Hadewijch

Hadewijch (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦaːdəʋɪx]), sometimes referred to as Hadewych or Hadewig (of Brabant or of Antwerp),^[a] 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 include visions, prose letters and poetry. Hadewijch was one of the most important direct influences on John of Ruysbroeck.

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 house, but that she had experienced opposition that drove her to a wandering life.^[1] 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.^[b] 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 and French, as well as French courtly poetry, in a period when studying was a luxury only exceptionally granted to women.

Sexuality

Some of Hadewijch's letters have been interpreted as alluding to same-sex attraction or desire.^[2] A notable example is found in Letter 25, in which she describes her powerful, unrequited feelings for a woman named Sara, as well as her close relationship with two women named Emma and Margriet:

Greet Sara also in my behalf, whether I am anything to her or nothing.

Could I be fully all that in my love I wish to be for her, I would gladly do so; and I shall do so fully, however she may treat me. She has very largely forgotten my affliction, but I do not wish to blame or reproach her, seeing that Love [Minne] leaves her at rest, and does not reproach her, although Love ought ever anew to urge her to be busy with her noble Beloved. Now that she has other occupations and can look on quietly and tolerate my heart's affliction, she lets me suffer. She is well aware, however, that she should be a comfort to me, both in this life of exile and in the other life in bliss. There she will indeed be my comfort, although she now leaves me in the lurch.

And you, Emma and yourself-who can obtain more from me than any other person now living can, except Sara-are equally dear to me. But both of you turn too little to Love, who has so fearfully subdued me in the commotion of unappeased love. My heart, soul, and senses have not a moment's rest, day or night; the flame burns constantly in the very marrow of my soul.

Tell Margriet to be on her guard against haughtiness, and to be sensible, and to attend to God each day; and that she may apply herself to the attainment of perfection and prepare herself to live with us, where we shall one day be together; and that she should neither live nor remain with aliens. It would be a great disloyalty if she deserted us, since she so much desires to satisfy us, and she is now close to us-indeed, very close-and we also so much desire her to be with us.

Once I heard a sermon in which Saint Augustine was spoken of. No sooner had I heard it than I became inwardly so on fire that it seemed to me everything on earth must be set ablaze by the flame I felt within me. Love is all!

— Hadewijch, Letter 25^[3]

Works

Most of Hadewijch's extant writings, none of which survived the Middle Ages as an autograph, are in a Brabantian form of Middle Dutch. Five groups of texts survive:^[5] her writings include poetry, descriptions of her visions, 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 trouvères and minnesingers of her time, but in Dutch, and with the theme of worldly courtship replaced by sublimated love to God.^[6] Many of them are contrafacta of Latin and vernacular songs and hymns, leading to a Dutch edition renaming them "Liederen" ("Songs") and including audio recordings of performances.^[7]

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 topics; not all of them are considered authentic.

Visions

Hadewijch's Book of Visions (Visioenenboek), the earliest vernacular collection of such revelations, appears to have been composed in the 1240s. It prominently features dialogue between Hadewijch and Christ in visionary speech, an early example of this mode of vernacular religious instruction.^[8]

Letters

Thirty prose letters also survive:^[9] 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^[which?] manuscripts, and to the Poems in Stanzas in a more recent one^[which?]. It lists several saints, like Bernard of Clairvaux, but some entries are more remarkable, like a beguine who had been condemned to death by the inquisition.

Influence

Hadewijch's writings influenced Jan van Ruusbroec both as a theologian and a mystic.

Veneration

In 2022, Hadewijch was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 22 April.^[10]

Notes

References

Sources

Editions, translations, and recordings

• Columba Hart (ed. and translator), preface by Paul Mommaers (1980), Hadewijch: The Complete Works, Paulist Press, ISBN 9780809122974 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help) ISBN 0-8091-2297-9
• Marieke J. E. H. T. van Baest (essay and translations), preface by Edward Schillebeeckx (1998), Poetry of Hadewijch, Peeters ISBN 90-429-0667-7
• edited, introduced, and translated [into modern Dutch] by Veerle Fraeters & Frank Willaert (with a reconstruction of the melodies by Louis Peter Grijp and recordings) (2009), Liederen, Historische Uitgeverij, ISBN 978-90-6554-478-0 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Studies

• Bardoel, Agatha (1992). Vision or union? : mystical expression in the visions of Hadewijch of Brabant, c. 1250. University of Toronto.
• Swan, Laura. The Wisdom of the Beguines: the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement (BlueBridge, 2014).
• Dailey, Patricia (2013). "Living Song: Dwelling in Hadewijch's Liederen". Promised Bodies: Time, Language, and Corporeality in Medieval Women's Mystical Texts. Columbia University Press. pp. 123–56.
• Fraeters, Veerle (2013). "Hadewijch of Brabant and the Beguine Movement". A Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany in the Late Middle Ages. Brill. pp. 49–72. ISBN 9789004258457.
• McGinn, Bernard (1999). The Flowering of Mysticism. pp. 200–244.
• Mommaers, Paul (2005), Hadewijch: Writer – Beguine – Love Mystic, Elisabeth M. Dutton, trans., Peeters, ISBN 9789042913929 ISBN 90-429-1392-4
• Rozenski, Steven (2010), "The Promise of Eternity: Love and Poetic Form in Hadewijch's Liederen or Stanzaic Poems", Exemplaria, 22 (4): 305–325, doi:10.1179/104125710X12730486676225, S2CID 218668701
• Suydam, Mary (1999). "Beguine Textuality: Sacred Performances". In Suydam, Mary; Ziegler, Joanna (eds.). Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality. pp. 169–210.

External links

• Media related to Hadewijch at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Hadewijch at Wikiquote
• Hadewijch in the Columbia Encyclopedia
• Hadewijch at DBNL (digitale bibliotheek voor Nederlandse letteren) Introductions (most of them in Dutch) and various editions of Hadewijch's writings in Middle Dutch
• Poetry by Hadewijch in English translation
• Nicolette, Carlos Eduardo. "Hadewijch de Amberes: a mística medieval e suas visões sobre o divino" in Revista Mais Que Amélias, 2017 (with English abstract)

This page was last edited on 3 February 2024, at 04:05