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Updated 02-07-08
Mechthild of Magdeburg
/ Mechtild (c.1210?-c.1282)
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"I CANNOT DANCE, LORD, UNLESS YOU LEAD ME."
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Most of what is known of Mechthild of Magdeburg comes from her book: references to court custom and courtly literature suggest she was from an educated family, as does the fact that she could read and write German (although she tells us that she does not know Latin). She had at least one brother who became a Dominican. In her early 20s, she left her home to go to Magdeburg (on the Elbe River); she appears to have lived most of her life there as a beguine, apparently in a community, perhaps as a superior. Near the end of her life, about 1270, she entered a monastery at Helfta which followed Cistercian custom.
She may have gone to Helfta because of the increasing restrictions being placed on beguines in Germany and the Low Countries. The women had received statements of papal approval in 1215 and 1233, but with approval went a requirement for clerical direction and eventually for ecclesiastical control. In 1261, a synod meeting in Magdeburg ordered the local beguines to obey their parish priests, rather than relying on the mendicant orders (such as the Dominicans) for spiritual advice.
When she was in her mid-30s, on the advice of her Dominican confessor, Mechthild had begun to write down her love songs and visionary experiences. We know that some of these writings were quickly circulated because she speaks of the harsh criticism she received as a woman writing about spiritual matters. But she continued to write until her death.
Fliessende licht der Gottheit (originally Vliessende lieht miner gotheit, often translated as "Flowing light of the Godhead") is divided into seven books: Books 1-5 were written during the 1250s, Book 6 in the 1260s, and Book 7 in the 1270s at Helfta. Within the seven books are 267 sections, from a few lines to several pages long. They include not only Mechthild's visionary experiences, but also letters of advice and criticism, allegories, reflections, and prayers; they use prose and verse, dramatic dialogue and lyric.
Mechthild wrote in the dialect used in the north of Germany; fragments remain of this original, but our complete text is a translation made in the language of southern Germany about 60 years after her death. Yet scholars assume that the text as we have it reflects Mechthild's words and, for the first six books, an organization determined by her and her confessor.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. Translated excerpts from Fliessende licht der Gottheit:
(a) After an introduction, Gertrude Jaron Lewis' translations of eleven excerpts (9 from Book 1, one each from Books 3 and 7): expressions of joy ("jubilus") in which Mechthild praises her lover and is in turn praised by him.
(b) The start of Fliessende licht: "This book is to be joyfully welcomed," followed by lines from Book 1, section 19.
(c) A group of complete excerpts from Book 1 (sections 39-43, 34, 23, 35, & 24).
(d) Three passages, the first two translated by Esther Cameron (all of 1.23: parts of 1.44 & 2.24).
(e) An essay on Mechthild by Julia Bolton Holloway with three brief quotations from Lucy Menzies' translation (parts of 1.1, all of 1.44 and 2.4).
(f) Near the bottom of the page, a prose translation by Sabine Lichtenfels of three verse passages (parts of 2.6; all of 1.23 and 1.24).
(g) In an essay on the French philosopher Luce Irigaray, Jonna Bornemark quotes five brief passages (from 2.4, 7.63, 3.5, 2.22, and 4.23) in both English and German.
(h) In this chapter of Evelyn Underhill's 1911 Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, use your browser's search function to go to the uses of "Mechthild" for two excerpts (all of 4.13 and the opening of 3.1).
(i) Two passages: "In overcoming the world" (1.10), and "You will only feel free" (from 1.28).
(j) "O burning Mountain," (1.8)
(k) "In the desert," (1.35), translated by Jane Hirshfield.
(l) Also from Hirshfield, "A fish cannot drown in water," (part of 1.44)
(m) Lines from 3.2, "Then God praised the living soul in fine words," translated by Frank Tobin.
(n) "Effortlessly, Love flows," (part of 4.12), translated by Hirshfield.
(o) And from the end of the same section, 4.12, "Ah, blessed absence of God," translated by Davies.
(p) "Do not disdain your body," (from 5.4) translated by Tobin.
(q) In an essay on beguines by Marianne Dorman, several passages, including all of both 5.30, "Dear love of God, embrace this soul of mine," and 7.19, "I greet thee, lady, beloved Mary."
(r) From section 5.30, "If I sleep too long" (the passage is preceded by its translation into Afrikaans).
(s) The opening of 7.64 (the second last entry of Fliessende licht), in which Mechthild thanks God for the loss of wealth, sight, and physical strength, "Lord, I thank you."
2. In German:
(a) With an English-language introduction and notes by Albert K. Wimmer (1998), several passages (from the prologue, and from Books 1, 2, and 6), first in the 1300's German of the extant text, and then in modern German.
