The Beguines Newsletter informs you about beguinages and beguines, both traditional and modern. It is written by Silvana Panciera and revised by Bernard Van Meenen (French language) and Graham Keen (English language). It lives thanks to the news you send us. Please collaborate by sending your information to info@beguines.info
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Please, read below the recent News with, between brackets, the date of their sending :
Agnes Blannbekin’s life and visions (2024 November)
“The transcript of the experience of the beguine Agnes Blannbekin comes to broaden the knowledge of that vast and fascinating world of the beguines”. This is what Luciano Bertazzo writes in the introduction to the text “Un mistico vedere. Vita et Revelationes della beghina viennese Agnes Blannbekin (+1315)” (A mystical seeing. Vita et Revelationes della beghina viennese Agnes Blannbekin (+1315). The same author has made the Italian translation of the thoughts that the beguine Agnes described to an unidentified “scriptor” Ermenricus, a Franciscan from the Viennese convent of Santa Croce. Transcriber or perhaps also her confessor? The question remains open. Thanks to this transcription we have 235 passages in which the visions, notes and more generally the mystical experiences of the beguine Agnes are reported in simple Latin, even if she described them in the German vernacular during the period from 1281 to 1294.
Born to a peasant family from Plumbachek between 1240 and 1250, Agnes moved to Vienna to be able to receive the Eucharist more often. In passage 39 of the transcriptions we read: “She was 11 years old when she began to burn with a great devotion for the body of the Lord… She wanted to become a beguine as quickly as possible in order to be able to receive communion more often” (p.31). In Vienna she lived together with another beguine, but she enjoyed her own logistical autonomy. She also had an oratory where she prayed the office when she could not do it together with the Franciscan friars. In fact, she was very close to the Franciscan world, so much so that it is thought that she was also a member of the Third order.
Focused on the Eucharist, Agnes used to spend many hours of her day attending successively the Eucharistic celebrations in three different churches in Vienna. Thanks to her figure and the transcript of her “notes” we are assured of a Beguinal presence also in Vienna.
Errata corrige August 2024 : Click here to read the introduction made by Tanya Stabler Miller for the English translation of Aline Kiner’s “La nuit des béguines”
The CIPO is born (October 2024)
The CIPO – Oignies Proto-beguines Interpretation Centre – was officially inaugurated on 23 August 2024 and Graham Keen did not miss the opportunity. Thanks to him and his contacts we have reports and photos.
The development of the CIPO took time. It began in 2017 with a proposal by Rita Fenendael addressed to the parishioners of Oignies and to those who were willing to commit themselves to assembling the artistic and religious heritage of the Priory of Oignies. Over time, the project has involved many partners, including institutional ones, mentioned in the leaflet. Each of them has brought its precious contribution, in terms of renovating the church, presenting the artistic heritage, and providing information on the proto-beguinal movementthat started right here. This is precisely the mission of the CIPO which currently consists of about ten volunteers. In the first part of the central nave of the renovated church, an information space has been set up, which includes about forty panels, several videos and other paper material. The fame of this place is due to the fact that the first historically proven beguine came here to live as a recluse for the last 6 years of her short life (1177-1213): Marie, who was later known as Marie d’Oignies, although she was born in Nivelles. Click here to get to know her. Her spiritual legacy illuminates the first phase of the life of the beguinal movement and its vibrant protagonists. A very moving aspect of this story is the earthly epilogue of the deep spiritual friendship that united Marie to Jacques de Vitry, her hagiographer and great defender of the beguinal movement: their remains are reunited in the church and kept for eternity there.
CIPO is open every day from 10 am to 5 pm and can be contacted at this number 00 32 69 452 654 or at this email contact@cipo.be
To follow the project see the Facebook page CIPO Oignieshttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082142693055&locale=fr_FR
Our warmest congratulations with the fervent wish that it touches many people and gives birth to lively projects.
Happy birthday to Saint Amand beguinage (September 2024)
It is celebrating its 150th anniversary, but it is nevertheless the youngest of the historic beguinages. Its history is turbulent. The beguinage of Mont Saint-Amand replaces that of Saint Elisabeth, founded in 1234. In 1872, the decision of the City Council forced the beguinage to evacuate the premises. Thus, on 29th September 1874, the last 300 beguines, accompanied by a large crowd, made a procession with a hundred carriages of ladies of high society and their assistants to the new residence in Mont Saint-Amand. Count Engelbert d’Arenberg had purchased a large plot of land of 8 hectares outside the city of Ghent, in Sint-Amandsberg, to build a new beguinage : 80 houses, 14 convents (community houses), an infirmary with a chapel, a large house for the head mistress and a church. The first stone of the new beguinage was laid in May 1873, that of the church on 29th September 1873 and exactly one year later, 600 beguines and 100 other women (mothers, sisters, nieces and servants) settled inin this large residence, surrounded by a 1,070 meter wall with 2 entrance gates, and with 8 streets and various grass squress. From 1930 the number of beguines began to decline sharply: 75 in 1965, 45 in 1972 and no more than 10 in 1987. There are Nnone anymore today. But the beguinage retained a “non-profit” purpose. Associations wishing to establish themselves in convents must have a social and cultural goal. Happy birthday to our ever-alive beguinage.
