au revoir Beguine

Beguines /beh-GEENS/ were religiously dedicated laywomen, who did not follow a rule or take monastic vows. Instead, they lived in the world and worked to support themselves. Theirs was a life of prayer and devotion, coupled with down-to-earth ethical good sense, financial moderation and a desire to serve the needy. Though celibate, they could marry if they chose, and though free, they often bound themselves together in community with other women of like mind to follow the via apostolica of St. Francis of Assisi. Love was central to their religious faith. They understood the goal of the Christian to be found in God, loving one’s neighbor with God's own love and thus expressing in action the inexhaustible love of the immanent Trinity. The greatest exponents of Beguine spirituality in its mystical form are Mechthild of Magdeburg (1212?-1282?), Beatrice of Nazareth (1200?-1268), Hadewijch of Brabant, (1221?-1240?) and Marguerite Porete (d. 1310). The emphases of being daily led by love, of being led to also go wholly beyond the present and incessant demands of life and self into the ever-going-before depths of God’s own love, and of living out and being formed in one’s faith through liturgical worship and community participation and service, are found in the writings of all these women. Beatrice and Hadewijch's visions, for example, always occur in a liturgical setting.

The movement that takes the name of these women, the Beguine movement, spreading outward from the town of Leigè in Belgium, proved immensely popular throughout the twelth and thirteenth centuries. It formed part of what is called the “Medieval Reformation,” a religious awakening characterized by medieval mysticism and the popularity of mendicant orders like the Cistertians and the Fransicans. They did not look to the organized church to ordain and legitimize their ministry, but holding onto the gospel-promise of direct access to God through the gender-neutral and generous distribution of the Holy Spirit, they went about the business of ministry: preaching, prophesying, counseling, advising, offering social criticism, serving and teaching within the space opened up by the election of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, their autonomy was their downfall. Their position as “sisters between” who lived in the space between home and convent, proved too unsettling for established, male-institutions to tolerate. The autonomy enjoyed by Beguines was their downfall. Their lack of inclusion in any social or religious organized structure brought on persectution by the same. Their houses, for by the thirteenth century it was not uncommon for them to live in walled communities, were legally restricted and, ultimately, groundlessly persecuted as havens for herecy.

In our own day, there are a few Beguine communities scattered over Europe in the United States. But is it really any secret that we have had one with us for awhile? Now I have long been a Dominican myself, having converted from the Franciscans in my early 20’s when devotion alone was not enough. (Perhaps I’ll trade back again at some future time.) It was obvious enough to me who this was who was among us from the very beginning. I knew her when first I saw her. (We monastics are easy to spot.) Time has since proven my initial suspicions, as her own story has been fitted into that of the sisters who have gone before her, which I described above. Time will also trace how much further she may go with them. Presence or absence is a little thing, we are always under orders (even if we are free). For myself, I can only wish her further invitation into the depths of Jesus Christ.