Hadewijch
Hadewijch (Dutch pronunciation:
Life
No details of her life are known outside the sparse indications in her own writings. Her Letters suggest that she functioned as the head of a
Sexuality
Some of Hadewijch's letters have been interpreted as alluding to same-sex attraction or desire.[2] A notable example is found in Letter 25, in which she describes her powerful, unrequited feelings for a woman named Sara, as well as her close relationship with two women named Emma and Margriet:
Greet Sara also in my behalf, whether I am anything to her or nothing.
Could I be fully all that in my love I wish to be for her, I would gladly do so; and I shall do so fully, however she may treat me. She has very largely forgotten my affliction, but I do not wish to blame or reproach her, seeing that Love [Minne] leaves her at rest, and does not reproach her, although Love ought ever anew to urge her to be busy with her noble Beloved. Now that she has other occupations and can look on quietly and tolerate my heart's affliction, she lets me suffer. She is well aware, however, that she should be a comfort to me, both in this life of exile and in the other life in bliss. There she will indeed be my comfort, although she now leaves me in the lurch.
And you, Emma and yourself-who can obtain more from me than any other person now living can, except Sara-are equally dear to me. But both of you turn too little to Love, who has so fearfully subdued me in the commotion of unappeased love. My heart, soul, and senses have not a moment's rest, day or night; the flame burns constantly in the very marrow of my soul.
Tell Margriet to be on her guard against haughtiness, and to be sensible, and to attend to God each day; and that she may apply herself to the attainment of perfection and prepare herself to live with us, where we shall one day be together; and that she should neither live nor remain with aliens. It would be a great disloyalty if she deserted us, since she so much desires to satisfy us, and she is now close to us-indeed, very close-and we also so much desire her to be with us.
Once I heard a sermon in which Saint Augustine was spoken of. No sooner had I heard it than I became inwardly so on fire that it seemed to me everything on earth must be set ablaze by the flame I felt within me. Love is all!
— Hadewijch, Letter 25[3]
Works
Most of Hadewijch's extant writings, none of which survived the
Poems in Stanzas (Strophische Gedichten)
Her forty-five Poems in Stanzas (Strophische Gedichten, also Liederen, "Songs") are lyric poems following the forms and conventions used by the
Poems in Couplets (Mengeldichten or Berijmde brieven)
The sixteen Poems in Couplets (Mengeldichten, also Berijmde brieven, "letters on rhyme") are simpler didactical poems in letter format, composed in rhyming couplets, on Christian topics; not all of them are considered authentic.
Visions
Hadewijch's Book of Visions (Visioenenboek), the earliest
Letters
Thirty prose letters also survive:[9] here Hadewijch explains her views, and they give some context to her life.
List
The Lijst der volmaakten ("list of the perfect ones"), is joined to the Visions in some[
Influence
Hadewijch's writings influenced
Veneration
In 2022, Hadewijch was officially added to the
Notes
- province of Antwerp. The "of Brabant" and "of Antwerp" identifications of the 13th century Hadewijch are apparently primarily intended to distinguish her from Hadewych of Meer. Part of the evidence for her origins lies in the fact that most of the manuscripts containing her work were found near Brussels. The Antwerp connection is mainly based on a later addition to one of the manuscript copies of her works, that was produced several centuries after her death.
- Saint Lutgardlived around the same time) in 1248, is considered even more unlikely in recent scholarship. For more on this, see, for instance, the writings by Paul Mommaers mentioned in the references section below.
References
- ^ Letter 29.
- ^ Matter, E. Ann. “My Sister, My Spouse: Woman-Identified Women in Medieval Christianity.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 2, no. 2, 1986. pp. 81–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25002043.
- ^ Mother Columba Hart, ed. and trans., Hadewijch: The Complete Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), pp 105-106.
- ^ "Brieven, visioenen, strofische gedichten, mengeldichten[manuscript]Hadewijch". lib.ugent.be. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
- ^ Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism, (1998), p200.
- S2CID 218668701.
- ^ Hadewijch, Liederen, edited, introduced, and translated by Veerle Fraeters & Frank Willaert, with a reconstruction of the melodies by Louis Peter Grijp (Groningen: Historische Uitgeverij, 2009).
- ^ Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism, (1998), p200., Zimbalist, Barbara (2012), "Quotation and Imitation in Hadewijch's Visioenen: the Visionary and the Vernacular Voice of Christ", Ons Geestelijk Erf, 83 (3): 216–42.
- ^ Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism, (1998), p200.
- ^ "General Convention Virtual Binder". www.vbinder.net. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
Sources
Editions, translations, and recordings
- Columba Hart (ed. and translator), preface by Paul Mommaers (1980), Hadewijch: The Complete Works, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-2297-9
- Marieke J. E. H. T. van Baest (essay and translations), preface by ISBN 90-429-0667-7
- edited, introduced, and translated [into modern Dutch] by Veerle Fraeters & Frank Willaert (with a reconstruction of the melodies by Louis Peter Grijp and recordings) (2009), Liederen, Historische Uitgeverij, ISBN 978-90-6554-478-0)
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Studies
- Bardoel, Agatha (1992). Vision or union? : mystical expression in the visions of Hadewijch of Brabant, c. 1250. University of Toronto.
- Swan, Laura. The Wisdom of the Beguines: the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement (BlueBridge, 2014).
- Dailey, Patricia (2013). "Living Song: Dwelling in Hadewijch's Liederen". Promised Bodies: Time, Language, and Corporeality in Medieval Women's Mystical Texts. Columbia University Press. pp. 123–56.
- Fraeters, Veerle (2013). "Hadewijch of Brabant and the Beguine Movement". A Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages. Brill. pp. 49–72. ISBN 9789004258457.
- McGinn, Bernard (1999). The Flowering of Mysticism. pp. 200–244.
- Mommaers, Paul (2005), Hadewijch: Writer – Beguine – Love Mystic, Elisabeth M. Dutton, trans., Peeters, ISBN 90-429-1392-4
- Rozenski, Steven (2010), "The Promise of Eternity: Love and Poetic Form in Hadewijch's Liederen or Stanzaic Poems", Exemplaria, 22 (4): 305–325, S2CID 218668701
- Suydam, Mary (1999). "Beguine Textuality: Sacred Performances". In Suydam, Mary; Ziegler, Joanna (eds.). Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality. pp. 169–210.
External links
- Media related to Hadewijch at Wikimedia Commons
- Quotations related to Hadewijch at Wikiquote
- Hadewijch in the Columbia Encyclopedia
- Hadewijch at DBNL (digitale bibliotheek voor Nederlandse letteren) Introductions (most of them in Dutch) and various editions of Hadewijch's writings in Middle Dutch
- Poetry by Hadewijch in English translation
- Nicolette, Carlos Eduardo. "Hadewijch de Amberes: a mística medieval e suas visões sobre o divino" in Revista Mais Que Amélias, 2017 (with English abstract)