SOURCE: de Vroom, Theresia. “Hadewijch van Antwerpen (c. 1250).” Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies 11, no. 2 (fall 1990): 4-10.

In the following essay, de Vroom encapsulates Hadewijch's literary depiction of the theme of Minne (Love, or “the way in which the soul experiences its relation to God”).

Hadewijch's works were both popular and influential. Translated from Diets (the middle-Netherlandic dialect in which she wrote), they survive in several medieval versions.¹ The great Flemish mystic Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381) took some of his most important ideas from Hadewijch and passed his reverence for the “heylich glorieus wijf, Hadewijch” on to his followers. One of those followers, Jan van Leeuwen, praised Hadewijch as if she were equal to one of the evangelists:

Aldus spreekt ook een heilige, glorieuze vrouw die Hadewijch heet. Ze is een waarachtige lerares, want Hadewijchs boeken zijn zeker goed en geloofsgetrouw, uit God geboren en door Hem ingegeven. Want...