For the programme for the day of 29th September and related activities:
https://grootbegijnhof.wixsite.com/home/activiteiten
For a possible guided visit: Cecile Vanooteghem <cecile.vanooteghem@gmail.com> or Graham Keen<grahamfranciskeen@gmail.com>
To immerse yourself in the atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73rVerd2xY the beautiful video produced by Catherine Boone, with music from Youtube creator list.
On the occasion of the European Heritage Days which will take place on September 21 & 22, 2024, the Mémoires d’ellesassociation, which works to make the beguines of Provence known and recognized, will host a stand during the Abbey market at the Thoronet Abbey (Var). A great opportunity to discover Douceline, first Beguine of Provence and all the activities of the association located in the heart of Sainte Baume: conferences, meditative walks, anointing treatments and olfactory workshops. More information:
https://association-memoires-delles.webnode.fr/stages-conferences-et-salons-2024/
Beguines in the literature (August 2024)
Milena Garavaglia introduced me to the historical novel Io, Partenope by Sebastiano Vassalli, Ed. Rizzoli, 2015. “The book, Milena writes, describes the life of Sister Giulia, beguine – Franciscan tertiary, street nun in the Neapolitan area of 17th century who had founded a prayer community to which many people would join, lay people and religious. Sister Giulia (known as Partenope) will be tried by the Court of the Inquisition and will save herself from the stake by recanting“. A huge thank you to Milena for this useful mention. even more so in this holiday season, a time that is conducive to reading.
So I take this opportunity to add some other literature titles that have beguines among their characters or in their title:Les très belles heures de mademoiselle Symphorose, béguine by Felix Timmermans, first translated into French in 1923, now available at Erik Tonen Book 2002, which tells the story of a beguine who falls in love with a man. The novel by Jean-Claude Bologne, Le dit des Béguines (Denoël, 1993) as well as the collection of short stories by Georges Rodenbach,Musée des béguines, 1894, republished in 2024 by Séguier. Le rempart des béguines by Françoise Mallet-Joris (Julliard, 1951): the reference of the beguines is only due to the name of the street where the story takes place.
A special mention goes to the amazing and already often mentioned historical novel La nuit des béguines by Aline Kiner, also available in Italian. Susan Emanuel communicated to me the excellent news that it is also available in English. Susan was the translator and collaborated with the scholar historian Tanya Stabler Miller, author of The Beguines of Medieval Paris. Gender, Patronage, and Spiritual Authoritya. Tania had written an introduction unfortunately not included in the final publication, but available here : Introduction by Tanya Stabler. It was the publisher’s decision to present it with the title of Marguerite Porete’s book The mirror of simple souls, which is truly disconcerting. You can find it on this link https://pushkinpress.com/?s=The+Mirror+of+Simple+Souls. Susan’s excellent translation will certainly offer an English-speaking audience the magic of what happened in Paris in the great Beguinage and in its surroundings at the time of Marguerite Porete’s condemnation (+1310)
Encounter Melissa Febos (July 2024)
In July 2022 I had a special surprise. The already well-known American writer and professor at the University of Iowa, Melissa Febos asked me for information about the Beguines and in particular about their commitment to celibacy and chastity. Melissa was investigating the forms of chastity chosen by women in history and had thus also met the Beguines. To deepen her study about them, she was planning to travel to northern Europe to get to know them more closely. Initially she was gathering information. And so we decided to have an online meeting which you can see on this address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI94uYv-5KU The title of the video is Celibacy and Chastity in the Beguines’ style of life.
I later received a long article, being the result of her journey and her reflections. Melissa and AFAR travel magazine kindly shared it with us for publishing in the Beguines Newsletter. You can find it by clicking on this link:https://www.afar.com/magazine/at-beguinages-in-belgium-finding-history-feminism-and-freedom. This article, as well as taking us to the beguinages she visited, linked the author’s life choices with the values that she recognizes in the Beguines: independence, creativity, service and love. In the text she sincerely described some periods of her love life, of which chastity was also one. She was searching for life and never stopped wanting to build a deep love.
The Beguines Synod in Bologna (June 2024)
SORRY, THE SYNOD HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Strong inspiration naturally sparks an initiative. This is what happened with the First Synod of the Beguines.After having officially expressed her choice of Beguine, cultivated over several years, Simonetta Pirazzini felt that her commitment should lead to a better knowledge and a more intense coordination among women who find in Beguines a source of inspiration and sometimes even an identification for their life choices. With the help of some friends, Simonetta created the Committee LA VIA DELLE BEGHINE (The Beguines’ path) and launched the initiative of the Synod of the Beguines. This European-wide Synod will be held in Bologna from Friday 6th to Sunday 8thSeptember. Different participation options are indicated on the registration form.z
The word synod means walking together and for this reason we need to get to know each other, compare our practices and find convergences for the growth of the modern Beguinal movement. On Saturday morning, thanks to the interventions of Adriana Valerio, Brita Lieb and Francesca Barresi, the historical and modern beguines will be presented and, among the latter, one in particular: Romana Guarnieri who identified Marguerite Porete as the author of the Mirror. Then in the afternoon there will be sharing workshops on important issues relating to the growth of the Beguinal movement. You are all warmly invited to participate in this first multilingual Synod, for which you can find the programme and practical instructions on the registration form at the following link https://forms.gle/de9Ak3XfarrSHMpP7 . Registration can be made by clicking on “Envoyer”, preferably by June 30th. Registration will be confirmed after the payment of €20.00 to the bank account IBAN IT20Y0707202409000000744211 registered in the name of La Via delle Beghine at Emilbanca For contacts and information please write to: sostareallapresenza@gmail.com
Let’s walk the Path of the Beguines together.
