User:Gdpanassol/Mechthild of Magdeburg

Mechthild (or Mechtild, Matilda, Matelda) of Magdeburg (c. 1207 – c. 1282/1294), a Beguine, was a Christian medieval mystic, whose book Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of Divinity) is a compendium of visions, prayers, dialogues and mystical accounts. She was the first mystic to write in German.

Life
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. She had her first vision of the Holy Spirit at the age of twelve. In 1230 she left her home and “renounced worldly honour and worldly riches” to become a Beguine at Magdeburg. There, like Hadewijch of Antwerp, she seems to have exercised a position of authority in a Beguine community. In Magdeburg she became acquainted with the Dominicans and became a Dominican tertiary. It seems clear that she read many of the Dominican writers. It was her Dominican confessor, Henry of Halle, who encouraged and helped Mechthild to compose The Flowing Light.

Her criticism of church dignitaries, 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. 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. 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.

The Flowing Light of the Godhead
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. The book is a compilation of visions Mechthild had from when she initially got them at twelve years old, to her death at the convent in Halfta. Through her visions, it is possible to see how her life experiences have influenced the way she wrote about them. This book is also the main source as to how she lived her life as there are no other documents from or about her that give such detailed information about how she felt or how she lived. With the little information on her early life, one of the few pieces of the puzzle that exists is how her visions started at twelve and at twenty-three she decided to move to Magdeburg to join the beguines. While Mechthild did love God, her visions were so erotic and sensual that it almost feels as her longing for a companionship she could only find in other women, more specifically within a whole feminine religious community.

Her writing discusses her sensual and erotic relationship with the divine, and often talks about her own desires. Those are often expressed in her relationships with friends and how she desired an “unusual love.” Flowing Light starts with a recount of Love and the Queen speaking to each other. Lady Love and Mistress and Queen, also known as soul, discuss how Lady Love took away everything soul had gained on Earth. The soul is complaining to Lady Love how all of her superficial desires such as childhood, youth, possessions, friends and relatives, were all taken away from the soul in exchange to get the Love from God. Book I, chapter 1 ends with the soul being purified by Lady Love who allows the soul to take her so they can become one. This interaction being the first one in the book shows how Mechthild was indeed longing for a female connection. Mechthild also makes Lady Love be a part of the soul, and in a very sensual chat, Lady Love says “Mistress and Queen, then take me.” This sensual interaction of taking another figure, in this case a female figure, literally within your soul to get to God, shows Mechthild’s longing for a connection with another woman. Her devotion to God is still very much present, however, as she is looking for a connection or companionship that can also benefit her relationship with the Divine.

Besides desiring a connection with a woman, Mechthild also looks at the soul being the object of God’s affection and not the other way around. Tobin makes a note of this in his translation by saying that Lady Love forces not only the soul to have her but also God himself. However, Lady Love did not force herself in the soul, the soul welcomed her after realizing everything she had taken away. This interaction is much more of a submissive and loving one rather than a violent and harsh one. In her visions, the soul says to God that He is “constantly lovesick for [her]” and He replies by saying the soul “could never give [Him] a more soothing balsam than to let me unceasingly lie weightlessly in your soul” to which the soul replies “Lord, if you were to take me home with you, I would be your physician forever.”

After Mechthild of Magdeburg left the beguines, she sought admission to the convent of Helfta. There, Mechthild met her contemporaries, Gertrude the Great - the Abbess, - Mechthild von Hackeborn and Gertrude of Hackeborn. A heavy contrast in her writing is clear in the book she wrote after her arrival at Helfta. As she slowly became blind, she had to dictate for the nuns her last two books. In book VII chapter 35, Mechthild recites seven holy psalms to the Lord asking Him to forgive and help her during her illness as well as asking Him that when she dies, if He will be there to guide her. The way Mechthild refers to God drastically changes from her previous books. She does not refer to him as his Lover or as her Husband, but this time, as her Physician, her Brother and her Father. This change can probably be attributed to her joining the convent and becoming a nun. However, Mechthild still asks the Lord to come to her, but this time, she adds in the Virgin Mary. She explicitly says she “cannot do without her” and asks for her to “fulfill what [Mechthild] has long desired and defend [her] poor soul from all [of the soul’s] enemies.” The following chapter, number 36, Mechthild talks about a vision she had where she spoke to Him about the convent she was supposed to go to. He describes this convent that has an Abbess that is sincere love and who is diligent about preserving the community in body and soul. He then goes on to describe nine other mistresses that Mechthild should admire and befriend, almost giving Mechthild herself an excuse to be close to these religious women and find a place for herself. Keeping in mind Mechthild did reflect a little of her personal life in these visions, having written this already at the convent, she was most likely glad that God gave a good outlook on what this convent would give her; almost as if she had found her home apart from God. It is also worth noting that God describes these women as “herbs” in the beginning of the chapter, alluding to the idea that the feminine is part of a fauna.

At the end of book VI, Mechthild thought she was done writing as her blindness, illness and old age took over. In her, presumed, final book, she wrote an afterword to her Brother Baldwin from the Order of Preachers that said people “should accept gifts of pain with joy and gifts of comfort with fear so we can put all things that come our way to good use.” However, this is taken from Frank Tobin’s translation and does not include the part that Bevan includes which says that “this book was begun in love, it shall also end in love; for there is nought so wise, nor so holy, nor so beautiful, nor so strong, nor so perfect as love.” This was also probably written already by one of the nuns since Mechthild’s vision was gone by this point.

Works
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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

Mechtild is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 19 November.

Remembrance Days and Artifacts

 * Catholic: August 15th (not beatified or canonized)
 * Evangelical: February 26th (in Calendar of Saints)
 * Anglican: November 19th (in Common Worship)

A sculpture of Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Holy Mechthild von Magdeburg, is on display is on display in the Magdeburg Sculpture Park. It was created by Susan Turcot as part of a project in collaboration with the Art Museum of the Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen. It was installed in the sculpture park in 2010.

Radio Adaptions
The Medievalist Hildegard Elisabeth Keller integrated Mechthild von Magdeburg as one of five main female characters in her work The Trilogy of the Timeless, published at the end of September 2011. Selected passages have been included in the radio play The Ocean in the Thimble, which she wrote and staged. In the fictional encounter, Mechthild talks to Hildegard von Bingen, Hadewijch and Etty Hillesum.

Published editions

 * [critical edition of the Middle High German text]
 * (preface by Margot Schmidt) [translation into English]
 * [edition of the Middle High German text with facing translation into modern German]
 * (preface by Margot Schmidt) [translation into English]
 * [edition of the Middle High German text with facing translation into modern German]