Mysticism and Miracle in Catholic Europe

Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, both writing in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, exemplified many of the characteristics of medieval Catholic devotional practice and spirituality. Indeed, though we learned about their respective works – Margery’s The Book of Margery Kempe and Julian’s A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich – specifically in relation to broader English literature, they additionally correspond to religious literary genres found in pre-Reformation Western Europe. For instance, Margery’s Book falls into the category of what’s known as a “spiritual autobiography.” In this kind of work, the author walks the reader through the growth of their religious life. Robert Bell writes of the later 17^th century versions would follow the same formula of “standard stages of regeneration: conviction of sin, vocation, justification, sanctification, and glorification.” (Bell 108) The Revelations on Divine Love, however, represent still another category of works, namely, mystical devotions. These combine philosophical and theological musings on spiritual matters, as well as personal experience, to reach a religious conclusion.In the medieval context, these religious works present an image of a deeply personal God accessible through mystical experience.

The Book of Margery Kempe immediately demonstrates the common characteristics of the spiritual autobiography. In the medieval world, this kind of literature was intimately mystical, that is, the soul’s “union with God.” Kempe (who was illiterate but dictated the text to a series of scribes) begins by describing herself as “this creature” and relating that “she was ever hindered by her enemy, the devil.” (Kempe 9) After experiencing extreme desolations that lead her to slander “her husband, her friends, and her own self,” (10) she describes a return to religious devotion brought about by the direct appearance of Christ to her, saying “Daughter, why hast thou forsaken me, and I forsook never thee?” (11) This passage exemplifies the “return to God” bent of many works of spiritual autobiography. But the mystical, miraculous way in which this “vocation” (to borrow from Bell) occurs is more important for understanding the specific character of pre-Reformation literature.

For Margery and many of her peers, this conversion takes place through the direct intervention of God, that is, Jesus. More importantly, this intervention appears miraculously by defying the physical laws of the world. Christ appears to Margery directly, as though he were any other human standing before her, only significantly more beautiful and clad in a purple robe. (11) This kind of mystical revelation was not an isolated incident for Margery. Throughout her story, she repeatedly receives revelations of the divine, both in the form of the direct appearance of Jesus or Mary or through miracles, such as when she purports to see a consecrated host (believed to literally be the body of Christ) fly through the air during mass. Through these instances, the work establishes a reliance on mystical symbolism and miraculous experiences as a way to do the “work” of connecting the worshipper to God.

Kempe was not alone in receiving such mystical visions. Though differing in genre, A Book of Showings by Julian of Norwich uses mystical visions and revelations as a way to establish the proper relationship of God to humankind. Unlike Margery Kempe, Julian was an “anchoress,” committed to a quasi-monastic life living in contemplation in a small room known as a cell for the rest of her life. In her writings, she uses her mystical experiences as a means to explain the reality of God, Christ, and human existence, such as when she expounds on the role of Christ as “mother.” (438-439) For instance, she describes seeing “red blood running down from under the garland…right as it was in the time that the garland of thorns was pressed on his blessed head.” (Julian 433) From this, she becomes filled with immense joy, and reports understanding that God, in the Trinity (as Christian concept that, in brutal simplicity, holds that the divine expresses itself as God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ) would always protect and take care of her. (433) Throughout the Revelations, she continues the same pattern. By doing so, Julian, similar to Margery, establishes a reliance on coming to know God through miraculous experiences that reveal the “truth” of God to the adherent through direct experience that defies human understanding.

But the experiences of Kempe and Julian were not exclusive to just the English world. Indeed, much of their work bears an significant similarity to other Christian mystics of the time, many of whom have been recognized with titles such as “Doctor of the Church.” Julian is reported to be on waiting list for this recognition. (Vatican Diary) For instance, Ignatius of Loyola, a Basque mystic, relates his story in a manner very similar to Margery’s, first experiencing sinfulness in his role as a soldier, extreme desolation after receiving a nearly mortal wound, before profound religious experiences bring him into an active religious faith. He describes one particular moment by saying that,

wearied by his inward struggle and not arriving at any determination, decided to settle all his doubts in the following novel way: he would give free rein to his horse, and if, on coming to the cross-road, his horse should turn into the path that led to the destination of the Moor, he would pursue him and kill him; but if his horse kept to the highroad he would allow the wretch to escape. Having done as he had decided, it happened through the Providence of God that his horse kept to the highroad, though the place was distant only about thirty or forty yards, and the way leading to it was very wide and easy.”

(de Loyola 58-59)

Like Margery, he writes of himself in the third person, and like both, he often relates searching his soul for the presence of God. Likewise, Catherine of Siena, an Italian mystic contemporaneous with Julian and Margery, once related marrying Christ and receiving his foreskin as a wedding ring. (Manseau) This image, though certainly disturbing to the modern reader, gets at the heavily symbolized and personable nature of the Catholic religious experience during this time.

Works Cited

Bell, Robert. “Metamorphoses of Spiritual Autobiography.” ELH, vol. 44, no. 1, 1977, pp. 108–126. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2872529.

de Loyola, Ignatius. A Pilgrim’s Journey: The Autobiography of Ignatius of Loyola, trans. Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J., Ignatius Press, 2001.

Julian of Norwich. A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. James Simpson, 9th Edition, W. W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 432-442.

Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. James Simpson, 9th Edition, W. W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 443-456.

“A New Doctor of the Church, And Seventeen More on Hold.” Vatican Diary, http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1349083bdc4.html?eng=y.