A new Beghard in Belgium (May 2024)
A sign of the times or just a news item? In any case, Louis C.’s decision to make his profession as a Bogart (which he prefers to Beghard) on 28th May before an ecclesiastical authority will not be the only first we will witness in the future. The beguinal world indeed offers the possibility of a sustained secular spiritual and religious commitment under the banner of a freedom of personal research that is equally marked.
Today Louis is 36 years old and lives in Brussels. He was born in Africa and he is the fifth of six children in a very unusual family due to the three different Christian denominations present in his family: Catholic, Evangelical and Anglican (mother, father, paternal grandfather). He was therefore immersed in ecumenism from his earliest childhood. Every Sunday, the three cults were honoured by participation in the religious services of the three different Churches. No surprise then that the vocational question was at the heart of his story. The surprise comes from his final choice, which matured after many spiritual exercises, visits to various monasteries and spiritual accompaniment, particularly within the Dominican family, traditionally close to the Beguinal world. Finally, his job in the food sector, oriented towards fermentation, also contributed to this, which brought him to the heart of beer brewing of which he became a creative artisan. Currently he is developing a new beer. This is his livelihood but also his symbolic link to the monastic production of the great brewing tradition in northern Europe and Belgium in particular.
“Black Gaul”, is how he likes to define himself. He could not live anywhere other than in Belgium. And since a priest friend said to him one day “you would have made a magnificent Begard”, this exclamation found its way: Louis will make his profession by adopting his own “Charter” of commitment. Another commitment that he has clearly made his own is the call of Pope Francis to “go to the peripheries” to meet those who are struggling for their survival, those whose beguinal world has continued to care throughout its eight centuries of existence.
All our best wishes to you, dear Louis, for this commitment which will certainly “ferment” your life, but also ours and that of the people you will meet. To send him a message: Louis C. <l.c.l@mail.ch>
The Charter of Bogard Louis
The Bogard’s vocation consists of living in the heart of the world through prayer and sanctified work with the gospel as the only rule of life in the service of an individual religious life. The absence of a common home implies nearby homes, around a parish where each Bogard commits to it according to their availability in a spirit of solidarity. The Bogard professes the promise to love God with all his being and to surrender himself totally to Him. He promises probity and submission to God.
Beguines’ Remembrance Day (April 2024)
Various people would like April 14th to be established as Remembrance Day of the Beguines. Among these promoters there is Debby Van Linden(https://begijnhovenqueeste.wordpress.com) who opened a Facebook page in Dutch and English in 2015 that you can visit and follow by clicking https://www.facebook.com/profile.php? Id=100064861351590
For contact: begijnhovenqueeste@gmail.com
14th April 2013 iwas in fact the date of the death of the last historical beguine in the world, Marcella Patijn, of whom Dominique Costermans drew the following portrait published in the magazine L’appel in June 2022: https://beguines.info/wp -content/uploads/2017/08/Appel-2022.pdf
“The simple life of Marcella Pattyn would not have attracted the attention of encyclopedia editors if she had not been the last beguine in the world. Born in the Belgian Congo in 1920, her very poor sight thwarted her vocation as a missionary nun. It was following a donation from one of her aunts to the beguinage of Ghent that she was able to join the beguinage of Saint-Amand in 1941. Twenty years later, she left it for the beguinage of Courtrai where she lived a life of service and prayer, devoting herself to knitting, weaving, playing the organ, the piano and the accordion. At eighty-seven years old, she went to a retirement home, still in Kortrijk. She died there in 2013, at the age of ninety-two. “From now on,” wrote the famous English magazine The Economist, “in this hidden treasure in the heart of the Flemish towns that are the beguinages, the veiled women who we see going to mass, or attaching hollyhocks to their dark clothes and their white wimples, are nothing more than ghosts. » ■
Lest we forget
A very active spring (March 2024)
There are many activities that await us next spring. Certainly, the season also contributed to the awakening of our energies. Here is the information I received.
