Hadewijch: The Complete Works

The Classics of Western Spirituality

by Hadewijch, Columba Hart (Translator)

Belonging to the early thirteenth century, Hadewijch brings us a spiritual message of extraordinary power. She was endowed in no less degree than St. Teresa of Avila with the gifts of visionary mysticism and literary genius. She felt herself strongly a woman, as can be seen from her choosing to join the women's movement of her day, that of the Beguines, who dedicated themselves to a life of true spirituality without taking the veil.

Hadewijch understood that she was called to communicate to others the profound knowledge of the things of God granted to her in her mystical life. She directed her apostolate to some younger Beguines, and nearly all her writings, both prose and poetry, were intended for them. She mentions other spiritual friends, some in distant countries. Her experiences and her message, however , however, remained hidden; she attained to no celebrity among her contemporaries. The way of immediate fame was for other women mystics. St. Hildegard (1098-1179), the visionary and writer, enjoyed high reputation Clairvaux, and crowned heads. Hadewijch's contemporary, St. Lutgard (1183-1246), was widely known for her visions of the Sacred Heart, which won her the friendship of persons like the Master General of the Dominican Order and Duchess Marie of Brabant (daughter of King Louis VIII of France), and after her death made her tomb a place of pilgrimage. Where Hadewijch was buried, however, no one knows and her writings, after passing through the hands of John of Ruusbroec and his circle, were lost to sight until the nineteenth century.

Since the rediscovery of Hadewijch, her importance has been progressively appreciated, and the hidden dimension of her life is now open so that we may share it according to the particular needs of our own day.

Genres: Poetry, Mysticism, Religion, Philosophy, Medieval, Theology, Christianity

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1980

About the author

Hadewijch 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.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, okay, so try and think of another thirteen-century Christian mystic who looked exactly like Siouxie Sioux... HAH, you totally CAN'T!

Hadewijch rules. And obviously the people who illustrated the cover of almost every Paulist Press book also totally rule.

[Ivan Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to the divine love poetry of the Flemish mystic Hadewijch in the excellent anthology Women in Praise of the Sacred, edited by Jane Hirshfield. I knew I had encountered something amazing, but the sampling in that book was frustratingly small. I finally found this book with the complete works of this mysterious Beguine spiritual figure — visions, letters, and a beautiful collection of sacred poetry. The love mysticism of her poetry rightly draws comparisons to the rich traditions of Sufi and Bhakti poetry.

[Jerusha Crone · Rating 3 out of 5]

sry @ love mysticism

[Drury · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although Hadewijch discusses the relationship between love and reason throughout many of her works, her perception of the relationship seems to change over time. She begins by seeing reason as a tool which must be used with caution. Later she refines this view, showing reason as a tool which must be used to fully experience love.
In her 4th Letter, Role of Reason, Hadewijch outlines the areas where she feels men err in reason because they do not properly understand or practice hope, charity, rule of life, tears, desire of devotion, bent for sweetness, terror of God’s threats, distinction between beings, receiving, giving, etc (53). She outlines each of these points in depth, with the ultimate conclusion that man’s reason errs when it attempts to obey anything that does “not belong to perfect love” (55). But she feels that we can use reason to “[throw] light on each of these points according to their value” (55). This marks a common tension in her works, that of the obedient servant to that of the questioning but loyal one.
Hadewijch’s 30th Poem, Love and Reason, depicts a spiritual journey in which Love and Reason are personified. She has a relationship first with just Love, which when fully realized, “was wanting” and “gave [her] pain” (213). She then seeks “Reason’s counsel about Love,” only to realize that a purely rational examination of Love removes “the attire Lover herself had given” her (214). She finally comes to the conclusion that “one can win / veritable fruition of Love” through Reason, which allows one to fulfill the desires of both Love and Reason. The ultimate conclusion of this poem is that although it is a tough and painful journey, one cannot become spiritually complete without first justifying one’s love with one’s reason. This theme is also continued in some of her other work.
The 9th Vision of Hadewijch, Queen Reason, yet again personifies reason, this time as a regal queen wearing a dress composed of the “knowledge of love” (286). In this vision, she sees Reason accompanied by three maidens, who she later identifies as her Holy Fear, Discernment between Reason and Love, and Wisdom. She sees the queen at first as an ominous threat, but soon overcomes her fear. After reflecting truly on her beliefs, she deposes reason from her rank as queen to that of subject. Only after this, does the once again personified Love come and embrace her. Once again, we are shown her need to overcome reason in order to have a full relationship with Love.
For Hadewijch, reason is a necessity; albeit an unpleasant one. She feels that reason is a tool with which one can examine oneself from a spiritual perspective. The three maidens identified in her vision are the best way of defining the role of reason for her: allowing her to see in what ways she is completely adhering to her relationship with God, to identify what matters belong to the spiritual realm and what to the physical, and finally grant her wisdom in a sense similar to that of Bernard of Clairvaux, the knowledge of God as God, and being able to see oneself as God does. Without these tools, ones might feign a relationship with God, but will never attain the level of faith possible by first overcoming reason.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is EXACTLY like when you meet a drunk girl in the bar/party/club/gig bathroom and it turns out she is the prophet of divine love. in the 13th century they were mystics having visions and getting kicked out of their Beguine because the other bitches were jealous of their copious amounts of godhead suffering aura.

