This is a list of female mystics.

Bahá'í faith

Táhirih Táhirih (Ṭāhira) ( fa, طاهره, "The Pure One," also called Qurrat al-ʿAyn ( "Solace/Consolation of the Eyes") are both titles of Fatimah Baraghani/Umm-i Salmih (1814 or 1817 – August 16–27, 1852), an influential poet, women's rights ...

Bahíyyih Khánum Bahíyyih Khánum (1846 – July 15, 1932) was the only daughter of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and Ásíyih Khánum. She was born in 1846 with the given name Fatimih Sultan, and was entitled "Varaqiy-i-'Ulyá" or "Greate ...

* Ásíyih Khánum

Buddhism

* Alexandra David-Néel author of books on Tibetan Mysticism *

Yeshe Tsogyal Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE) , also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", " Knowledge Lake Empress" (, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name ''Jñānasāgara'' "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan n ...

8th century CE Tibetan mystic, consort of

Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...

Khema Khema (Pali: Khemā; Sanskrit: Kṣemā) was a Buddhist ''bhikkhuni'', or nun, who was one of the top female disciples of the Buddha. She is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief female disciples, along with Uppalavanna. Khema was b ...

Yaśodharā Yaśodharā ( pi, Yasodharā, sa, यशोधरा) was the wife of Prince Siddhartha — until he left his home to become a śramaṇa— the mother of Rāhula, and the sister of Devadatta. She later became a Buddhist Nun and is consider ...

Patacara Paṭacārā or Patachara was a notable female figure in Buddhism, described in the Pali Canon. Among the female disciples of Gautama Buddha, she was the foremost exponent of the Vinaya, the rules of monastic discipline. She lived during the 6th ...

Uppalavanna Uppalavanna (Pali: Uppalavaṇṇā; Sanskrit: Utpalavarṇā) was a Buddhist ''bhikkhuni'' (Pali; Sanskrit: Bhikshuni), or nun, who was considered one of the top female disciples of the Buddha. She is considered the second of the Buddha's two ...

Christianity

* Beatrice of Nazareth Flemish nun *

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

French saint *

Teresa of Avila Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...

Spanish saint * Maria Bolognesi Italian (blessed) *

Bridget of Sweden Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303 – 23 July 1373) born as Birgitta Birgersdotter, also Birgitta of Vadstena, or Saint Birgitta ( sv, heliga Birgitta), was a mystic and a saint, and she was also the founder of the Bridgettines nuns and monks after ...

Swedish Saint *

Heilwige Bloemardinne Heilwige Bloemardinne (1265? – 23 August 1335) was a Christian mystic who lived in Brussels and was loosely associated with the Brethren of the Free Spirit. She was also known as Heilwijch Blomart. She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, ...

* Marguerite Bays Swiss (blessed) * Maria Domenica Lazzeri *

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...

German saint *

Edith Stein Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce ; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a ...

German Saint *

Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena (Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church ...

Italian saint * Itala Mela Italian

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

Consolata Betrone Maria Consolata Betrone (6 April 1903 – 18 July 1946), baptised as Pierina Maria Betrone, commonly known as Consolata Betrone, was a Catholic mystic and nun of the Franciscan Capuchine order. Betrone was born in Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy, ...

Italian nun *

Hadewijch Hadewijch, sometimes referred to as Hadewych or Hadewig (of Brabant or of Antwerp) was a 13th-century poet and mystic, probably living in the Duchy of Brabant. Most of her extant writings are in a Brabantian form of Middle Dutch. Her writings i ...

Dutch nun *

Jeanne Guyon Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (Commonly known as Madame Guyon, ; 13 April 1648 – 9 June 1717) was a French mystic accused of advocating Quietism, which was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. Madame Guyon was imprisone ...

Anne Catherine Emmerich Anne Catherine Emmerich (also ''Anna Katharina Emmerick''; 8 September 1774 – 9 February 1824) was a Roman Catholic Augustinians, Augustinian Canoness Regular of Congregation of Windesheim, Windesheim, mysticism, mystic, Blessed Virgin Mary (R ...