The Giardino delle beghine of Mantua offers us various moments of sharing around the beautiful theme “praying as a woman” with the aim of giving “a feminine accent to one’s thinking, believing, praying“. In the poster available above we will find all the information for the events on March 16th and May 25th which will take place in MantuaThe recordings of the first meetings are available on the Giardino delle beghine ‘s YouTube channel.
www.nelgiardinodellebeghine.it
From Italy to Germany: the Dachverband-der-beginen proposes its annual Beginen reise, from 29th April to 2nd May, visiting Holland and Belgium. The following beguinages will be visited: Breda, Hoogstraten, Leuven, Aareschot, Brugge and Turnhout. The visits will be accompanied by expert people. For information, contacts and registrations, please contact brigitte.lambsheim@web.de
https://www.dachverband-der-beginen.de/beginenprojekte
ATTENTION: registrations close on March 15th
Let’s now move on to France. The Beguinage of Saint Martin du Lac is offering a seminar led by Rita Fenendael on 6th and 7th April entitled “The Beguines. Yesterday and today”. In the Séminaire St Martin du Lac folder https://beguines.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Saiint-Martin-du-Lac-Seminaire-Printemps-2024.pdf you will find a lot of useful information: the presentation of Beguine Rita, the programme, the itinerary and costs and more. Here too, registrations must arrive before March 28th, by sending the registration form to the following address: Beguinage St.Martin du Lac <beguinage.71110@gmail.com>
Best wishes to all these amazing initiatives.
And best wishes to everyone for our feast on March 8th… Ever onward!
Sylvain Piron & Christina (February 2023)
It is a pity that the book of Sylvain Piron/ Thomas de Cantimpré, with the collaboration of Armelle Le Huërou Christine l’Admirable. Vie, chants et merveilles (Cristina the Astonishing. Life, chants and wonders) (éd. Vues de l’esprit, Brussels, 2021) is translated only in Italian. The Italian edition is available onhttps://ed.bibliotecafrancescana.it/prodotto/vita-di-cristina-lammirabile/?v=78533df0a516 This text is in fact a precious cross-section of the life of this impressive beguine who, between fascination and terror, subjugated the people who met her during her life (approx..1160-1224) to the point of receiving the appellation of Astonishing. For a brief biography of her click on https://beguines.info/?page_id=2132&lang=en There are 17 complete manuscripts in Latin of the Vita Beate Cristine, i.e. the text written by the Dominican Thomas de Cantimpré. Comparing these, the medievalist Sylvain Piron, Director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris), tries, as a scholar which he is, to find a line of demarcation between the real experience of the Blessed and the imaginative constructions that decorate every prodigious phenomenon. And there is so much that is prodigious in Cristina’s life: starting with her first return from the dead, to her flying on tree branches, putting herself in burning ovens or staying for days in the frozen water of the river. Sylvain qualifies her as a “professional of the afterlife” and claims the right to promote what he qualifies as a “social science of the practices of the invisible“. Indeed, by what right should the invisible be qualified as unreal? We cannot fail to be in complete harmony with this line of research and we hope that it will lead to many accomplishments.
For people who cannot acquire the book (in French or in Italian) I have prepared a text in English in which I have collected what seemed to me to be the most interesting ideas from Sylvain Piron’s book. You will find this text Christine the Astonishing by Silvain & Silvana by clicking on https://beguines.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Christina-the-Astonishing-by-SylvainSilvana.pdf
It’s time for greetings and gifts (January 2024)
This message reaches you in the first days of 2024 because I wanted to wish every person who reads my newsletter to welcome this new year with the renewed confidence and hope that Christmas brings us: evil will not have the last word. Time for wishes, but also for gifts. In my childhood experience, the gifts were brought by the Befana, a good witch, who, flying on her broom in every part of the world, used to leave a gift and some delicacies in the stocking hanging on the fireplace Now I too would like to give you some beguinal gifts, one for each language, hoping that they will be appreciated. I apologize to the German Beguines for whom I couldn’t find a gift in their language but I hope they will be able to enjoy the English one.
In Italian you will find a brief 26-minute speech of mine on the Identity of the Historical Beguines. It was created via zoom on the occasion of the first meeting held on 10th June 2023 in Mantua in Il giardino delle beghine on the theme “being a Beguine today”. It answered the question: what aspects defined the identity of the historical beguines.
https://youtu.be/yB95Y5ceq1E
In French you can listen to the very recent 30-minute podcast Béguinages, Solidarités, Pèlerinages, from the programme broadcast on December 17th 2023 on channel 1 of the Swiss radio and television. The journalist Matthieu Wirz met the beguines of the beguinage of St Martin du Lac, in southern Burgundy, and created an inspiring reportage starting with their daily life. In closing there is a short comment of mine.
https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2023/audio/beguinage-solidarite-pelerinage-27460004.html?id=27460001
In English, thanks to Graham who sent it to me, we can listen to the podcast of about an hour that the BBC (radio Four) dedicated to Julian of Norwich, interviewing several people who are scholars of this recluse. Personally, I consider her to be part of the beguinal movement due to er Christocentric mysticism with her maternal and family imprint, marked by an optimism that the century of misfortune in which she lived certainly did not encourage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rgs4
I would also like to point out that in Parma, on the initiative of the Teatro Europa, as part of their Western Women’s initiative. Warrior Lovers – looks at female mysticism. Julian of Norwich (3rd-4th February) Mechthild von Magdeburg (9-11th February) and Hildegard von Bingen (23rd-24th February) For information: https://www.europateatri.it/stagione-serale-2/, or europateatri.pr@gmail.com or 00 39 0521243377
Essen International Conference (December 2023)
We conclude the year 2023 with some wonderful news: the Essen conference (October 2023) organized by the Dachverband-der-beginen (https://www.dachverband-der-beginen.de) was a real success. 56 participants from 7 different nations were present, as we read in the Essen presse in English. Among those present were : Simonetta Pirazzini (Italy) and Graham Keen (Belgium), members of the Beguines Newsletter, who forwarded me texts and information to share with you. Thank you Simonetta and Graham on behalf of myself and those reading this.
