Following on from Jane Williams’ series on medieval women mystics as ‘Guides in the Life of Prayer’, this day with Dr Rebecca Stephens will explore some of the more controversial figures from the canon of medieval female spirituality:
Marguerite Porete, burned at the stake for writing boldly and without hesitation on how the ‘simple soul’ may join in the highest union with God, and for preaching and promoting her ideas in the street. Margery Kempe, a laywoman whose divine passion led her into physical manifestations of joy and lamentation wherever she went – whether out shopping, in church or on pilgrimage – frequently threatening her safety. Gertrude of Helfta, a Benedictine nun whose visionary experiences and claims of direct divine encounter reshaped the course of her life, bringing her to ‘invisible stigmata’ and bridal union with Christ.
These mystics share a boldness of approach. Each sparked debate and controversy in their own time and, though their writings do not contravene Christian thought, all three experienced danger and disapprobation from their contemporaries and Church authorities. In them we find a disruptive power, a call to awake into the direct and unmediated presence of God, a courage to live from the heart.
Come and spend a day with these three passionate and brilliant figures, who have much to teach us about how we can live an engaged spiritual life today.
