Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 03-21-08
Margareta Ebner
/Margaretha (c.1291-1351)
========================================================================
"I HAD A SISTER, WHOM GOD HAD GIVEN ME FOR CONSOLATION IN
BODY AND SOUL."
========================================================================
Margareta Ebner was from one of the chief families in the city of Donauworth, in Bavaria. When she was about 15, she entered the nearby Dominican monastery of Maria Medingen. An aunt of hers was already there, and other relatives followed. Several held monastic office, but apparently due to her poor health, Margareta did not.
Imperial politics played a large part in Margareta's life. In 1324, the nuns had to leave the monastery because of fighting between Louis of Bavaria (king from 1314, emperor 1328-1347) and those who disputed his right to the throne. Margareta spent two years with her family within the safety of the Donauworth city walls before she could return to Maria Medingen.
In 1328, for political reasons, the reigning pope excommunicated Louis and put Germany under interdict. This meant that the sacraments could not be administered. Although at first the interdict was widely ignored, it was later observed in most areas. For nuns whose lives centered around the sacraments, this was a serious deprivation; Margareta speaks of it often. After ten years, Louis responded to the interdict by "electing" his own pope and ordering the priests of Germany to administer the sacraments or face exile.
In the conflict between Louis and the papacy, Margareta sided with Louis. This showed considerable independence, not only because most of the Dominican order was supporting the pope, but because her closest friend in her later years, the secular priest Heinrich von Nordlingen, opposed Louis and in 1338 chose exile rather than violate the interdict.
It is due to Heinrich's exile that we have Margareta's book, Offenbarungen (Revelations). Margareta and he corresponded (56 of his letters to Margareta survive, but only one of hers). Heinrich sent her a copy of his translation of Mechthild of Magdeburg's Fliessende Licht der Gottheit (Flowing light of the Godhead) and encouraged her to write down her own visionary experiences and send them to him in Basel. In 1344, she began to do so, sometimes writing in her own hand, sometimes dictating to another nun. Heinrich circulated her writings among his friends throughout Switzerland and Germany, so she became well known. Heinrich returned from exile in 1350 and visited Margareta at least once more before her death in 1351.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
========================================================================
1. Excerpts from Offenbarungen:
(a) Two substantial passages: first, the opening pages of the work, Margareta's review of the twenty years from 1312 to 1322; then, an account of her experience at Christmas 1344. The translation is by Rosemary Hale.
(b) The second excerpt given above has been much discussed by later commentators because of its references to breast-feeding and its erotic tone (although neither seem to have bothered Margareta's contemporaries). In this 2000 essay by Ralph Frenken, "Childhood and Fantasies of Medieval Mystics," use your browser's search function to go to "Ebner" for a section on Margareta's relation to Jesus as an infant, here interpreted psychoanalytically; the translations are by Frenken.
(c) On the origin of Margareta's erotic tone, go to "Ebner" for a group of brief quotations illustrating Margareta's use of erotic imagery derived from Bernard of Clairvaux; the translation is by Leonard P. Hindsley.
(d) The first brief excerpt given here is on the name of Jesus; the second is part of the Christmas 1344 passage; both are translated by Esther Cameron.
(e) Go to "Ebner" for a passage, translated by Hindsley, on a dying nun waiting for her wedding.
(f) In this introduction to Cristina Mazzoni's The Women in God's Kitchen, go to "Ebner" for two sentences in which God speaks of his sweetness and of Margereta's.
2. Go to "Ebner" for two passages from Margareta's "Pater Noster," a set of personal prayers that she had begun in illness and continued to record during her life; the first prayer asks for the graces of the sacraments that, because of the interdict, her community could not actually receive. The translation is by Hindsley (for more from Hindsley, see below, under "In print").
3. Go to "Ebner" for a passage in modern German from Offenbarungen, describing Margareta's 1341 experience of being freed from physical and mental suffering by the name of Jesus; then click on note "30" for the passage in Margareta's original dialect.
