In five pages this research paper considers Mechtild of Magdeberg's life and mysticism. Seven sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khmecmag.rtf
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she experienced her first visions of the divine at the age of twelve (Ott, 2001). She would later write that she was greet by the Holy Ghost, and from that
time, the greeting was repeated on a daily basis (Ott, 2001). It became her desire to be "despised by all," and for this purpose left her comfortable home, where she
was well loved and became a "Beguine" at Magdeburg in 1230 (Ott, 2001). The "Beguines" were lay women living, for the most part, in North Europe, who took vows of
chastity and lived in communal houses, with Papal protection (Allen, 1999). Following the spiritual guidance of the Dominican order, Mechtild led a quiet
life of prayer and extreme mortification (Ott, 2001). As her life progressed, the ecstatic images that she saw became much more frequent and her descriptions of these visions dispelled any
doubt from her confessors mind as to their divine origin (Ott, 2001). In 1270, she joined the Cistercian nuns at Helfta, where she lived the twelve remaining years
of her life (Ott, 2001). While with the Cistercians, Mechtild wrote a book that detailed what had been revealed to her through her inspirations and visions (Ott, 2001). The name
of this volume, which God ordered her to write, was (in English, from her native German) "Light of my divinity, flowing into all hearts that live without guile" (Ott, 2001).
Mechtilds book FlieBendes Licht der Gottheit is a "remarkable" book (Kalinke, 1996). Mechtilds language is occasionally exceedingly flowery in this text, but her prose is also interspersed with truly beautiful
poems (Ott, 2001). According to this text, Mechtilds visions were exceedingly detailed. Writing about hell, for example, she says that she saw a "horrible and wretched place" (Ott, 2001). She