(blessed) *

Margery Kempe ' Margery Kempe ( – after 1438) was an English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation ''The Book of Margery Kempe'', a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles Kempe's d ...

Anna Kingsford Anna Kingsford (; 16 September 1846 – 22 February 1888), was an English anti-vivisectionist, vegetarian and women's rights campaigner. She was one of the first English women to obtain a degree in medicine, after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, an ...

Christina of Markyate Christina of Markyate was born with the name Theodora in Huntingdon, England, about 1096–1098 and died about 1155. She was an anchoress, who came from a wealthy English family trying to accommodate with the Normans at that time. She later beca ...

* Flower A. Newhouse * Julian of Norwich *

Marguerite Porete Marguerite Porete (; 13th century1 June 1310) was a French-speaking mystic and the author of '' The Mirror of Simple Souls'', a work of Christian mysticism dealing with the workings of agape (divine love). She was burnt at the stake for heresy i ...

* Mechthild of Magdeburg *

Mother Shipton Ursula Southeil ( 1488 – 1561; also variously spelt as Ursula Southill, Ursula Soothtell or Ursula Sontheil), popularly known as Mother Shipton, is said to have been an English soothsayer and prophetess. She has sometimes been described as ...

* Lilian Staveley *

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995. ...

* Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi *

Gertrude the Great Gertrude the Great, OSB (or Saint Gertrude of Helfta; it, Santa Gertrude, german: Gertrud die Große von Helfta, la, Sancta Gertrudis; January 6, 1256 – November 17, 1302) was a German Benedictine nun and mystic. She is recognized as a saint ...

- Saint * Gemma Galgani

Hinduism

Vedic and classical

Ghosha Ghosha ( sa, घोषा) was an ancient Vedic period Indian female philosopher and seer. From a young age she suffered from a skin ailment which had disfigured her. Ashvins, Ashvini Kumars cured her and restored her youthfulness, health and bea ...

* Gargi Vachaknavi *

Maitreyi Maitreyi ( sa, मैत्रेयी) ("Wise one") was an Indian philosopher who lived during the later Vedic period in ancient India. She is mentioned in the ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' as one of two wives of the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya; s ...

Lopamudra Lopamudra, ( sa, लोपामुद्रा) also known as Kaushitaki and Varaprada, was a philosopher according to ancient Vedic Indian literature. She was the wife of the sage Agastya who is believed to have lived in the Rigveda period ( ...

Medieval

Akka Mahadevi Akka Mahadevi ಅಕ್ಕ ಮಹಾದೇವಿ (c.1130–1160) was one of the early female poets of the Kannada literature and a prominent person in the Lingayat Shaiva sect in the 12th century. Her 430 extant Vachana poems (a form of spont ...

*Sant Andal (Nachiar or Goda-devi) *Sant Avvaiyar *

Isaignaniyar Isaignaniyar ( ta, இசைஞானியார், 7th century), also spelt as Isainaniyar, Isaignaniyaar, Isaignaniar and Isaijnaniyar and also known as Isai-jnani Ammaiyar (Isai-Gnani Ammaiyar), is the mother of Sundarar, one of the most ...

*Sant

Bahinabai Bahinabai (1628–1700 AD) or Bahina or Bahini is a Varkari female-saint from Maharashtra, India. She is considered as a disciple of another Varkari poet-saint Tukaram. Having been born in a Brahmin family, Bahinabai was married to a widower a ...

*Sant

Janabai Sant Janābāi was a Marāthi religious poet in the Hindu tradition in India, who was born likely in the seventh or the eighth decade of the 13th century. She died in 1350. Janabai was born in Gangākhed 1258-1350, Mahārāshtra to a couple wit ...

*Sant

Kanhopatra Kanhopatra (or Kanhupatra) was a 15th-century Marathi saint-poet, venerated by the Varkari sect of Hinduism. Little is known about Kanhopatra. According to most traditional accounts, Kanhopatra was a courtesan and dancing-girl. These account ...