The conference was aimed at understanding the historical Beguinal world and had an illustrious guest: Sr. Laura Swan, Benedictine of the St. Placid Convent in Washington. (click here for Laura Swan talk in English). Prioress of the convent, academic and writer, Sr Laura Swan is known to us for her magnificent book The wisdom of the Beguines (2014), an in-depth research on historical beguines now also available in German thanks to the work of three beguines who have translated and published it: Katelene Mauritz from Mönchengladbach, Brita Lieb from Fulda and Cornelia Perthes from the Beguinage of Essen. Thank you so much dear Beguines.
After Sr Laura’s conference it was the turn of Beguine Brita Lieb who presented another important piece ofresearch, that of Tania Stabler Miller (Ignatius Loyola University, Chicago) about the famous Beguinage of Paris, strongly supported by King Louis IX. (click BRITA for the summary of Brita’s speech in English). In the afternoon, two archive scholars Dr Sarah Hoyer (Ulm) and Dr Jörg Voigt (Hanover) presented their local research. Not much has been said about the current developments of the Beguinal movement, but Simonetta confirms that some young women were present at the conference and Graham says he was enthusiastic about the magnificent atmosphere of the meeting. Sr Laura also left very happy to have seen such a lively and active beguinal reality in Germany.
Long live the Dachverband-der-beginen which has already announced a third international conference in Essen in 2024.
Beguinal music and songs (November 2023)
The Beguines sang, played instruments and composed. “Musical chapels” often existed in beguinages. However, very little of this precious heritage is known to us or currently available. There is, however, an amazing exception: these are 2 CDs recorded by the Psallentes group (https://psallentes.com// ). Psallentes is a Gregorian ensemble founded in 2000 by Hendrik Vanden Abeele, who has been its artistic director ever since. The group pays particular attention to Gregorian chant from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance and consequently arrived at the our beguines. While Psallentes originally only existed in a male version, its female counterpart was created in 2007. It is currently made up of seven women singers.
The 2 DVDs were born from transcriptions of manuscripts found in the Belgian Flemish beguinages of Antwerp, Bruges, Mechelen and Turnohout, as well as in the beguinage of Amsterdam. If you would like to obtain this album composed of 2 DVDs of celestial music, which I have owned for years, you can order it by sending an email to hendrik.vda@me.com The cost is 15 euros, with no extra postage for Belgium but additional postage for the rest of the world. Please also indicate your address in your email to facilitate the next step.
This would indeed be a lovely Christmas present.
Beguinages. The sacred houses of free women (October 2023)
July 2023. The intrepid Devana set off with her husband and the camper for an “expedition” made more daring than ever by the incessant pouring rain when they hit Northern Europe.
Devana set off with the aim of producing a document on the Flemish beguinages, in particular the 12 ones recognized by UNESCO as world heritage sites. The result of her editorial work istruly amazing due to the richness of the contents, the quality of the original music by the composer Carlotta Ferrari and the images of great impact. Devana’s original intuition is contained in the title of the video itself “Beguinages. The sacred houses of free women” available on https://youtu.be/qmoZNJf1Z5I for the Italian version or on https://youtu.be/O6WCQ5x7jcko for the Italian version with English subtitles (text Beghinaggi le sacre case delle libere donne – text Beguinages the sacred houses of the free women-1 with the help of Graham Keen). Starting from Virginia Woolf and the space found in “A Room of One’s Own” up to Wilhelmina of Bohemia , we find in the documentary a lot of memories of women who lived with their heads held high.
Devana, Liliana’s daughter, founded La Scuola delle Donne® in 2017, a free school of female culture and vision ( see https://youtube.com/@lascuoladelledonne ), entirely built on an online network hypothesis, with daily readings of literary works and documentaries by women regularly overshadowed. Two students of the school, Claudia and Valeria, contributed to the documentery with research on the Lombard beguinages. Obviously the Beguines were in the field of interest of the School which had already created several videos on the subject; which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efPlc5fhxLU&list=PLw-5NhwSbsH_CWVj6Qi4EkVF9ietsu9Cc
Dear Devana, Graham and I are proud of you and happy to have accompanied you on this prodigious adventure.
Can God be said to be feminine? (September 2023)
« Dieu peut-il se dire au féminin ? » Can God be said to be feminine? This is a very moving and highly topical question since, thanks to women’s access to theological studies, we finally have women theologians who acutely criticise the patriarchal thought of the great monotheisms. A question that Douceline Duthoit Bertrand, member of our Beguines Newsletter, also asked herself. The beguines Julian of Norwich and Mechthild of Magdeburg were her first guides on the path in searching for traces of the feminine of God in religious history. This research led to the writing of the thesis “Traces du féminin dans l’image de Dieu -Traces of the feminine in the image of God”, presented in July 2023 at the Institut Supérieur de Théologie des Arts (Paris – France). And since Douceline is also a painter, she has looked for traces of this feminine image of God in artistic works: art as a theological place. An example ? Rembrandt’s famous “Return of the Prodigal Son” expresses an idea of the divinity as both father and mother by representing the two hands, one referring to the masculine, the other to the feminine. (listen for more on: https://www.rcf.fr/articles/vie-spirituelle/decouvrir-le-retour-du-fils-prodigue-peint-par-rembrandt by Paul Baudiquey, 2021).