4. Essays, etc:
(a) The second half of Rebecca L. Garber's biographical essay, "Medieval German Women Writers (1100-1450)," contains a section on Margareta (for information on a 2003 book by Garber that includes a discussion of Ebner, see "Secondary sources").
(b) A profile of Margareta with some comments on Offenbarungen.
(c) The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia entries on Margareta (half-way down the page), and on the "Friends of God," (of whom Heinrich von Nordlingen was one).
5. Reviews (for information on the books' treatment of Margareta, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Ulrike Wiethaus on John Wayland's 2006 study, Women, Men, and Spiritual Power: Female Saints and Their Male Collaborators.
(b) Kirsten Christensen on Rebecca L. R. Garber's 2003 study, Feminine Figurae: Representations of Gender in Religious Texts by Medieval German Women Writers, 1100-1375.
(c) Cynthia D. Bertelsen on Mazzoni's 2005 study, The Women in God's Kitchen: Cooking, Eating, and Spiritual Writing.
(d) Carolyn Muessig on the 1999 essay collection, Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality.
(e) James A. Wiseman on Bernard McGinn's 1998 history, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350).
6. For historical background, a chapter, "The
Importance of Dominican Sisters in German Mysticism," from
Gundolf M. Gieraths' 1986 book, Life in Abundance: Meister
Eckhart & the German Dominican Mystics of the 14th Century;
Margareta is one of the women discussed.
========================================================================
[Leonard P. Hindsley has translated the Offenbarungen and Margareta's"Pater Noster." The detailed introduction, by Margot Schmidt and Hindsley, quotes from her one surviving letter to Heinrich von Nordlingen. Both the introduction and notes are useful. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Margaret Ebner, major works / translated and edited by Leonard
P. Hindsley; introduced by Margot Schmidt and Leonard P. Hindsley;
preface by Richard Woods (The Classics of Western spirituality).
New York: Paulist Press, c1993. (viii, 209 p.: ill.)
LC#: BV5095.E2 A3 1993; ISBN: 0809104628, 0809133970
Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-202) and index
----------------------------------------------------------------
"I was anxious now to know where I should turn...."
----------------------------------------------------------------
[Throughout Margareta's book is the theme of her need for human affection:]
I had a sister, whom God had given me for consolation in body and soul and who was very faithful to me. By divine design she served me joyfully throughout the years and protected me from all things that could disturb me. When, in my illness, I was sometimes unkind to her while she served me, she did not hold that against me.
This sister became very ill by God's design. Then we were both sick and in suffering and patiently endured much pain.... [A]s the death of my sister approached, I saw and realized that she must die. I would gladly have died for her.
She asked me to go away from her and to say my Pater Noster, because she knew well that whenever I said it, whatever burdened me would be made easier for me to bear.... Then I returned to her.... I was with her all the time until she died...
For a long time no day went by without my intense weeping. I could not pay attention to anyone else, and those who were previously dear to me I did not want to see. There were times when I thought I could not be without my sister and could not live without her....
Whether living or dead my sister was always true to me, and I received great solace from her while I slept.... I saw her once in a clear vision. She said, "God Himself wants to be there at your end with His saints and I too will be with Him." Thus I received so much consolation from her that I cannot write it all down.
Even so, my sorrow for my sister was not relieved, because in her I had that peace, humility, love, and real truthfulness that I desired. We had always been together in peace and in unity, and we did not concern ourselves with things that caused a stir in the monastery. Because of this I was anxious now to know where I should turn in order to flee from the whole world. [pp.90-92]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"He said that I should begin it and write whatever God gave
me."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[A few months after the death described above, Margareta met
Heinrich von Nordlingen, the "true Friend of God."
For six years he visited as often as his duties would permit;
after his exile in 1338, they exchanged letters. Here she describes
the origin of her book:]
I was asked by the true Friend of God whom He had given me as a great consolation to write down for him what God had given me. It was my opinion that he himself should be the author, but that could not be. He said that I should begin it and write whatever God gave me.
