Born to a prominent pagan family in Antioch, Margaret’s father gave her to a nurse to be brought up as a proper lady. When Margaret was old enough to decide for herself, she was baptized as a Christian. Sometime later, when she was fifteen, a local prefect saw her and wanted her as his wife. Upon further inspection, he learned of her noble parentage and her apt name. He also learned of her Christian faith. The prefect expressed his disapproval for her religion, and Margaret likewise condemned him for not believing in the crucified Christ. This angered the prefect and he had her thrown in jail.
The next morning, Margaret was ordered to offer sacrifices to the prefect’s gods. Margaret refused and dared the prefect to follow through on his threat to torture her. He carried through — Margaret was placed on the rack, beaten with rods, and cut with iron rakes. The violence was so disturbing the prefect could not bear to watch.
Margaret was taken off the rack and sent back to jail. That night she battled a great dragon (thus a dragon is often included in artistic depictions of her). In some versions of her story, she fended off the dragon by making a sign of the cross. In other stories the dragon consumed her whole, and while in its belly Margaret made the sign of the cross and the dragon burst open, providing us with one of the most lasting and impressive stories about intestinal upset upon being confronted with the truth of the gospel and zeal of the faithful. Upon vanquishing the dragon, she faced off with the devil, appearing to her in the form of a man. Margaret grabbed the man by the head, shoved him to the ground, and pinned him under her feet. Knowing that she had vanquished the devil, she confidently approached the prefect the next day.
In front of a large crowd, Margaret refused to make sacrifices to the gods. She was stripped and her body was burned with torches. She was bound and placed in a tub of water to increase the pain. Immediately the earth shook, and Margaret emerged from the water unscathed. Five thousand people saw the miracle and immediately converted to Christianity. Fearing more people would convert, the prefect ordered her beheaded. Margaret died with a single stroke of the blade.
Margery Kempe
She began The Book of Margery Kempe recalling a series of crises during and after her pregnancy. She felt tempted by the devil not to confess her sins. In response, she fasted, performed acts of charity, and devoutly prayed, to no avail. She eventually sent for her confessor and confessed sins from “her whole lifetime.” After her confession (of which she was not complimentary of the pastoral skills of the priest), she was disturbed and tormented for almost a year by visions of devils. In a moment of great crisis, she had a vision of Christ but did not fully embrace her mystical deliverance. Only after several business failures did Kempe surrender to a life of mysticism and Christian devotion.
Kempe experienced the gift of tears — frequent sobbing, weeping, and wailing at the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, while engaged in prayer and meditation, or engaged in other acts of devotion. Throughout her book, Kempe remarked at the discomfort others had at her expression of this holy gift. She shared her thoughts and visions of heaven freely, as well as her conversations and visions with our Lord. Kempe, like many medieval mystics, was attached to meditations on the events of Christ’s life and had many visions associated with these events. She also found sexual relations with her husband disgusting and eventually took vows of chastity, after giving birth to fourteen children.
Kempe then began a series of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Assisi, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela, as well as several holy sites in England. She wrote of her encounters with several historical figures, including the Archbishop of York — who questioned her as a heretic, found her unorthodox, and told her to leave York and never return. She spoke with Julian of Norwich. She called out the Archbishop of Canterbury for the behavior of his clergy. Perhaps in a related story, she was almost burned as a heretic while in Canterbury.
Kempe, who likely dictated her book to a scribe, wrote with a mystical stream of consciousness. She was not concerned with narrative timelines; she did not write a text primarily concerned with intricate depictions of her mystical experiences. She wrote about the exhausting attitudes of others who criticized her life and expression of faith and of moments where she was vindicated for being true to herself. She shared the raw (sometimes outrageous) aspects of all that was her life.
An admission to the Guild of the Trinity at Lynn in 1438 is the final historical mention of Kempe. Her book, known only in excerpts until a manuscript was found in a private collection in the twentieth century, has become a key reflection on the life and spirituality of a middle-class woman in the Middle Ages.
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