i only read the first two letters because only 1/6th of the rest (the poems and visions which i read) was necessary. i’m just not into church like that. i love shackles by mary mary and sunday candy by chance but i’m NOT going to church. despite this, it renewed my wound for the maddening abyss into which Love (with a capital L) hurls, the forever night that is lived even throughout the light of day, or the constant flicker of the florescent lights in the girls toilet, meeting ur best friend in the whole world, if only for the next 15 minutes.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hadewijch has all the angst & brooding of a teenage goth listening to Siouxsie & the Banshees & swooning over dead Romantic poets. Her vulnerability, emphasis on love & union with the Divine Beloved, and the sheer semi-erotic strangeness of her visions make for deeply intriguing reading. I really connected with Hadewijch in a way that I struggled to with Hildegard's Scivias, for instance.
But her poetry is the true outstanding gem here, and deserves far more critical attention. Modernists, afficionados of love poetry & even the work of John Wieners will find riches in these pages. It's worth pointing out that if a male monk had written these poems, they would be widely anthologized. Give Hadewijch's unique, timeless work the long-overdue attention it deserves!

[Kenny Kidd · Rating 2 out of 5]

The gall of me to rate one of THE classics of Christian mysticism a 2 out of 5 stars :/

This rating is certainly reflective of my experience reading Hadewijch, rather than her writing itself. Her visions are beautiful and evocative, as are many of her letters and poems—she just sorta revolves around the same ideas of the multi-layeredness of God’s love, the paradoxical pain present in it, and feelings of God’s absence, to the point where I got super bored and felt myself trudging along to finish it 😕 It was my last book of 2021 (got through 82 of my planned 100 books, which I’ll still take some pride in :)), so that’s something!

[Othy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hadewijch is an interesting author and poet, combining (especially in her poetry) chivalric language with religious themes. Her poetry also is in the form of petitionary prayer in the second person, which is a very interesting style. Unfortunately, there is little notable in her poetry; and/or the translation does not convey much of the power of the original (I have not read her in her original language). Most notable are her visions, which are fascinating and are at times much more imminent than her poetry.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

For each revelation I had seen partly according to what I was myself, and partly according to my having been chosen; but now I saw this and was associated also with my choir, to which I was chosen in order that I might taste Man and God in one knowledge, what no man could do unless he were as God, and wholly such as he was who is our Love.

[Nate Rubright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrote a paper on Letter 6. Great mystical work from a mysterious person.

[Laura Taltavull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfecta

[Erin Suniega · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal, underrated mystic with a deep-engulfing fervor for a love-centered spirituality.