It was difficult for me, and I began reluctantly. When I wanted to begin I feared and dreaded it. Then I called upon the merciful help of God and upon his beloved evangelist, my lord St. John, to help me write the truth he had drunk from the sweet heart of Jesus Christ.
I began to write it during Advent [1344] before the arrival of our dear Lord Jesus Christ.... It was my will and desire that I act according to the dearest will of God and also that I obey him who asked me to do it for the honor of God. My faithful Jesus Christ was my powerful help in this, and He promised me thereby to accomplish much good. [pp.130-131]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I took the image out of the crib and placed it against
my naked heart...."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[With her companion dead and Heinrich in exile, Margareta found consolation in an image of the infant Jesus:]
Then, while I was writing this little book, the greatest delight and sweetest grace came upon me concerning the childhood of our Lord....
I have a statue of our Lord as a child in the manger. I was powerfully attracted to it by my Lord with delight and desire and by His gracious request. This was spoken to me by my Lord: "If you do not suckle me, then I will draw away from you and you will take no delight in me." So I took the image out of the crib and placed it against my naked heart with great delight and sweetness, and perceived then the most powerful grace in the presence of God....
I am set afire by the ardent love coming from Him and am filled up by His presence and by His sweet grace so that I am drawn into the true enjoyment of His divine essence with all loving souls who have lived in the truth. [p.132]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Lord, if you let me do something wrong here, then you must
do penance for me."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[For almost 20 years, until the death of Emperor Louis IV in 1347, Germany was under interdict. At Maria Medlingen the nuns were permitted to decide for themselves whether to attend Mass or receive communion. For Margareta, that decision was not a light one; she comes back to this forced choice again and again:]
My conscience was not burdened by the sorrowful condition of Christianity, but often I had to go without the Eucharist. Our Order has never submitted to the commands, as others have done. Although our monastery was still bound by the law, we were permitted to act according to our consciences here.
All the while this conviction stood firm in my heart: if I knew that by receiving holy communion or by going to Mass I acted against God, I would rather die than act in such a way. I placed this before the faithfulness of our Lord and said, "Lord, if you let me do something wrong here, then you must do penance for me."
God answered me, "You should come to me, because I will never leave you, neither here nor hereafter. Whoever desires me in true love, I will never renounce out of true love." [p.104]
-------------------------------------------------------------
"It was caused by the sins and weakness of men."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[The "sorrowful condition of Christianity" above, the "present confusion" here, is the conflict between the Emperor she admired and the Church to which she was consecrated:]
I had much desire to know the will of God with regard to the present confusion in Christianity. No response was given me except that it was caused by the sins and weakness of men.
It was also revealed to me that, because of this, it would be good for those who ceased to receive holy communion out of right love and fear of divine love during this time. Nevertheless, to those who received the Holy Eucharist in right love and total trust, Christ would also give Himself in true love for He alone would know the whole truth. [p.141]
----------------------------------------------------------------
"He came like a friend... and gave me His true help."
----------------------------------------------------------------
[On Margareta's doubts about her visionary experiences:]
...[B]efore matins [in March 1347], my Lord Jesus Christ placed me in such indescribable misery and a feeling of abandonment that it seemed as if I had never experienced the grace of our Lord in my whole life. I had lost complete trust in His mercy. Whatever I had received was taken from me totally. The true Christian faith --- which is in me at all times --- became darkened. And what was more painful to me than any previous suffering --- worse too than any martyr's death --- was doubt. I began to doubt against my will and wondered whether He and His works were acting in me or not....
And then I felt an inner, deeper humility and out of these depths I cried out to the Lord and desired that He show me His mercy, which He had shown me so lovingly before, and to show me truly by some authentic sign whether it was He and His work acting in me....
He came like a friend after matins... and gave me His true help. This is the natural virtue of the Lord: to whomever He gives sorrow and pain, He then comforts. Whomever He afflicts, He then makes glad. [p.153]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I wanted to know whether the Jews were at fault for this."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Margareta and her God share the prejudices of their time. This is on the "Black Death" and the Jews; at least God assigns Christendom the chief portion of blame:]
On All Saints' Day [1348] .... I made petitions for the living and the dead, especially because of the troubles that burdened Christianity as a result of the plague. I wanted to know whether the Jews were at fault for this.