(b) A page from the 1300s manuscript written in the German of the south, the only complete manuscript extant: it shows Book 1's sections 19-21 and the start of section 22.
3. Essays:
(a) Rebecca L. Garber's biographical essay, "Medieval German Women Writers (1100-1450)," contains a section on Mechthild, valuable as an introduction.
(b) A 1987 translation by Susan Johnson of an essay by Margot Schmidt, "'Minne du gewaltige kellerin': On the Nature of Minne in Mechthild of Magdeburg's Fliessende licht der Gottheit," which discusses Mechthild's use of wine imagery: love ("minne") is the "cellaress in chrarge" who allows the soul to drink in the experience of God.
(c) At Lina Eckenstein's book, Woman Under Monasticism (1896), link to the chapter, "The Convent of Helfta and its Literary Nuns." There, go to the second use of "beguine"; you will find paraphrases and translations by Eckenstein from Fliessende licht.
(d) Mechthild is one of the writers discussed in "'Who does she think she is?' Christian Women's Mysticism" (2003), by Amy Hollywood, which looks at the women's need to balance expression of humility with a belief in their privileged relation to God --- and at modern readers' reaction to that need. Hollywood quotes from several sections of Fliessende licht, in Tobin's translation.
(e) "Body as Hierophany" (1988/2001), by Karen-Claire Voss includes a brief discussion of Mechthild's descriptions of erotic love in Book 1 of Fliessende licht; passages quoted are translated by Menzies.
(f) "'At leisure for love': Amorous Rhetoric in the Helfta Mystics" (2002), by Rebecca Stephens, discusses Mechthild and Gertrud of Helfta, and briefly quotes Fliessende licht, translated by Menzies.
(g) Sara Poor's thoughts on Mechthild's use of the vernacular and the early history of her book; this is an abstract of a 1999 conference paper, but more detailed than most abstracts. Poor's points here would be further developed in her 2004 book (see below).
4. Reviews (for excerpts from the translation, see below, under "In print": for information on the other books' treatment of Mechthild, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Patricia Zimmerman Beckman on Frank Tobin's 1998 translation, The Flowing Light of the Godhead.
(b) Sean Field on Poor's 2004 study, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority (and elsewhere, another review, this by Andrew D. Ganaway).
(c) Christine McWebb on Elizabeth A. Andersen's 2000 study, The Voices of Mechthild of Magdeburg.
(d) Albrecht Classen on Tobin's 1995 study, Mechthild von Magdeburg: A Medieval Mystic in Modern Eyes.
(e) Richard Woods on Amy M. Hollywood's 1995 study, The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart.
(f) Anna Dronzek on Prudence Allen's 2002 second volume of The Concept of Woman series, The Early Humanist Reformation, 1250-1500.
(g) James A. Wiseman on Bernard McGinn's 1998 history, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350).
(h) Cynthia Ho on Barbara Newman's 1995 study, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature.
5. On beguines:
(a) Abby Stoner's 1995 essay "Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguine"; it includes passages from Mechthild, translated by Menzies. Stoner's bibliography will lead you to earlier printed material on the beguines.
(b) For a broader historical view, Kate P. Crawford Galea's 1993 essay, "Unhappy Choices: Factors That Contributed to the Decline and Condemnation of the Beguines."
(c) David Burr's translation of Bernard Gui's description of beguines, from Gui's 1324-1331 Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis (Conduct of the inquisition of heretical depravity).
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[Frank Tobin has translated Fliessende licht der Gottheit from the most recent critical edition. A preface by Margot Schmidt and Tobin's introduction are detailed, and the notes are useful. The bibliographical references are mostly to continental sources; for earlier English-language studies see Tobin's 1995 book in "Secondary sources" below. (See the book's table of contents online; it gives all of the work's sub-headings).:]
The flowing light of the Godhead / Mechthild of Magdeburg;
translated and introduced by Frank Tobin (The classics of Western
spirituality; #92). New York: Paulist Press, 1998. (xi, 373p.)
LC: BV5091 .V6 M43413 1998; ISBN: 0809104954, 0809137763
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
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"Then I shall leap into love..."
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[Books 1 and 2 emphasize a sensual relation between the soul and its Lord. Here the Lord has invited the soul to dance:]
I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still.
[p.59]
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"I want to go to my Lover."
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[Later, when the soul's senses have suggested that she envision herself caring for the infant Jesus:]
That is child's love, that one suckle and rock a baby. I am a full-grown bride. I want to go to my Lover. [p.61]
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"Ah, Lord, if I were a learned religious man...."
