Hadewijch of Antwerp: Life, Writings, and Prayers

Hadewijch of Antwerp is a Dutch Catholic mystic and Brabant poet (a feudal state integrated into the Holy Roman Empire) from the 13th century. She was a Beguine, meaning she was single and part of a lay religious community governed by a monastic rule. She wrote numerous works, notably a Book of Visions and collections of mystical poetry. Her mystical experience was characterized by an unconditional love of Christ and great charity towards her neighbor. According to her, we must imitate Christ in our daily lives.

Biography of Hadewijch of Antwerp

Unfortunately, there are very few reliable sources to establish a precise and detailed biography of Hadewijch of Antwerp. Indeed, as she did not sign all her works with her name, it is difficult to know exactly during which period she wrote all her works.

However, many historians agree that she was born in 1200 in Antwerp. She came from a wealthy family, of the high nobility (she knew Latin, which was particularly rare for women of that time, unless they were noble) and influential in the Duchy of Brabant (a feudal state resulting from the dismemberment of Lower Lorraine in 1106, then integrated into the Holy Roman Empire), in present-day Belgium. She was nineteen years old when she had her first vision of Christ. Hadewijch refers to this in one of her writings and gives her age precisely. The vast majority of her work was written in 1240 and her List of the Perfect between 1238 and 1244. The fact that many copies of her oldest writings were found in convents in Brussels and the outskirts of the capital suggests that she stayed in this city for a time and was productive there. Hadewijch was a very erudite woman. Indeed, in addition to being able to read Latin, she knew all the texts of theology, read French, and knew courtly songs. She traveled extensively, which further enriched her knowledge. She demonstrated great independence of mind by reading everything published at the time. Hadewijch was well informed about the current events of her time.

She did not belong to any religious movement but was nonetheless a Beguine. She lived successively in beguinages (autonomous communities of religious women, called Beguines) or alone.

Hadewijch's approach and reflection align with the mendicant orders for which poverty is the first of the Christian virtues. Adherents of this thought then aspired to imitate Christ in every way, to live like him and his apostles, to be good and charitable to their neighbors, to have no personal possessions, and to be outside of any institutionalized hierarchy. At a time when the Church was rich and ecclesiastical institutions were rigid and highly hierarchical, the members of the mendicant orders felt they could not be integrated into these official structures. They therefore had to disseminate Christ's message themselves, to be missionaries of his love and charity. Surprisingly for the era, women played a predominant role in this line of thought. They were very influential. This movement led to the foundation of new monastic orders like the Cistercians or Norbertines first, then the Dominicans and the Franciscans, whose members also took a vow of poverty. Hadewijch was therefore close to this movement and advocated above all else mystical love, the love of Christ for humanity and vice versa. For her, the only true love is spiritual love.

Hadewijch died in 1260, leaving behind a considerable body of work on divine love. Her spiritual journey, both on the path of the love of God and on a more intellectual path, led her to discover the love of the three persons present in the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Excerpts from the Poems of the Beguines by Hadewijch of Antwerp

"Illuminated Reason allows me
and advises me, with lofty Love,
to examine the garden of delight
to ensure that nothing is lacking there."
Spiritual Poems, IX

"*Of great premature benefits
and of promises that cost little
do not rejoice too much,
many a hope was disappointed by them:

the early fires

of the kingdom of Love
have carried me far from myself.*"
Spiritual Poems, IX

"Love comes and consoles, it goes and we are cast down,
this is our painful adventure.
But how one grasps the All with the All,
strangers will never know."

Spiritual Poems, VIII

"Ah! Wholly his, how I laughed at all else!
But he then made me like the hazel tree
which flowers early in the dark months
and long makes one wait for its desired fruits."
Spiritual Poems, VIII

Two Beautiful Prayers by Hadewijch on Love

Prayer by Hadewijch on the Definition of Love

"The sweetest thing about Love is its violence; its unfathomable abyss is its most beautiful form; to be lost in it is to reach the goal; to be hungry for it is to nourish and delight oneself; the anxiety of love is a secure state; its most severe wound is a sovereign balm; to languish for it is our vigor; it is by disappearing that it makes itself discovered; if it causes suffering, it gives pure health; if it hides, it reveals its secrets to us; it is by refusing itself that it gives itself; it is without rhyme or reason and that is its poetry; by captivating us it liberates us; its hardest blows are its sweetest consolations; if it takes everything, what a benefit! It is when it goes away that it is closest to us; its deepest silence is its highest song; its worst anger is its most gracious reward; its threat reassures us and its sadness consoles all sorrows: to have nothing is its inexhaustible wealth. Amen."

Prayer by Hadewijch on the Love of the Lord

"Ah! Dear Love, if there is a love that I love, it is you, my love; you who give grace for grace, whereby the beloved sustains the beloved. Ah! Fair Love, if I were love and loved you, Love, with love itself! Ah! Fair Love, give me by love that love may fully know love. Amen."

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