Mechthild of Magdeburg

Definite biographical information about Mechthild is scarce; what is known of her life comes largely from scattered hints in her work. She was born into a noble Saxon family.[4][5] She had her first vision of the Holy Spirit at the age of twelve.[6] In 1230 she left her home and “renounced worldly honour and worldly riches”[4] to become a Beguine at Magdeburg.[6] There, like Hadewijch of Antwerp, she seems to have exercised a position of authority in a Beguine community.[7] In Magdeburg she became acquainted with the Dominicans and became a Dominican tertiary.[8] It seems clear that she read many of the Dominican writers.[9] It was her Dominican confessor, Henry of Halle, who encouraged and helped Mechthild to compose The Flowing Light.[6]

Her criticism of church dignitaries,[10] religious laxity and claims to theological insight aroused so much opposition that some called for the burning of her writings. With advancing age, she was not only alone, and the object of much criticism but she also became blind.[11] Around 1272, she joined the Cistercian nunnery at Helfta, who offered her protection and support in the final years of her life, and where she finished writing down the contents of the many divine revelations she claims to have experienced. It is unclear whether she actually formally joined the Cistercian community or if she simply resided there and participated in the religious services but did not take Cistercian vows.[11] The nuns of Helfta were highly educated and important works of mysticism survive from Mechthild's younger contemporaries, St Mechthild of Hackeborn and St Gertrude the Great.

It is unclear when Mechthild died. 1282 is a commonly cited date, but some scholars believe she lived into the 1290s.[12]

Mechthild's book is written in the Middle Low German that was spoken in the region of Magdeburg at the time. It includes phrases in Latin.[13]

Mechthild's writings are formed of the seven books that constitute Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of Divinity), which was composed between 1250 and 1280. There appear to have been three stages in the evolution of the work. The first five books were finished by about 1260. During the next decade Mechthild added a sixth book. After joining the community of Cistercian nuns at Helfta around 1272, she added a seventh book, rather different in tone from the previous six.[14]

The Flowing Light was originally written in Middle Low German, the language of northern Germany. While her original composition is now lost, the text survives in two later versions. First, around 1290, Dominican friars of the Halle community translated the first six books into Latin. Then, in the mid-fourteenth century, the secular priest Henry of Nördlingen translated The Flowing Light into the Alemannic dialect of Middle High German. This version survives complete in one manuscript and in fragmentary form in three others.[12]

What is unusual about her writings is that she composed her work in Middle Low German at a time when most wisdom literature was composed in Latin. Thus she is remembered as an early proponent and popularizer of German as a language worthy of the divine and holy.[11] Mechthild's writing is exuberant and highly sophisticated. Her images of Hell are believed by some scholars to have influenced Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, and Mechthild is thought to have been represented by Dante in that work, in the character of Matelda.[15][5][16] However, there is no concrete evidence for this and there are important differences in Dante's conception of Hell.

While her work was translated into Latin during her lifetime, her work was largely forgotten by the 15th century. It was rediscovered in the late 19th century by Pater Gall Morel, who published the first edition. Her work has been increasingly studied, both for its academic interest and as a work of devotional literature. Her feast day is 19 November.[8]

• Morel, F. Gall (1869). Offenbarungen der Schwester Mechthild von Magdeburg: oder, das fliessende licht der Gottheit [Revelations of Sister Mechthild of Magdeburg: or, the flowing light of the Godhead] (in German). Regensburg: Georg Joseph Manz.
• Monks of Solesmes, ed. (1875–77). Sororis Mechtildis Lux Divinitatis Fluens in Corda Veritatis. Revelationes Gertrudianae et Mechtildianae (in Latin). 2. Paris/Poitiers: Oudin.
• Mechthild von Magdeburg (1990). Neumann, Hans (ed.). Das fließende Licht der Gottheit: Nach der Einsiedler Handschrift in kritischem Vergleich mit der gesamten Überlieferung [The flowing light of the Godhead: According to the Einsiedeln manuscript in a critical comparison with the entire tradition]. Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters (in German). 100. München: Artemis. [critical edition of the Middle High German text]
• Mechthild of Magdeburg (1998). The flowing light of the Godhead. Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Translated by Tobin, Frank. New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. (preface by Margot Schmidt) [translation into English]
• Mechthild von Magdeburg (2003). Vollmann-Profe, Gisela (ed.). Das fließende licht der Gottheit [The flowing light of the Godhead]. Bibliothek des Mittelalters (in German). 19. Translated by Vollmann-Profe, Gisela. Frankfurt a. M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag. ISBN 3-618-66195-9.[edition of the Middle High German text with facing translation into modern German]

• Bevan, Frances A., ed. (1896). Matelda and the Cloister of Hellfde: Extracts from the Book of Matilda of Magdeburg. London: James Nisbet & Company. (Also available at Internet Archive)
• Lindemann, Kate (14 December 2014). "Mechtild of Magdeburg". Kate Lindemann's Women Philosophers pages. Society for the Study of Women Philosophers. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
• McGinn, B. (1998). The flowering of mysticism: Men and women in the new mysticism (1200-1350). Crossroad. pp. 222–244. ISBN 978-0-8245-1742-7.
• Preger, Wilhelm (1873), Dante's Matelda, ein akademischer Vortrag von Wilhelm Preger [Dante's Matelda, an academic lecture by Wilhelm Preger] (in German), Munich
• Preger, Wilhelm (1874). Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter: Nach den Quellen untersucht und dargestellt [History of German mysticism in the Middle Ages: Investigated and illustrated according to the sources] (in German). 1. Dorffling und Franke.

• Benedictines (1903). Virgin saints of the Benedictine Order. London: Catholic Truth Society.
• Bowie, Fiona, ed. (1990). Beguine spirituality : mystical writings of Mechthild of Magdeburg, Beatrice of Nazareth, and Hadewijch of Brabant. Translated by Davies, Oliver. New York, NY: Crossroad.
• Ellsberg, Robert (2005). Blessed among all women: Women saints, prophets, and witnesses for our time. New York, NY: Crossroad.
• Franklin, James C. (1978). Mystical transformations: The imagery of liquids in the work of Mechthild von Magdeburg. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
• Kemp-Welch, Alice (1913). Of six mediaeval women; to which is added A note on mediaeval gardens. London: MacMillan.
• Poor, Sara (2004). Mechthild of Magdeburg and her book: Gender and the making of textual authority. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Swan, L. (2014). The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement. BlueBridge. ISBN 978-1-933346-97-7.

• Media related to Mechthild of Magdeburg at Wikimedia Commons
• Works by Mechthild of Magdeburg at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Mechthild of Magdeburg at Internet Archive