Above: “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” with Saint Peter on the left and Saint John on the right, 1500-1550, Hof van Busleyden Museum, Mechelen (Malines), Belgium.
There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, ordinary women or nuns, because they live neither in the world nor out of it.”
Guibert of Tournai (1200-1284), 1274, via “Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines,” Abby Stoner, Kenyon College
The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music might have wondered what she was going to do about Maria, but that’s nothing compared to the befuddlement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the 13th century figuring out how to control the Beguine Sisters.
Limited options were permitted women in the medieval ages: subjugate themselves in marriage or enter a cloistered convent for life. Those limited choices are what attracted women to voluntarily cluster together in houses, forming their own communities on the outskirts of towns – beguinages. They donned habits similar to those of nuns and committed themselves to chastity, albeit not necessarily a lifetime commitment.
Continue reading “Postcard from Brussels, Belgium: Mystical gardens of Malines’ Beguines”
Postcards from Barton Springs 