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[At the end of Book 2, perhaps originally planned as the end of the work:]
I was warned against writing this book.
People said:
If one did not watch out,
It could be burned.
So I did as I used to do as a child.
When I was sad, I always had to pray.
I bowed to my Lover and said: "Alas, Lord,
Now I am saddened all because of your honor.
If I am going to receive no comfort from you now,
Then you led me astray,
Because you are the one who told me to write it."
At once God revealed himself to my joyless soul, held this book in his right hand, and said:
"My dear one, do not be overly troubled,
No one can burn the truth....
The words symbolize my marvelous Godhead.
It flows continuously
Into your soul from my divine mouth.
The sound of the words is a sign of my living spirit
And through it achieves genuine truth.
Now examine all these words---
How admirably do they proclaim my personal secrets!
So have no doubts about yourself."
"Ah, Lord, if I were a learned religious man,
And if you had performed this unique miracle using him,
You would receive everlasting honor for it.
But how is one supposed to believe
That you have built a golden house on filthy ooze...
Lord, earthly wisdom will not be able to find you there."
"....One finds many a professor learned in scripture
who actually is a fool in my eyes.
And I'll tell you something else:
It is a great honor for me with regard to them, and it very much
strengthens Holy Christianity
That the unlearned tongue, aided by my Holy Spirit, teaches the
learned tongue." [pp.96-97]
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"I knew nothing...."
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[From Book 4, on her early naivete:]
All the days of my life before I began this book and before a single word of it had come into my soul, I was one of the most naive people ever to be in religious life. I knew nothing about the devil's malice; I was unaware of the frailty of the world; the duplicity of people in religious life was also unknown to me. [p.139]
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"...the words had to be expressed in human terms."
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[From Book 6, after 1160, on why Mechthild described her visions as she did:]
[The vision] was not of the flesh; it was so spiritual that only the soul saw it, understood it, and enjoyed it. The body had nothing from it except what it could grasp in its human senses through the nobility of the soul. And this is why the words had to be expressed in human terms. [p.261]
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"I myself am uneducated."
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[From Book 7, after 1170, to the learned (i.e., Latin-reading) nuns at Helfta; despite her words here, Mechthild did go on to give instruction:]
You want to have instruction from me, but I myself am uneducated. What you are searching for you can find a thousand times better in your books. [p.292]
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"Keep hold of sweet hope."
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[From the last passage of the book, dictated to a Helfta nun. By this time, Mechthild was blind, bed-ridden, and in constant pain:]
This is how the tormented body speaks to the lonely soul: "When shall you soar with the feathers of your yearning to the blissful heights to Jesus, your eternal love? Thank him there for me, lady, that, feeble and unworthy though I am, he nevertheless wanted to be mine...; and ask him to keep me innocent in his favor until I attain a holy end, when you, dearest Soul, turn away from me."
The soul: "Ah, dearest prison in which I have been bound, I thank you especially for being obedient to me. Though I was often unhappy because of you, you nevertheless came to my aid. On the last day all your troubles will be taken from you.
"Then we shall no longer complain.
Then everything that God has done with us
Will suit us just fine,
If you will now only stand fast
And keep hold of sweet hope." [p.336]
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[Christiane Mesch Galvani's translation is based on a less accurate edition than is Tobin's (above), but it is complete and for the general reader perfectly adequate. Susan Clark's introduction and the book's notes are useful; the bibliography has no entry after 1987:]
Flowing light of the divinity / Mechthild von Magdeburg; translated
by Christiane Mesch Galvani; edited, with an introduction, by
Susan Clark (Garland library of medieval literature; v. 72).
New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.,1991. (xxvii, 280 p.)
LC#: BV5091.V6 M43415 1990; ISBN: 0824077377
Includes bibliographical references (p. xxi-xxvii).
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[The first two chapters of Sara S. Poor's study discuss Mechthild's presentation of herself in Fliessende licht der Gottheit as a woman writing in the vernacular; they include a close reading of the fourth chapter of Book 2. Poor's following chapters describe what happened to the work and its author in the translations made during and after Mechthild's death and in the anthologies of later centuries, which used brief extracts. Poor's notes constitute a thorough review of earlier research, and all quoted passages are given in both the original and in the author's translation. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Poor, Sara S. Mechthild of Magdeburg and her book: Gender
and the making of textual authority (Middle Ages series). Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, c2004. (xvi, 333 p.: ill.)
LC#: BV5095.M43 P66 2004; ISBN:0812238028
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-314) and index
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[After presenting what is currently known of Mechthild's life,
Elizabeth A. Anderson's book looks at the "voices"
in Fliessende licht, showing Mechthild as both a prophet
and a mystic, in dialogue with man and with God. Quotations are
given in both the Middle German and in Andersen's translation.
