Mechthild von Magdeburg

German mystic and writer

• Born: c. 1210
• Birthplace: Saxony (now in Germany)
• Died: c. 1297
• Place of death: Helfta, near Eislebern (now in Germany)

The mystic Mechthild was the first woman to write in her native German, rather than in Latin, as she described God’s revelations to her.

Early Life

All biographical information about Mechthild von Magdeburg (MEHK-tihld vahn MAHG-duh-burk) comes from her own writings. She was probably from a noble family of Saxony. She records that when she was only twelve years of age, she was greeted by the Holy Ghost; although she was not schooled in theology, she knew that God was speaking to her. From that time onward, she states, the greeting was repeated daily and she became very conscious of God’s presence. Mechthild continued to experience frequent visions and interior messages from God. Instead of following the ordinary course of marrying, she listened to God’s direction and made a different decision.

Around 1230, inspired by her revelations, Mechthild left her home to become a Beguine at Magdeburg. The Beguines were lay women from the upper classes who led lives of chastity and poverty but who did not belong to a religious community or order. Although the movement was predominantly one of women, men known as Beghards also lived in this manner. The Beguines were one of the few if not the only medieval religious movement not inspired or guided by men.

During the thirteenth century, the Beguines flourished in Belgium and parts of Germany. Some Beguines maintained their own homes; others, Mechthild among them, lived a communal life of prayer, almsgiving, penance, and service. Although Beguines did not take religious vows, they lived a monastic life. Many of their beguinages, or common houses, became centers of intense mystical experience. They were also places of study, writing, translation of texts, and copying of other texts for use by the faithful. The Beguine movement continues today in Belgium.

One of the practices of the Beguines was the use of the vernacular (or native language), rather than Latin, for Bible reading. This significant departure from custom earned them intense criticism by church personnel. The Beguines were also criticized because they would not become a formal religious community, probably because this status would have restricted them in their many services among the poor. They were condemned by the Council of Vienna in 1311, but this condemnation seems to have had relatively little influence.

The Beguines’ use of the vernacular quite probably influenced Mechthild’s decision to record her visions in her own Low German, a first for that time.

During her time as a Beguine, Mechthild, guided by a Dominican confessor and spiritual director, began to write an account of her visions and revelations. Although at first her confessor was skeptical, he was eventually convinced of Mechthild’s sincerity and placed her under obedience to continue her writing. Writing in her native Low German, Mechthild set herself to work, completing six of the seven books of revelations. She completed the work much later, after she left the Beguines. Mechthild claims that God gave the work its title: Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit (The Revelations of Mechthild of Magdeburg, 1210-1297: Or, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, 1953; best known as The Flowing Light of the Godhead, 1998). Divine light is indeed the central image in the work, and Mechthild was ever moving toward that light.

Life’s Work

Mechthild’s life’s work consists of the single piece cited above, the early portions of which she completed during her time as a Beguine. Her writings and other comments provoked opposition, partly because of her choice to write in Low German, partly because of her audacious claims of God’s intimacy with her, and partly because of her strong denunciations of the vices of clergy in general and the clergy of Magdeburg in particular. Evidently guided by God’s revelations, Mechthild named several ecclestiastical abuses; her accusations made her the target of negative criticism. It is thought that her noble birth gave her the freedom to describe abuses without fear of recrimination.

Although Mechthild sought no recognition, her visions eventually became known; these, together with her naming of clerical abuses, brought her unremitting attention from the many who came to the Beguines seeking religious counsel. Unable to live her spiritual life in peace, sometime after 1270 Mechthild sought refuge, joining the Cistercian nuns at Helfta in order to find seclusion and support. The Cistercians were strictly cloistered, and with them Mechthild was able to find the peace and seclusion she sought. It is thought that her confessor urged this move, probably to shelter Mechthild but also to protect the Beguine community.

Mechthild’s move was to prove deeply beneficial. The saintly abbess, Gertrud of Hakeborn (1231-1291; not to be confused with Saint Gertrude, 1256-1302), received her at Helfta and encouraged her to continue writing. Although Mechthild was older than many of the nuns, they received her as a peer. As time passed, they realized that she was favored by God and revered her as one chosen for divine grace. Although it is not known whether Mechthild became a member of the Cistercians, she lived among them until her death. Because of her several skirmishes with ecclesiastical authorities when she was with the Beguines, Mechthild’s health suffered; in her later years she was blind and greatly weakened by illness.

The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Mechthild’s single masterpiece, is not a cohesive work so much as a collection of visions, teachings, exhortations, experiences, bits of dialogue, and scriptural commentary. The work bears strong resemblance to other literary pieces of the time, particularly folk songs, lyrical poetry, and drama. The use of Low German lends a homey touch to Mechthild’s writing; she uses common figures of speech and her own local idiom. She combines poetry and prose with ease, although in general the work contains more poetry than prose. In recording the experiences of her own soul with God, Mechthild describes the spiritual journey both in general and in detail. She moves from a deep desire for God to a more mature appreciation of God’s presence within her heart; as she grows in the spiritual life, her love intensifies. She believes that God’s love for her grows as well.

