SOURCE: Zum Brunn, Emilie, and Georgette Epiney-Burgard. “Hadewijch of Antwerp: Introduction.” In Women Mystics in Medieval Europe, translated by Sheila Hughes, pp. 97-139. New York: Paragon House, 1989.

In the following excerpt, Zum Brunn and Epiney-Burgard relate what is known of Hadewijch's life and survey the spiritual themes of her written works.

Life and Works

After having been acclaimed and quoted in the fourteenth century by John Ruysbroeck and his disciple, John of Leeuwen,¹ Hadewijch's works, of which only four manuscripts remain, were more or less entirely forgotten until they were rediscovered in the nineteenth century by medieval specialists, as well as by the great poet Maeterlinck.² Her writings appeared in a critical edition in 1920, thanks to the arduous labors of J. Van Mierlo.³

In our own times, each year brings in such a harvest of studies, both literary and spiritual, that we can say that Hadewijch is much...