Text and notes usefully summarize earlier German-language studies.
(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Andersen, Elizabeth A. The voices of Mechthild of Magdeburg.
Oxford; New York: P. Lang, c2000. (255 p.)
LC#: BV5091.V6 M434 2000; ISBN: 3906765601, 0820453005
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-248) and index
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[Ulrike Wiethaus' study analyzes Mechthild's visionary experience in the light of the psychological concept of "self-actualization":]
Wiethaus, Ulrike. Ecstatic transformation: transpersonal psychology
in the work of Mechthild of Magdeburg. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
University Press, 1996. (195 p.)
LC#: BV5091.V6 W54 1996; ISBN: 0815626800, 081560369X
Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-187) and index
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[In his study, Frank Tobin surveys Mechthild scholarship through 1993; his discussion of work done after1980 is particularly helpful, as is the book's bibliography:]
Tobin, Frank J. Mechthild von Magdeburg: a medieval mystic
in modern eyes (Studies in German literature, linguistics, and
culture). Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, c1995. (xi, 152 p.)
LC#: BV5095.M4 T63 1995; ISBN: 1571130012
Includes bibliographical references (p.[139]-148) and index
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[Patricia Beckman's article discusses the ways in which the structure and imagery of Fliessende licht reveals Mechthild's theological view of the relationship among the three persons of the Trinity and of the interaction between the human and God. Quoted passages are given in Beckman's own translation. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Beckman, Patricia. Swimming in the Trinity: Mechthild of Magdeburg's
dynamic play. Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality,
4:1 (2004), 60-77.
LC#: BV4501.3 .S664; ISSN: 1533-1709
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[David Damrosch's book includes the essay "The Afterlife
of Mechthild von Magdeburg," which describes in detail what
successive editors and translators of Fliessende licht have
done to obscure what Mechthild actually said --- her eroticism,
her criticism of clergy --- and then discusses her prose style.
Damrosch gives his own translation of passages quoted. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Damrosch, David. What is world literature? (Translation/transnation).
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2003. (xiii, 324
p.: ill.)
LC#: PN523 .D36 2003; ISBN: 0691049858, 0691049866
Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-318) and index
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[Volume 3 of Bernard McGinn's history of western Christian
mysticism includes a thorough discussion of Mechthild (pp.222-244).
McGinn's notes give full bibliographic information on earlier
translations and studies; they also give the original of all
translated passages. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
McGinn, Bernard.The flowering of mysticism: men and women
in the new mysticism (1200-1350) (The presence of God; vol. 3).New
York: Crossroad, c1998. (xiv, 526 p.)
LC#: BV5075 .M37 vol. 3; ISBN: 0824517423, 0824517431
Includes bibliographical references (p. [465]-505) and indexes
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[This second volume of Prudence Allen's major study on the philosophy of gender includes a brief but useful section (pp. 49-56; 60-64) on Mechthild's use of dialogue as a philosophical method. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Allen, Prudence. The concept of woman. Volume 2, The early
humanist reformation, 1250-1500. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans
Pub., c2002. (xxiv, 1161 p.: ill.)
LC#: BD450 .A4725 2002; ISBN: 0802847358
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1091-1129) and index
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[The part of Amy M. Hollywood's study that focuses on Mechthild deals with her "visionary imagination" and its theological implications:]
Hollywood, Amy M. The soul as virgin wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg,
Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart (Studies in spirituality
and theology;1). Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame,
c1995. ( x, 331 p.)
LC#: BV5075 .H64 1995; ISBN: 0268017530
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[Barbara Newman's study includes a chapter, "La mystique
courtoise: Thirteenth-Century Beguines & the Art of Love,"
which is helpful in reading Mechthild; the whole book gives good
background for the period. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Newman, Barbara. From virile woman to womanChrist: studies
in medieval religion and literature (Middle Ages series). Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, c1995. ( 355 p.: ill.)
LC Call No.: BV639.W7 N48 1995; ISBN: 0812232739,
0812215451
Includes bibliographical references (p. [321]-343)
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[The section of Frances Beer's book that discusses Mechthild analyses and defends her use of erotic imagery:]
Beer, Frances. Women and mystical experience in the Middle
Ages. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Rochester, NY, USA: Boydell Press,
1992. (174 p.: ill.)
LC#: BV5095.H55 B44 1992; ISBN: 085115302X
Hildegard, Saint, 1098-1179. Mechthild, of Magdeburg, ca. 1212-ca.
1282. Julian, of Norwich, b. 1343. Includes bibliographical references
(p. 165-169) and index.
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Updated 02-07-08