Hadewijch

Hadewijch , sometimes referred to as Hadewych or Hadewig (of Brabant or of Antwerp), 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.

Religion has a complex history and fully understanding it for what it currently is requires researching its past. A good start to this is looking at a woman from the thirteenth century who had lived in the Low Countries, Hadewijch. Understanding Hadewijch and the life that she had lived will open the door to popular religion in the thirteenth century, especially as it pertains to women.

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. 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. 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.

Hadewijch was a beguine mystic who had lived during the thirteenth century in the Low Countries, specifically in the city of Antwerp which was in the region of Brabant at the time. Hadewijch is known for her work in poems, letters, and visions that she had described in writing. Hadewijch was a part of a movement known as the beguine movement. Beguines were women during the thirteenth century who had a deep love for Jesus Christ, but unlike nuns, beguines did not want to take any formal vows. Instead, beguines took undemanding vows in which they had the ability to set themselves free from at any time. Their development was slow at first, with the clergy being on edge about the whole idea because there was very little organization utilized, however, in the year 1216 they had acquired the right to live in common and encourage others to join them, which had been approved by Pope Honorius III. With that, beguines lived together in a home referred to as beguinages. Oftentimes, towns consisted of more than one beguinages with contrasts between them, one being for the beguines who are more on the poor side. This movement was also not solely for women, men were involved as well. However, men in this movement were not known as beguines, but rather, they had called themselves beghards.

Every piece of information we have about Hadewijch comes from interpretations of her work that has been done by multiple different scholars throughout the centuries. The different writings done by Hadewijch explored themes of divine love, spiritual experiences, and the union of soul with God. It can be difficult to fully grasp an understanding of who she was and the purpose that she had fulfilled without getting a better look at the time and place that she was from. The term “Low Countries” is a fairly broad term that came about due to the area being below sea level. This area is present day Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Throughout the middle ages new religious movements had emerged. During the thirteenth century, in the Low Countries particularly, these movements were at their most drastic time. The reason behind this was that people were aiming to address the spiritual needs in that moment in history. This time period involved a lot of people to be declared heretics and had been condemned from the church. These movements allowed these people to still express and maintain their spirituality. The poems, letters, and visions that Hadewijch had written were for her fellow beguines to read. Hadewijch was one of the first mystic writers to put her text in Dutch. These pieces of writing have been translated over the centuries, and it is important to recognize the point of interpretation potentially being lost through translation. Looking at the visions she had written about specifically, it is clear that they each have a commonality of Hadewijch ascending to Jesus Christ while experiencing strong emotions that are almost euphoric. Another common theme throughout the visions is the agony she would describe when it came to the end of the vision. The visions that Hadewijch would experience, along with every other mystic, were a metaphor for the deep love that these women had for Christ.

Some of Hadewijch's letters have been interpreted as alluding to same sex attraction or desire. 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

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: 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").

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. 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.

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.

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.

Thirty prose letters also survive: here Hadewijch explains her views, and they give some context to her life.

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

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

Swan, Laura. The Wisdom of the Beguines: the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement (BlueBridge, 2014).