* Lalleshvari *Sant

Mirabai Meera, better known as Mirabai and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition. Mirabai was born into a Rathore ...

* Gangasati *Sant Molla *Sant

Muktabai Muktabai or Mukta was a saint in the Varkari Movement. She was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family and was the younger sister of Dnyaneshwar, the first Varkari saint. She wrote forty-one abhangs throughout her life. Early life Muktabai's ...

Sant Nirmala Sant Nirmala ( Marathi: संत निर्मळा) was a poet in 14th-century Maharashtra, India. As the younger sister of Chokhamela, she was deemed equally holy with her brother and thus is also deemed a Hindu saint. Nirmala was marri ...

*Sant Rupa Bhawani, saint-poet *Sant Sahajo Bai, 1725-1805 *Sant Sakhubai

Modern

Amma Sri Karunamayi Amma Sri Karunamayi (born 1958) is a Hindu spiritual leader. Sri Karunamayi travels internationally promoting global peace and meditation. Early life Amma Karunamayi was born in South India in 1958. Karunamayi's mother was a devotee of B ...

Anandamayi Ma Anandamayi Ma (''née'' Nirmala Sundari; 30 April 1896 – 27 August 1982) was an Indian saint and yoga guru, described by Sivananda Saraswati (of the Divine Life Society) as he most perfect flower the Indian soil has produced Precognition, ...

Mata Amritanandamayi Mātā Amritānandamayī Devī (born Sudhamani Idamannel; 27 September 1953), often known as Amma ("Mother"), is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian, who is revered as 'the hugging saint' by her followers. In 2018, she w ...

* Ma Devi Jnanabhanishta * The Mother * Mother Meera * Sarada Devi *

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda Gurumayi Chidvilasananda (or Gurumayi or Swami Chidvilasananda), born Malti Shetty on 24 June 1955, is the guru or spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path, with ashrams in India at Ganeshpuri and the Western world, with the headquarters of the ...

Daya Mata Daya Mata (Sanskrit for ''Compassionate Mother''), born Rachel Faye Wright, (January 31, 1914November 30, 2010) was the third president and ''sanghamata'' (mother of the society) of the only organization that Paramahansa Yogananda created to diss ...

Sister Nivedita Sister Nivedita ( born Margaret Elizabeth Noble; 28 October 1867 – 13 October 1911) was an Irish teacher, author, social activist, school founder and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She spent her childhood and early youth in Ireland. She wa ...

Islam

* Rabi'a al-Adawiyya *

Hazrat Babajan Hazrat Babajaan ( bal, حضرت باباجان) (various dates claimed - September 21, 1931) was a Pashtun Muslim saint considered by her followers to be a Sadguru or Qutub. Born in Balochistan, Afghanistan, she lived the final 25 years of her ...

Judaism

* Hannah Rachel Verbermacher

Jainism

* Sister Champa

Sikhism

Bebe Nanaki Bebe Nanaki (, ; ), alternative spelt as Bibi Nanaki, was the elder sister of Guru Nanak, the founder and first ''Guru'' of Sikhism. Nanaki is an important figure in Sikhism, and is known as the first ''Gursikh''. She was the first to realize ...

Taoism

* Sun Bu'er

Western mysticism and syncretism

Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...

* Annie Besant *

Alice Bailey Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Mancheste ...

* Mabel Collins *

Helena Roerich Helena Ivanovna Roerich (born Shaposhnikova; russian: Елéна Ивáновна Рéрих; 12 February 1879 – 5 October 1955) was a Russian theosophist, writer, and public figure. In the early 20th century, she created, in cooperation with t ...

Florence Scovel Shinn Florence Scovel Shinn (September 24, 1871 in Camden, New Jersey – October 17, 1940) was an American artist and book illustrator who became a New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer in her middle years.Gatlin, Linda; Edwards, Rita"P ...

Bahá'í faith

Buddhism

Christianity

Hinduism

Vedic and classical

Medieval

Modern

Islam

Judaism

Jainism

Sikhism

Taoism

Western mysticism and syncretism

Further reading