Hadewijch is not the first Christian mystic I have read concerning Love in religious and mystical terms. However, she has put further emphasis and flavor into writing about the subject matter. I have always felt like the words she engraved in her writings were a breath of fresh air, which insinuated within me a deep love and passion in living a life like this mystic. Her poetic, metaphorical, and analogical speech made her theology more personal and relational, awakening a spiritual and emotional curiosity in embodying her love-centered theosis.

To end this review, here is a quote from one of her letters:

"For my part, I am devoted to these works at any hour and still perform them at all times: to seek after nothing but Love, work nothing but Love, protect nothing but Love, and advance nothing but Love. How you are to do or omit each of these things, may God, our Beloved, teach you." - Living in the Rhythm of the Trinity, Letter 17

Pray for us, Saint Hadewijch! I love you so much!

[Noah Christiansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read:
- Various excerpts

[Jenny Paul]

Letters / visions

[Christian Molenaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made a film about Hadewijch inspired by her own writing as well as that of inspired by Deleuze, Stan Brakhage, Anne Carson, Emily Brontë and John Ashbery. Read more about it here!

Hadewijch was a poet and mystic who lived in the Duchy of Brabant (now Antwerp) as well as a member of the Beguines, a religious movement of women who chose to live apart from society on communes to devote their lives to their faith. We know almost nothing of Hadewijch’s life save for the records she left in the form of poems and letters demonstrating a superior (and surprising) level of education, including knowledge of theological treatises in Latin and French as well as French courtly poetry, knowledge which would have been difficult for anyone to acquire in the 13th century, but particularly for a woman with no proven family ties or wealth.

But even more remarkable than Hadewijch’s education are the writings she left behind, most notably two collections of poems, the Mengeldichten (Poems in Couplets) and Strophische Gedichten (Poems in Stanzas), and a Book of Visions, the very first such collection written in vernacular language, in which she details her personal relationship with Jesus through philosophical dialogues and metaphysical voyages. Her work is characterized by an extreme (even exhaustive) notion of Love as that which informs and pervades all of life. Throughout her writing, Hadewijch relates multiple times not only her ecstatic elation at transcending to the throne of God and wedding her soul to His but also the crushing pain with which she was left when she would inevitably be forced to return to her earthly body.

Among other early women mystics, Hadewijch can be read in part as attempting to perform the substance of love. While this demonstration may not (and as will be shown cannot) ‘justify’ immanence according to other conceptual frameworks based on a prior transcendent unity, it does build a robust case precisely for questioning such conceptual traditions which have rejected the mystical accounts of medieval women.

Transcendence often works itself in a totalizing form of authority. But Hadewijch pays no attention to ecclesial authority. Unlike many other mystics Hadewijch does not reference any religious authority figure within the church. Many figures enter in as inspirational (such as Augustine) but she does not appeal to them on the basis of some conferred authority. Even with respect to the authority of God there is boldness to how she approaches this relationship. In Letter 4, Hadewijch challenges the authority of reason if it “fails to stand up to [God’s] greatness.” This neglect of priestly authority, challenge to Reason and boldness before God further points to the ongoing direct relay between her and God. As with Jacob, there are times when she must confront God or at least acknowledge the insufficiency of their relationship. Vision 7 finds Hadewijch concerned that “I did not content my Beloved, and that my Beloved did not fulfill my desire.” Hadewijch is later confirmed in her strength and boldness. At the end of Vision 14, she receives power from God which was “the strength of his own Being, to be God,” culminating in a voice which says, “O strongest of all warriors! You have conquered everything and opened the closed totality.” Power flows from God, but God’s totality is thereby opened.

It’s in this manner Hadewijch’s conception of divinity relates to Deleuze’s paradigm of immanence, one in which both the cause and ef­fects of being belong to the same plane. There is no transcendent point of reference, for each being is co-constitutive of every other being. An immanent relation is one in which neither term can be made utterly prior to the other; immanently related terms are mutually constitutive. Immanence thus puts in play a reciprocal relay be­tween namelessness and excessive signification.

[Kate]

Professor Amy Hollywood taught this book in her course entitled Mysticism and Christianity.

[Mary A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful example of Beguine spiritual poetry with themes of integrating love and reason.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sainted woman facilitated a healing of my heart.