Living Saints of the Thirteenth Century

This volume presents the Lives of three women of the thirteenth century, all written  by contemporaries. In the late Middle Ages, almost every town in Northern Europe had its own anchoress, who would keep in touch with the citizens through a window looking onto the churchyard or through a door and window looking into the church (as shown in the cover illustration). Such women, along with the beguines, Cistercian nuns and monks, reform-minded clergy, and devout laywomen, formed what Barbara Newman has termed ‘close-knit networks of spiritual friendship that easily crossed the boundaries of gender, religious status, and even language’. This volume presents the lives of two recluses, Yvette of Huy, whose life was recorded by her spiritual friend, the Premonstratensian Hugh of Floreffe, and Margaret the Lame of Magdeburg, whose lessons were recorded by her confessor, the Dominican John of Magdeburg (introduced and translated by Jo Ann McNamara, and Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Tilman Lewis respectively). The anchoress Eve of Saint-Martin was an author herself. Her memoir in French on her friend Juliana’s and her own labour for the new Feast of Corpus Christi forms the basis of the Latin Life of Juliana of Cornillon (introduced and translated by Barbara Newman).

General Introduction: Holy Lay Women and their Biographers in the Thirteenth Century- ANNEKE B. MULDER-BAKKER

Canon of Thirteenth-Century Southern Netherlandish Saints’ Lives - BARBARA NEWMAN AND ANNEKE B. MULDER-BAKKER

Translations

The Life of Yvette, Anchoress of Huy, by Hugh of Floreffe - TRANSLATED BY JO ANN McNAMARA

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Life of Yvette

The Life of Juliana of Cornillon - TRANSLATED BY BARBARA NEWMAN

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Life of Juliana
• Appendix
• Congratulatory Bull of Pope Urban IV to Eve of Saint-Martin (1264)
• Letter of Robert, Bishop of Liège, Establishing the Feast of Corpus Christi (1246)

The Life of Margaret the Lame, Anchoress of Magdeburg by Friar Johannes O.P. of Magdeburg - TRANSLATED AND REVISED BY GERTRUD JARON LEWIS AND TILMAN LEWIS

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Life of Margaret

Select Bibliography

Index