Then I was told, although there was truth in this, God had permitted the plague because of the great faults and sins of Christendom. [p.170]
========================================================================
[One chapter in Rebecca L. R. Garber's study deals with Ebner's Offenbarungen (and briefly with her "Pater Noster"). Throughout, Garber makes a helpful distinction between author and persona: the older woman, "Ebner," is writing about the illnesses and the slowly developing spiritual life of the younger "Margareta." Garber gives both the original German and her own translations of quoted passages; she also gives the English of several excerpts from the yet-untranslated letters of Heinrich von Nordlingen to Margareta.(See the book's table of contents online.):]
Garber, Rebecca L. R. Feminine figurae: representations
of gender in religious texts by medieval German women writers
1100-1375 (Medieval history and culture; v. 10). New York; London:
Routledge, 2003. (xvi, 295 p.)
LC#: HQ1147.G3 G37 2003; ISBN: 0415939534
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-279) and indexes
---------------------
[This collection includes the essay, "Rocking the Cradle:
Margaretha Ebner (Be)Holds the Divine," by Rosemary Drage
Hale, which discusses the role of images, such as representations
of the infant Jesus, in the devotion of Ebner and her contemporaries.
(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Performance and transformation: new approaches to late medieval
spirituality / edited by Mary A. Suydam and Joanna E. Ziegler.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999. (xxi, 361 p.: ill.)
LC#: BV5083 .P47 1999; ISBN:031221281X
Includes bibliographical references and index
---------------------
[Volume 3 of Bernard McGinn's history of western Christian mysticism includes a brief but useful discussion of Margareta Ebner (pp.308-314). McGinn's notes give full bibliographic information on 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
---------------------
[Leonard P. Hindsley's essay in this collection, "Monastic Conversion: The Case of Margaret Ebner," discusses Ebner's spiritual growth in greater detail than is done in his and Margot Schmidt's introduction to the 1993 translation of her works (above). (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Varieties of religious conversion in the Middle Ages / edited
by James Muldoon. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, c1997.
(viii, 208 p.)
LC#: BT780 .V37 1997; ISBN: 081301509X
Includes bibliographical references and index
---------------------
[Ulinka Rublack's article discusses the degree of gender specificity in devotion to the infant Jesus; Margareta Ebner is the focus of her study. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Rublack, Ulinka. Female spirituality and the infant Jesus
in late medieval Dominican convents. Gender and History,
6 (1994): 37-57.
LC#:HQ1075 .G44; ISSN: 9053-5233
--------------------
[Cristina Mazzoni's study of the images of food and food preparation in the writing of visionary women over the centuries includes a brief but useful section (pp.65-73) on Ebner's accounts in Offenbarungen of the sweetness of her experiences of God. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Mazzoni, Cristina. The women in God's kitchen: Cooking, eating,
and spiritual writing. New York : Continuum, 2005. (x, 222 p.)
LC#: BV4527 .M36 2005; ISBN: 0826417604
Includes bibliographical references (p.195-213) and index
---------------------
[John W. Coakley's study of the ways that male writers presented the women they wrote about from the 1100s through the 1300s includes a chapter, "Hagiography in Process: Henry of Nordlingen and Margaret Ebner," which discusses the 56 letters sent by Heinrich to Margareta between 1332 and 1350 (and briefly, her references to him in Offenbarungen). Coakley sees Heinrich's view of Margareta changing during his exile from a focus on her own experience to one on her role as an intercessor for him with God. Quoted passages are given in Coakley's translation, with the German original in the notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Coakley, John Wayland. Women, men, and spiritual power: female
saints and their male collaborators. New York: Columbia University
Press, c2006. (x, 354 p.)
LC#: BV5083 .C55 2006; ISBN: 0231134002, 0231508611
Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-344) and index
========================================================================
Updated 03-21-08