Douceline dedicates her book to her three granddaughters: Mahault, Ninon and Blanche, because she would like one day for them to find it “normal” that we address God as father and mother, to the Spirit ( Ruah, a feminine term in Hebrew) as a place of relationship and to the Trinity as parenthood. An exciting, fully documented and well-balanced book.
Congratulations dear Douceline, and thank you for this invaluable achievement.
You can contact her on: douceline.bertrand@wanadoo.fr
Looking to connect with other Beguines in England (August 2023)
The missions of the Beguines Newsletter are to connect people who have beguinal projects, publicizing relevant activities in order to get to know the beguines better and to highlight Beguines Newsletter members’ cultural activities that are related to the topic. In this message you will see that the first two aims (connecting people and publicizing activities) are met. See below the message written and sent by Lainey. Please give her appeal your full attention.
Connecting people with beguinal projects
“Hi ! I would like to introduce myself. My name is Lainey Bateman. Following a reasonably successful career in business the call into full-time ministry came some 13 years ago. My calling was running retreats with my husband firstly inCornwall and then on the Isle of Man. The retreats involved a daily rhythm of prayer and worship and during that time we saw may people healed, delivered, set free and destiny re-activated. Sadly, in January of this year my husband decided he no longer wanted to be in ministry, nor married to me During the last six months or so I have been spending a lot of time praying, seeking the Lord as to what is next for me, I know I have much left to give. Consequently, I am looking to connect with any Beguines who are in England. I am currently back in Cornwall and am looking to establishing some sort of community whether it be on line or actual. You cancontact me at <elaine@lesanctuaire.org.uk>
I look forward to connecting with you. Kind regards
Lainey “ ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-clarke-41933523/)
Publicize activities
On 14th October 2023, at the Hotel Franz in Essen, International Conference for Beguines, organised by www.dachverband-der-beginen.de
For contact: kontakt@dachverband-der-beginen.de
Programme: https://beguines.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/International-conference-2023-.pdf
Female Corporeality and Religion (July 2023)
From 1st to 3rd June an important conference entitled Female Corporeality and Religion was held in Leuven at the Flemish Catholic University, organized by the Center for Women’s Studies in Theology. All interventions were conducted in English, by women, and some were also online. Defying time zones and linguistic difficulties, I signed up and followed four of these talks. I would like to share with you one in particular, both because it deals with beguines (Marie d’Oignies) or other mystics close to the beguinal world (Christina the Astonishing and Ida of Nivelles), and because thanks to the very kind speaker, I received her text and agreement to communicate it to you. She even prepared an abstract especially for us. Heartfelt thanks to Professor Daniela Blum, from the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH Aachen University) for her very interesting talk Corporal Relationship, Corporal Conformation: Female Forms of Following Christ around 1200.She writes:“In hagiographical sources of the High Middle Ages, the female body is an instrument of salvation. Actually, the beguine Mary of Oignies, the penance Christina Mirabilis and the Cistercian Ida of Nivelles do not engage their own bodies but that of the suffering Christ. In the important field of penance, women cannot hear confessions and pronounce absolution like the priests. But they are able to bring their bodies. Interestingly, in these vites, the female body consistently moves in the sacramental context. Besides the Eucharist, it is the second decisive clerical action of the Middle Ages, penance, that is at stake. The female body moves between the Eucharist and penance so in clerical fields of action, without requesting them – at least on a verbal level. On a performance level one can certainly find in the hagiography requests to a clerically sharpened church after the Gregorian reform.”
Good luck with your research, Professor Blum.
German language in the Beguines Newsletter (June 2023)
We have a new version in German.
We welcome the dozens of new German beguines who will read the Beguines newsletter for the first time. Their e-mails have been integrated into our database thanks to the collaboration between Graham Keen and Brita Lieb during the Beginen Reisen 2023 and thanks to the translation that Graham offered to provide us each month. A happy outcome that makes me particularly pleased given that, although the beginnings of the Beguinal movement were born in present-day Belgium, it is certainly Germany that saw the largest numbers. A letter dated 1321 by Pope John XXII to the Bishop of Strasbourg reports the presence of 200,000 beguines in western Germany alone. For cities such as Cologne or Strasbourg, very high numbers are mentioned: in 1243 the chronicler Mathieu of Paris identified the presence of 1000 beguines equal to 6% of the then population in Cologne. In 14th century 85 beguinal convents are mentioned in Strasbourg and 169 in Cologne with about 1170 beguines. It is not surprising then what Paul Marchal notes in his article, De Duitse Begijnenbeweging in de Middelleeuwen, that “the very first written mention of the word “Beghina” dates back to the year 1223 and appears in a historical document, preserved in the Cologne Municipal Archive“. (see image)
A warm welcome to the new readers and thanks to those that made this friendly collaboration possible.
