Low Countries and Italy, regions that produced a disproportionately high number of female mystics. The figures discussed range from Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, Angela of Foligno, Julian of Norwich, and Beatrice of Nazareth to lesser-known women such as Agnes Blannbekin, Christina of Hane, and Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi. The chapters address topics such as the body, pain, desire, ecstasy, stigmata, annihilation, virtue, visions, the tension between exterior and interior experience, and the nature of mystical union itself.

John Arblaster is assistant professor of the history of spirituality in the Low Countries at the Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp and a research associate at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven.

Rob Faesen holds the Jesuitica Chair at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, the Francis Xavier Chair at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, and is also professor at the Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp.