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
The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...
. Most of her extant writings are in a
Brabantian form of
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...
. Her writings include visions, prose letters and poetry. Hadewijch was one of the most important direct influences on
John of Ruysbroeck
John of Ruusbroec or Jan van Ruusbroec (; 1293/1294 – 2 December 1381), sometimes modernized Ruysbroeck, was an Augustinian canon and one of the most important of the medieval mystics of the Low Countries. Some of his main literary works incl ...
.
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
beguine
The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christianity, Christian laity, lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in monasticism, semi-monastic ...
house, but that she had experienced opposition that drove her to a wandering life. This evidence, as well as her lack of reference to life in a convent, makes the nineteenth-century theory that she was a nun problematic, and it has been abandoned by modern scholars. She must have come from a wealthy family: her writing demonstrates an expansive knowledge of the literature and theological treatises of several languages, including
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
French, as well as French
courtly poetry, in a period when studying was a luxury only exceptionally granted to women.
Beguine Life
Beguines were women during the thirteenth century who had a deep love for Jesus Christ, but unlike nuns, did not take formal vows and were free to leave at any time. Their development was slow at first, however, in the year 1216,
Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of importa ...
granted them the right to live in common and encourage others to join them. With that, beguines lived together in a home referred to as beguinages. Several larger towns had more than one beguinage. The movement was not solely for women. However, men were not known as beguines, but rather, called themselves beghards.
Hadewijch was a beguine mystic who had lived during the thirteenth century in the Low Countries, specifically in the city of Antwerp which was in the region of Brabant at the time. She shared a house with some friends, for whom she was a spiritual leader. Hadewijch is known for her poems, letters, and visions that she had described in writing.
Context
Hadewijch's writings explored themes of divine love, spiritual experiences, and the union of soul with God. Hadewijch was one of the first mystic writers to put her text in Dutch. Each of her visions have the commonality of Hadewijch ascending to Jesus Christ while experiencing strong emotions that are almost euphoric. Another common theme throughout the visions is the agony she would describe when it came to the end of the vision. The visions that Hadewijch would experience, along with every other mystic, were a metaphor for the deep love that these women had for Christ.
Works
Most of Hadewijch's extant writings, none of which survived the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
as an
autograph
An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Intern ...
, are in a
Brabantian form of
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...
. Five groups of texts survive: her writings include poetry, descriptions of her
vision
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...
s, and prose letters. There are two groups of poetry: ''Poems in Stanzas'' (''Strophische Gedichten'') and ''Poems in Couplets'' (''Mengeldichten''). Finally there is the "Lijst der volmaakten" ("list of the perfect ones").
''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
trouvère
''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word '' troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to po ...
s and
minnesinger
(; "love song") was a tradition of German lyric- and song-writing that flourished in the Middle High German period (12th to 14th centuries). The name derives from '' minne'', the Middle High German word for love, as that was ''Minnesangs m ...
s of her time, but in Dutch, and with the theme of worldly courtship replaced by sublimated love to God. Many of them are
contrafacta
In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...
of Latin and vernacular songs and hymns, leading to a Dutch edition renaming them "Liederen" ("Songs") and including audio recordings of performances.
''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
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
topics; not all of them are considered authentic.
''Visions''
Hadewijch's ''Book of Visions'' (''Visioenenboek''), the earliest
vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
collection of such revelations, appears to have been composed in the 1240s. It prominently features dialogue between Hadewijch and
Christ
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...
in visionary speech, an early example of this mode of vernacular religious instruction.
''Letters''
Thirty prose letters also survive: 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 manuscripts, but to the ''Poems in Stanzas'' in a more recent one. It lists several saints, like
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercians, O.Cist. (; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, Mysticism, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reform of the Benedictines through the nascent Cistercia ...
, but some entries are more remarkable, like a
beguine
The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christianity, Christian laity, lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in monasticism, semi-monastic ...
who had been condemned to death by the
inquisition
The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
.
What Scholars Say
In the 20th century a question that was being asked about mysticism and the visions that Hadewijch had described considered what events led up to each experience, and also, were these encounters actually seen or only felt within the mystics.
Agatha Anna Bardoel suggests that the visions described by Hadewijch were a result of nothing other than a deep meditation, that, when done on a regular basis, what she was experiencing came to be quite simple and easily repeated. Based on an experiment done by
Arthur J. Deikman over the course of several weeks that was related to stages of meditation, Agatha found similarities between that and the experiences described by Hadewijch. Each encounter that Hadewijch had with a higher power was indistinguishable from that of a young child experiencing something for the first time. Put simply, Hadewijch had indescribable moments within each vision much like all children do in the early years of their lives.
While Bardoel focused on the visions of Hadewijch to come to her conclusions, others have viewed her visions in relation to Hadewijch’s other works to form a narrative. Mary A. Suydam takes this approach from a feminist perspective. According to Suydam, Hadewijch believed that the power held by mystics within the experiences they have had essentially outranks the hierarchy. Suydam argues that women have a better understanding and connection with their spirituality because of the experiences they have had, and that can be, and has been, overlooked without looking at Hadewijch’s work as a whole.
Influence
Hadewijch's writings influenced
Jan van Ruusbroec both as a theologian and a mystic.
Sexuality
Some of Hadewijch's letters have been interpreted as alluding to same-sex attraction or desire. In ''Letter 25'' she describes her powerful, unrequited feelings for a woman named Sara, as well as her close relationship with two women named Emma and Margriet:
Veneration
In 2022, Hadewijch was officially added to the
Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 22 April.
Notes
References
Sources
Editions, translations, and recordings
*
*
*
Studies
*
* Swan, Laura. ''The Wisdom of the Beguines: the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement'' (BlueBridge, 2014).
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External links
*
*
Hadewijch in the Columbia EncyclopediaHadewijch at DBNL (digitale bibliotheek voor Nederlandse letteren)Introductions (most of them in Dutch) and various editions of Hadewijch's writings in Middle Dutch
*Nicolette, Carlos Eduardo
"Hadewijch de Amberes: a mística medieval e suas visões sobre o divino"in ''Revista Mais Que Amélias'', 2017 (with English abstract)
{{Authority control
Flemish Christian mystics
Dutch-language poets
Middle Dutch writers
13th-century women writers
Beguines and Beghards
Medieval women poets
People from the Duchy of Brabant
Anglican saints
Women mystics