Beguines in Germany today (May 2023)
The Beginen Reisen 2023 has just ended. It is the study trip that every year the Dachverband-der-beginen organizes to deepen the knowledge of the beguinal world. This year the beguinages of Flanders in Belgium were the destination. About thirty “beguines” accompanied by the intrepid Brita Lieb visited the beguinages of Turnhout, Lier, Mechelen, Dendermonde, Kortrijk, Brugge, Sint-Truiden, Zouteleew, Tongeren and Diest. Graham Keen (grahamfranciskeen@gmail.com), our best beguinages’ guide in Belgium, also spent several hours with them. Among the objectives of the Dachverband-der-beginen we find the foundation of communities of beguines and the networking of beguinal residential initiatives and projects, currently 18 (see web site) with 340 women living there. Furthermore the beguines actively involved rise to more than 600. Massive numbers!
On 14 October 2023, an international conference will be organized in Essen. Please find all informations about it in the following document: https://beguines.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/International-conference-2023-.pdf We note with pleasure the presence of the Benedictine prioress Laura Swan OSB (Ordo Sancti Benidicti),Washington DC, USA, author of the beautiful essay “The wisdom of the Beguines” (see upper cover image) by then available in German. An opportunity not to be missed.
Beguines, yesterday and today (April 2023)
On this April 14, the tenth anniversary of her death, we honour the memory of the last historical beguine, Marcella Pattijn, who died in Kortrijck (Courtrai) on April 14, 2013. Marcella died while sleeping in the Sint-Jozef Nursing which had received her after she had lived in the beguinage of Kortrijk (Courtrai) from 1960 to 2005. I had the lucky fortune to know her personally when she was still living in the beguinage. She was an almost blind woman, full of humour and musical talent.
Although called with different names according to the different areas of residence, the historical beguines had some common feature, with possible individual exceptions, that allowed them to be identified. I have personally identified six features :
1. Living together with only women or living “together” in a spatially identifiable way;
2. Have a shared Community Rule;
3. Taking care of each other in their own beguinage and towards other beguinal communities in cases of adversity;
4. Dedicating oneself to works of charity (we could enumerate many over the centuries);
5. Sanctify their work, of which they kept the incomes;
6. Have a personal spiritual life and a religious community of intense prayer based on the promises (and not vows) of chastity and obedience and the search for “sanctification in freedom”, as already inscribed in the charter of the beguinage of Bruges of the year 1245.
And the modern beguines? Are there still any? Certainly. How to identify them today? A group of women from the Giardino delle beghine in Mantua expressed the desire to learn more about what it means to be a beguine today. With people interested in this topic there will be periodic online meetings in Italian that will also allow those who live outside Mantua to participate via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, write to me at info@beguines.info and we will see how best to organize your participation.
Happy Easter between the two dates on which the Christian world celebrates it. Sunday 16 will be the Orthodox Easter feast.
Proto-beguinisme in Oignies (March 2023)
Rita Fenendael, beguine member of our Newsletter, has been very active since 2016 in the conception and implementation of a very interesting project: the Center for the Interpretation of Proto-Beguinism in Oignies (CIPO), hamlet of the commune of Aiseau-Presles, in the Belgian Hainaut. The name of the site Oignies immediately recalls that of Marie d’Oignies. Famous in her time, little known today, it is nevertheless thanks to her influence that this project has been conceived. In a wing of the church of Aiseau-Presles where the remains of Marie and those of her “spiritual son” Jacques de Vitry are burried, a space will be set up to highlight the first manifestations of the beguinal movement (proto-beguinism) specific to this region. There will be a permanent exhibition and temporary ones allowing to emphasize particular subjects, and also reproductions of original works of the Treasure of the goldsmith Hugo d’Oignies, currently preserved in the Museum of Ancient Arts of Namur. Guided tours, thematic workshops and conferences will also take place. This project met the interest of the Municipality of Aiseau-Presles, the Bishop of Tournai and various local associations. The restauration work in the church have began in September 2022 and the provisional schedule would have it completed in the spring with a possible inauguration in May 2023. So we are getting there. This initiative is intended to be open to the general public and will therefore ensure the accessibility of the content, and the logistic without architectural barriers. A pilgrimage linking Nivelles, Willambroux, Oignies, Namur is also an idea, which is suported by CIPO, with in addition a whole program of possible networks between the various beguinages and their own museums.
In order to upgrade the old abbey of Oignies, place of installation of the old Priory of which Jacques de Vitry was one of the members for a while, a residential center for seniors will be set up. We wish to this exciting project all the success it deserves.