Mechthild’s writings indicate that she experienced both visions (that is, she “saw” God and several of the saints) and auditory messages (that is, she “heard” inner voices speaking to her). Because she was not writing for the edification of other readers, it can be assumed that she is narrating with complete sincerity. She professes a deep longing for God’s presence and experiences intense sadness when this longing is not fulfilled. She describes God as having the same longing for the human heart.

Because Mechthild was a highly intuitive and poetic writer, it is not possible to analyze her work. She wrote with great feeling, often speaking of her great ache to be with God. In her work, she speaks extensively of the mystery of suffering, particularly the sufferings of Jesus Christ but also the suffering of the souls in Purgatory and the condemned souls in Hell. She writes as though she is describing actual visions or interior experiences, but it is not possible to tell when she is narrating and when she is creating. It may be that this distinction did not exist for Mechthild. She was, it is generally concluded, a true mystic; her sense of the divine was strong and real, and she wrote about it with a sense of the limitations of language.

In many ways, Mechthild reflects the spiritual climate of her time. Grim and detailed in her depiction of the sufferings of those who offend God, she uses the conventional flames, pestilence, sounds, smells, and other horrors in describing Hell. Although she believes that God is a God of love, she is more concerned with focusing on God’s justice and wrath. She goes so far as to claim that the souls in the lowest part of Purgatory may not be saved, a claim condemned by the Catholic Church in 1520. This claim was probably motivated by her deep distress at the notion of sin, even the lesser or venial sins for which the purgation of Purgatory is appropriate.

Part of the richness of Mechthild’s writing comes from the fact that she wrote for her confessor alone, without any aim of teaching others. Her writing is personal and has a simplicity that more formal works lack; readers of her work come away with the feeling that they have overheard her dialogues with God.

Mechthild’s conception of Purgatory and Hell is believed by some to be the basis for Dante’s description of the same scenes in his La divina commedia (c. 1320; The Divine Comedy, 1802). Although it is not possible to prove this influence, it is striking that cantos 27-33 of the second book of Dante’s work, on Purgatory, are very similar some say identical to Mechthild’s descriptions in The Flowing Light of the Godhead. It should also be noted that three-part descriptions of Hell and Purgatory are not uncommon. If Dante had access to Mechthild’s work, it would most likely have been a translation from the German into Italian, something highly unlikely, not impossible, but virtually impossible to document.

Although no original manuscript of Mechthild’s work is known to exist, the work was published after her death and went through several translations. She was relatively unknown until the mid-nineteenth century, when renewed interest in the medieval mystics, Mechthild among them, caused her works to be reprinted. In later years, she was often included in collections of spiritual writings by women, where she is frequently compared with Julian of Norwich and Hildegard von Bingen. Although she is now regularly included in collections of spiritual writings, there seems to have been no cult or following (as in the case with many persons reputed to be mystics and visionaries), nor has there been any movement to declare her a saint.

Significance

Mechthild of Magdeburg, writing at the command of her confessor, produced the first major mystical work in Low German. She occupies a firm place among the medieval mystics and remains important both for her spirituality and as a pioneer of German literature, because of her use of the vernacular in a time when this practice was not ordinarily sanctioned. As scholars continue to explore spiritual works written by women, Mechthild’s place in that canon becomes even more secure.

Bibliography

Anderson, Elizabeth A. The Voices of Mechthild of Magdeburg. Oxford, England: Peter Lang, 2000. Considers the voices of Mechthild as prophet and mystic in The Flowing Light of the Godhead. Quotations from Mechthild are in both Middle German and Anderson’s English translation. Notes summarize secondary studies; bibliography.

Dronke, Peter. The Medieval Lyric. New York: Harper and Row, 1968. Dronke includes Mechthild in his analysis of themes and concepts in the medieval lyric.

Flinders, Carol Lee. Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics. San Francisco: Harper, 1993. One of the most readable and insightful treatments of Mechthild’s work; good analysis of recurring themes in the seven writers.

Tobin, Frank. Mechthild von Magdeburg: A Medieval Mystic in Modern Eyes. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1995. A full-length study of Mechthild, including a survey of critical literature that has appeared since her rediscovery in the mid-nineteenth century. The single most helpful treatment of Mechthilde, her life, and her writing.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness. 1911. Reprint. London: Methuen, 1962. Although nearly a century old, this work remains the classic study of mysticism. Mechthild is mentioned numerous times as Underhill discusses various types of mysticism, mystical revelations, and related topics. Helpful for the reader unfamiliar with mysticism and the terms used in discussing it.

Zehringer, William C. “Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Spiritual Pilgrimage.” Review for Religious (May/June, 2001): 277-284. Explores the spirituality and theology of Mechthild’s writing. According to the author’s note, the article is adapted from a chapter of a book in progress.