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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.
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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.[2] 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.
Beguines were women during the thirteenth century who had a deep love for Jesus Christ, but unlike nuns, did not take formal vows and were free to leave at any time. Their development was slow at first, however, in the year 1216, Pope Honorius III granted them the right to live in common and encourage others to join them. With that, beguines lived together in a home referred to as beguinages. Several larger towns had more than one beguinage. The movement was not solely for women. However, men were not known as beguines, but rather, called themselves beghards.
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. She shared a house with some friends, for whom she was a spiritual leader.[3] Hadewijch is known for her poems, letters, and visions that she had described in writing.
Hadewijch's writings explored themes of divine love, spiritual experiences, and the union of soul with God. Hadewijch was one of the first mystic writers to put her text in Dutch. Each of her visions have the 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.[citation needed]
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:[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
Thirty prose letters also survive:[8] here Hadewijch explains her views, and they give some context to her life.
The Lijst der volmaakten ("list of the perfect ones"), is joined to the Visions in some manuscripts, but to the Poems in Stanzas in a more recent one. 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.
What Scholars Say
In the 20th century a question that was being asked about mysticism and the visions that Hadewijch had described considered what events led up to each experience, and also, were these encounters actually seen or only felt within the mystics.
Agatha Anna Bardoel suggests that the visions described by Hadewijch were a result of nothing other than a deep meditation, that, when done on a regular basis, what she was experiencing came to be quite simple and easily repeated. Based on an experiment done by Arthur J. Deikman over the course of several weeks that was related to stages of meditation, Agatha found similarities between that and the experiences described by Hadewijch. Each encounter that Hadewijch had with a higher power was indistinguishable from that of a young child experiencing something for the first time. Put simply, Hadewijch had indescribable moments within each vision much like all children do in the early years of their lives.
While Bardoel focused on the visions of Hadewijch to come to her conclusions, others have viewed her visions in relation to Hadewijch’s other works to form a narrative. Mary A. Suydam takes this approach from a feminist perspective. According to Suydam, Hadewijch believed that the power held by mystics within the experiences they have had essentially outranks the hierarchy. Suydam argues that women have a better understanding and connection with their spirituality because of the experiences they have had, and that can be, and has been, overlooked without looking at Hadewijch’s work as a whole.
Hadewijch's writings influenced Jan van Ruusbroec both as a theologian and a mystic.
Some of Hadewijch's letters have been interpreted as alluding to same-sex attraction or desire.[9] In Letter 25 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[10]
In 2022, Hadewijch was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 22 April.[11]
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