For any contact: Rita Fenendael <rita.fenendael@uclouvain.be>
The Béguinage St-Elisabeth in Valenciennes (13th-14th centuries) (February 2023)
by J.P. Leroy 1978
On September 30, 2021, Huanan LU presented her doctoral thesis in “History and Civilizations”, as part of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, under the direction of medievalist Sylvain Piron. Walter Simons, author of the excellent study on the beguinal movement “Cities of Ladies” was also a member of the jury. As she granted a four-years scholarship financed by the CSC (China Scolarship Council), we can therefore assume the duration of this imposing work of archives. The title of the thesis is The St. Elisabeth beguinage in Valenciennes (XIII-XIV centuries), that is 426 pages which are available online, by clicking file:///C:/Users/xXx/Downloads/Lu_Huanan_these_2020.pdf. I read it having of course as a catalyst the traces of the presence of Marguerite Porete within this beguinal community, a presence that the thesis fully confirms, although probably it was not a long stay. Only the inquisitorial investigation speaks of her under the name of “Marghoneta”. Would it be a “damnatio memoriae” towards this “heretic” who had shaken the reassuring life of the community? The beguinage of Valenciennes, one of the first in France, dates from the year 1239 and became an independent parish from 1250. Initially the beguinal community was grafted onto the hospital of Saint Elizabeth, then, in 1265, it becomes a well distinct enclosure. The beguinage lives and prospers without disturbances until the ecclesiastical inquiry of August 4,1323. After the Council of Vienne (1311-12) each bishop is effectively in charge of the investigation about the orthodoxy of the beguines within his diocese. Despite the infamy caused by the condemnation of Marguerite Porete, the St. Elizabeth beguinage quickly overcomes the investigation against heresy and continues to attract many single women from all walks of life. It also manages thanks to the many supports of the lords of Hainaut and local powers, religious or secular. By analyzing the documentary archives of this beguinage during the 13th and 14th centuries, this thesis aims to describe the space where the Valencian beguines live, including their material universe, the administrative system of the community, and in particular the social, economic, political and religious frames in which they were located. The beguinage also tries to determine if Marguerite Porete’s affair was accidental and the impact her trial had on the beguinage. Over these two centuries, this beguinage has developed a special system of management sufficient to ensure the maximization of its interests on one side and has formed a network of solidarity composed of lords, monks, bourgeois and family clans on the other side. Such a well-established community with this strong support did not tolerate the troubling members represented by Marguerite Porete and was able to face any challenges that this one would bring.
Few traces of this beguinage remain today because of the French Revolution which demolished the church and the buildings. There are the enclosure and five small houses with the possibility of a guided tour organized by Valenciennes Tourism: https://www.tourismevalenciennes.fr/groupes/votre-devis-en-ligne-0/le-quartier-du-beguinage
Starting with Hadewijch (January 2023)
When someone interested in the beguinal movement asks me from which beguine to start reading the texts, I don’t hesitate to suggest Hadewijch (+1250). More precisely her poems, which we should better call songs since they were mostly set for music. Why do you ask me to start with her? Because Hadewich’s texts speak to us about Love which, despite being mystic, has all the nuances that we too could know. Yearnings, but also abandonments, joy of union, but also pain of the elusive. We recognize ourselves in her and her total sinking into Love also nourishes our empty passages.
This perhaps partly explains the great popularity of her that Veerle Fraeters, a recognized expert on Hadewijch, comments on: “Paradoxically, while Hadewijch, unlike her fellow Beguine authors Mechthild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete, seems neither to have profiles herself as a “writer ” during her lifetime nor to have sought or found clerical support for publishing her work, today she enjoys an unequivocal reputation as the greatest writer of the three” (Hadewijch and the Beguine Movement, p.6, thanks to Academia.eu)
To my great joy I can suggest the reading of Hadewijch’s songs in the three languages of our Newsletter. For her other works, consult the bibliography at your disposal on the site https://beguines.info
In ITALIAN : the recent book Hadewijch of Antwerp, I canti, translated by Francesca Barresi with the collaboration of Lorenzo Nespoli and preface by Chiara Frugoni, Marietti 2022, 240 pag, offers us the integral text in Italian of the 45 love songs. In Italian there is also the edition translated by Romana Guarnieri: Hadewijch, Poesie, Visioni, Lettere; Marietti, 2000, which contains 5 poems, 5 letters and 5 visions (with the original Brabant text opposite);
in FRENCH: we find the classic text of the monk J.B.Piron, first translator of Hadewijch into French: Hadewijch d’Anvers, Écrits mystiques des Béguines, Ed.Seuil, Paris, 1954, followed by the most recent complete edition Hadewijch d’Anvers, Les chants, by Veerle Fraeters et Franck Willaert with the transcription of the melodies by the musicologist Louis Peter Grijp, edited by Albin Michel 2019. In fact, this book also includes a DVD with 13 songs;
in ENGLISH: in addition to the first very valuable complete work Hadewijch : The Complete Works (Classical of Western Spirituality), translated by the benedictin Mother Columba Hart OSB, with a preface by Paul Mommaers, S.J, 1980, the scholar in mystic Andrew Harvey has recently proposed Love is everything. A year with Hadewijch of Antwerp. In full agreement with him, we recognize Hadewijch as a great heroine of Divine
Reading the Newsletters of the year 2022
Reading the Newsletter of the year 2021
Reading the Newsletters of the year 2020
Reading the Newsletters of the year 2019
Reading the Newsletters of the year 2018
Reading the Newsletters of the year 2017