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Note: The following text shall inspire and thus does not claim completeness.
1. A short life history
2. A chronological abstract
3. Bibliography
1. A short life history
Mechthild of Magdeburg was born ca. 1207 and died ca. 1282 at the convent of Helfta near Eisleben, Saxony-Anhalt. She lived and worked for about 40 years as a Beguine in Magdeburg. Born in a castle near a city, she joined the Medieval Poverty Movement at the age of 20 and consequently chose the “descent” from the castle, where she grew up, to live in the city. Up to today she is famous for her book “The Flowing Light of the Godhead” that she wrote in Middle Low German, the vernacular and the language of the poor. Her writings unite bridal mysticism of the song of the songs in the Old Testament with poetry of the courtly love lyric (Minnesang) creating a new poetry, which reveals comprehensibly her immediate experience of God. Mechthild’s “The Flowing Light of the Godhead” is classified as the most important book of German mysticism before Meister Eckhart.
What seems today as a literary jewel, was a “stone of offence” back then, because a FEMALE Beguine composed writings with a theological content in vernacular German and not in Latin and she referred to a divine authorization for her mission.
Weakened by hostility and disease, Mechthild secluded to the convent of Helfta around 1270, where she wrote and later on dictated her last book and where she died at a very old age. Encouraged and inspired by her independent way of speaking about God, two young and highly educated nuns, Mechthild of Hackeborn and the famous Gertrud of Helfta, also known as Gertrud the Great wrote down their own visions – only in Latin. For over 10 years the convent of Helfa had been the common home for three highly gifted writers and mystics who established the reputation of the convent as one of the most important centers of female mysticism in the Middle Ages. Marked by languishment Mechthild died at an old age around 1282.
Mechthild started writing down her mystical visions encouraged by her confessor, the Dominican Heinrich of Halle. His preface and the (auto)biographical references in her book are the most important sources for Mechthild’s birth and death dates. But many questions still remain: From which castle or which family did she come from? How and where did she obtain her theological knowledge? Did she have a brother? Mechthild must have been argumentative and controversial. Who and what threatened her life, so that it was temporarily in danger? What is possible to read between the lines under such circumstances? The Year of Mechthild 2007/08 gives opportunities to solve these questions.
Katharina Wieacker
2. A chronological abstract
The only certain proof that Mechthild lived, is her book “The Flowing Light of the Godhead” with its Latin preface. The explicit and implicit biographical references in her book and a resolution by the Diocesan Synod illustrate the difficult situation: Prohibition against new religious orders/Prohibition for the Cistercian order to found new female religious orders.
| 1207 | Born into a noble family near the city of Magdeburg and who grew up inside the courtly culture, she was familiar with the courtly love lyric. |
| 1215 | The mendicant orders (Franciscans) were recognized by the Lateran Council. |
| 1219 | Mechthild’s first mystical vision was at the age of 12 (cp. FL IV, 2). |
| 1230 | Mechthild joined the medieval Poverty Movement and decided “for the Love of God” to live in Magdeburg and become a Beguine (cp. Fl IV, 2). |
| 1250 | Encouraged by her confessor Heinrich von Halle she started to write down her revelations in Middle Low German, the vernacular, which was spoken mainly in Northern Germany back then. While living in Magdeburg, she wrote six of the seven “books”. Mechthild herself and her writings, and probably the whole Beguine community in Magdeburg provoked resistance especially among the high clergy. |
| 1260/61 | The clergy of Magdeburg within a Diocesan Synod divested the Beguines of their right of self-administration and self-determination in terms of ecclesiastical issues and consequently prevented the influence of the Dominicans and subdued them to the parish clergy. It was an attempt to separate spiritually, the Beguines from the Medieval Poverty Movement. |
| 1270 | Demoralized and weakened due to hostility and disease, Mechthild secluded herself to the convent of Helfta where she spent the rest of her days. Taking the old Beguine as an example two younger nuns, Mechthild von Hakeborn (1231-1291) and Gertrud von Helfta (1256-1302), later surnamed the Great, wrote down their immediate experiences of God, but they wrote in Latin. |
| 1282 | Mechthild died at an old age in the convent of Helfta. |
The dates can only be assumed, because of the very few explicit references. Especially the year of Mechthild's death is controversial and dates partly until 1293. Only the year 1250 is designated in the preface written by Heinrich von Halle.
Katharina Wieacker
3. Bibliography
German:
The extensive prefaces concerning the translations into German.
(“See butto “The Book”)
Keul, H.: Verschwiegene Gottesrede
English:
Tobin, F.: Mechthild of Magdeburg - The flowing light of the godhead. Mahwah, New Jersey : Paulist Press, 1998
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