Margery Kempe was a singular figure in medieval England: a mother, a businesswoman, a pilgrim, and a visionary mystic. Her work, The Book of Margery Kempe, is considered the first autobiography in the English language, offering an astonishingly candid and intimate account of her spiritual life. It chronicles her dramatic conversions, her extensive pilgrimages, and her direct, often tumultuous, conversations with God, all marked by her famous public fits of weeping.
If you are fascinated by Kempe's raw spiritual honesty and her documentation of a direct, personal experience of the divine, you will find profound connections with these 15 mystical and contemplative writers.
These women, like Kempe, recorded deeply personal encounters with the divine, claiming a spiritual authority that was rare for their time and offering a powerful female perspective on faith.
A contemporary of Kempe, Julian of Norwich was an English anchoress and mystic. While her tone is more serene and theological than Kempe's passionate outbursts, she shares a focus on a deeply personal, visionary experience of God's love. Her writing provides a fascinating contrast in temperament but a shared spiritual goal.
Her work, Revelations of Divine Love, describes a series of sixteen visions she received during a serious illness, containing the famous and comforting message that "All shall be well."
Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess, composer, philosopher, and visionary. A true polymath, she recorded complex theological and cosmological visions that, like Kempe's experiences, were divinely inspired. She represents a more intellectual and comprehensive visionary tradition.
Her major work, Scivias ("Know the Ways"), is an illustrated account of 26 intricate visions that explore the relationship between God, humanity, and creation.
Bridget of Sweden was a visionary mystic and founder of the Bridgettine Order whose life, like Kempe's, was changed by divine revelations following the birth of her children. Her visions were often political and prophetic, and she embarked on pilgrimages as commanded by Christ.
Her extensive work, Revelations of St. Bridget, contains the detailed visions and messages she believed she received directly from Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Catherine of Siena was an Italian mystic and lay Dominican whose life of intense devotion was marked by a passionate and direct relationship with God. She shares Kempe's emotional intensity and the belief that her spiritual experiences compelled her to engage with the world, advising popes and princes.
Her central work, The Dialogue of Divine Providence, is presented as an intimate conversation between her soul and God, exploring profound theological truths with passionate clarity.
Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, wrote with remarkable psychological insight about her own spiritual journey. Like Kempe, she penned a spiritual autobiography that is both deeply personal and intended as a guide for others, describing the soul's path toward union with God.
Her most famous work, The Interior Castle, uses the metaphor of a crystal castle with many rooms to describe the soul's progression through various stages of prayer.
This group of mystics excels at conveying the intense, emotional, and embodied nature of spiritual experience, a hallmark of Kempe's own "affective piety."
Mechthild of Magdeburg was a German Beguine mystic whose writing is renowned for its vivid, poetic, and often startlingly sensual imagery. She shares Kempe's ability to express a passionate and intimate love for the divine, blending earthly metaphors with heavenly visions.
Her masterpiece, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, is a collection of visions, prayers, and reflections that describe her soul's loving dialogue with God.
Hadewijch, a 13th-century poet and mystic from the Low Countries, wrote with an intense and almost breathless passion about spiritual love. Her work captures the emotional extremes of divine longing, from ecstatic union to painful absence, which will resonate with readers of Kempe's emotional journey.
Her Hadewijch: The Complete Works includes poems, letters, and descriptions of visions that powerfully express the complexities of divine love (Minne).
Angela of Foligno was an Italian Franciscan tertiary whose spiritual autobiography details a dramatic conversion and subsequent mystical experiences. She shares Kempe's focus on an embodied spirituality, describing her intense physical and emotional reactions to her visions.
Her work, The Book of Angela of Foligno, offers an honest and powerful look at her spiritual revelations and the profound humility that characterized her faith.
Richard Rolle was an English hermit and mystic known for his highly personal and emotive descriptions of the spiritual life. He emphasized the joy and sweetness of a devoted relationship with God, describing it in sensory terms of heat, song, and sweetness, echoing the embodied nature of Kempe's piety.
In The Fire of Love, Rolle writes with great warmth about how a deep personal connection with God can transform one's inner life into an experience of burning love.
Gertrude the Great was a German Benedictine nun whose spirituality was centered on a deep, emotional closeness to Christ. Her writing is filled with warmth and vivid imagery, particularly focused on the Sacred Heart, emphasizing an accessible and loving divine presence.
Her notable work, The Herald of Divine Love, invites readers into her spiritual visions, emphasizing the comfort and tenderness of God's love.
Beatrice of Nazareth, a Cistercian prioress from the Low Countries, explored the nature of divine love with an intimate and expressive style. Her writings vividly capture the emotional intensity of spiritual devotion and the soul's yearning for union with God.
Her influential text, The Seven Manners of Holy Love, explains the stages a believer experiences on the path toward divine love, blending passionate insight with practical spiritual wisdom.
While Kempe's experience was often spontaneous and dramatic, these writers provide a more systematic or philosophical framework for understanding the soul's journey toward God.
John of the Cross was a Spanish Carmelite friar and mystic whose profound poetry and prose map the soul's journey toward divine union. He describes the challenging but necessary periods of spiritual dryness and doubt, which Kempe also experienced between her moments of ecstasy.
His famous work, Dark Night of the Soul, describes the painful purification the soul undergoes as it detaches from worldly things to prepare for union with God.
Walter Hilton, an English Augustinian canon, wrote practical and accessible spiritual guidance for laypeople and monastics alike. His clear, gentle style offers a structured path for spiritual growth that complements Kempe's more untamed narrative.
In his major work, The Scale of Perfection, Hilton outlines a steady, step-by-step journey toward reforming the soul in the image of God, balancing contemplation with everyday life.
Meister Eckhart was a German theologian and mystic known for his philosophical and often paradoxical sermons about the soul's relationship with God. He explored the idea of "letting go" to find God within, offering a more intellectual path to the divine union that Kempe experienced emotionally.
His Selected Writings contain sermons and treatises that examine the possibility of experiencing God directly through contemplation and inner detachment.
Jan van Ruusbroec was a Flemish mystic who wrote with great clarity about the stages of spiritual enlightenment. He emphasized the balance between a life of active charity and inward contemplation, a tension Kempe herself navigated through her worldly pilgrimages.
His influential work, The Spiritual Espousals, guides readers through the three stages of the spiritual life toward a dynamic and loving union with God.