Visions & Longings: Medieval Women Mystics - Tapa dura

The women mystics of medieval Europe represent the very first feminine voices heard in a world where women were nearly silent. Monica Furlong presents writings by and about eleven of these Christian mystics who lived and worked between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.
They are Heloise, the abbess whose letters to her former lover Abelard are a treasure of medieval literature; Christina of Markyate, the hermit whose early life was characterized by her zealous antics aimed at avoiding marriage; Hildegard of Bingen, the Rhineland's renaissance woman - scientist, visionary, poet, and theologian; Beatrijs of Nazareth, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Hadewijch of Brabant, scholars and poets of the Beguine movement of women's communities; Clare of Assisi, the close friend of Saint Francis and founder of the community of the Poor Clares; Angela di Foligno, the noble woman of Umria whose joyful spirituality made her a cult figure in her own lifetime; Catherine of Siena, the confidante of popes whose major writing consists of dialogue between herself and God; Margery Kempe, the eccentric mystic housewife; and Julian of Norwich, the recluse who spent the greater part of her life reflecting and elaborating upon the visions she received at age thirty - including a striking vision of God as Mother.