Mechthild of Madgeburg, Mystic, c.1282
The Collect:
Draw the souls of your people into your love, O God, that
like your servant Mechthild, we may yearn to be fully yours, for you know us
better than we can know ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.
Mechthild
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) described her visions of God, and was composed between 1250 and
1280. 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
emotional: her descriptions of her visions are filled with passion. While her
work was translated into Latin during her lifetime, her work was largely
forgotten by the 15th century, but was rediscovered in the late 19th century.
Her work has been increasingly studied, both for its academic interest and as a
work of devotional literature.
