Hadewych of Antwerp

Abstract

Like Hildegard of Bingen and the nuns of Helfta, Hadewych of Antwerp and Beatrice of Nazareth are mystics. Their mysticism, like that of other Western Christian mystics is characterized by the important role of reason in the soul's ascension to God and by its strong ethical implications. Western Christian mysticism of the Middle Ages is greatly indebted to the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Gregory of Nyssa played an important part in the development of Western Christian mysticism,1 linking Philo of Alexandria and the Alexandrians through the Neoplatonist Plotinus to Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus Confessor and Byzantine mysticism. Although later mediaeval writers, such as Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and others, preferred to comment on Dionysius the Areopagite, they are indirectly but immensely indebted to Gregory of Nyssa. For example, while Hadewych2 is influenced by Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, like Gregory of Nyssa, in her Ep. 10 she stressed the ethical implications of the Love of God: ``The works of virtue are the measure of our love, not the sweetness of devotion.'' Long before Eckhart3 Hadewych --- and the same holds for Beatrice of Nazareth --- taught that one should be able to withdraw from the mystical enjoyment of the divine Love in order to dedicate himself to the love of the neighbour.