Literature from the Middle Ages often portrays women as both idealized figures and complex characters, reflecting societal ideals and anxieties of the time. From poetic laments to chivalric romances, these stories reveal cultural attitudes towards women, highlighting their virtues, vulnerabilities, and sometimes, their agency within narrative constraints. Such works continue to influence modern perceptions of medieval women.

 

These are two passages that I really admired from Julian of Norwich and Margery Kemp

First passage from Julian of Norwich

For the third, by the grace of God and teaching of Holie Church, I conceived a mightie desire to receive three wounds in my life, that is to say, the wound of verie contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wound of willful longing to God (sixteen Revelations Page 6).

This passage caught my eye because it is what I want and aspire to every day of my life. However, I live in a fallen world and sometimes forget, or get busy. And the saying goes, when the devil can’t get you, he makes you busy. I’m guilty of that. But Julian of Norwich also wrote one of my favorite quotes,

“The fullness of Joy is to behold God in everything”. Isn’t that beautiful.

Margery Kemp

“Sir, she said, “very blessed be God. I have reason to be truly merry and glad in my soul if I can suffer anything for His love, for He suffered much more for me.”

I liked this quote because, after reading about her, she seemed extreme and was called a pest, and also the most dangerous woman in England, but she said this after being released from prison and name-calling after her, and she skips pleasantly on her way. I’m using poetic license. A blessed person can give thanks in all situations and then remember the one who suffered and died for us.  I really admire her.

 

Julian of Norwich, we don’t know her real name because she lived at St Julian’s Church as an Anchoress (a woman who lives her life in seclusion in prayer and chastity, focused on God). She is thought to be the first women to write a book in English. Her book is “The Revelations of Divine Love,” about the sixteen visions she received on May 8, 1373 while laying on what she thought was her death bed. She saw Christ bleeding in front of her and learned of his suffering and his love for us. It is considered to be a great classic of Spiritual Life.

People came to her to seek advise and Norwich was a poor town and suffered with the plague as many did at that time, and she counseled many. She was famous in her time and the town people would leave her money to sustain herself and a maid. She is said to have been intelligent, sensitive and down to earth. She never left her rooms.

See more at the Julian of Norwich group page-   https://julianofnorwich.org/pages/who-is-julian-of-norwich

 

 

 

Margery Kemp was the first to write an autobiography in the English language. She was a medieval Christian mystic who walked most of Europe and even went to Jerusalem.

Her spiritual awakening happened with visions that she had after her 14th child. Only one survived to adulthood. It is proposed that she was suffering postpartum when seeing these visions. Some have said she was neurotic. But, she gave up her marriage, dressed all in white and spent her life in speaking to others about of God. She had mystical conversations with God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It’s funny that even today she elicits strong reaction from people because she was so annoying. I read a story about her traveling with other people to Jerusalem and they asked not to eat with her, so she ate alone for six weeks. She was annoying because she never stopped talking about God. That would be alright, but she cried and threw herself to the ground. She called her tears God- given weeping. I suppose since women were not allowed to preach, that is a way to get attention for others to hear the word.  She was very much an attention seeker. But, tears mean different things to different people. The Morman religion says that tears are when God is close to you, and that it’s so overwhelming that tears happen. Her first vision of Jerusalem she described as a joy that was almost painful. And she cried.

Her pilgrimages allowed her to see Italy and Spain, Germany, Poland, Norway and the Holyland leaving behind her husband and children and two failed businesses.