Margareta Contracta

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Margareta Contracta was a Magdeburg recluse of the 13th century. Her biography, the Vita Margaretae contractae , is written in Latin by her confessor, a brother of Johannes OP . This document is the only source about the life of Margareta, which makes exact conclusions about her life problematic because of the stylizing character of the text genre.

Life

According to the Vita, Margareta was paralyzed from childhood; this physical handicap was credited to her - not least by herself - as a special gift of grace , this was to be understood in the sense of a feminine mysticism that transfigured all physical illnesses . The woman, who is increasingly regarded as holy, spent her life as a recluse in Magdeburg before she joined a convent shortly before her death due to illness (like Mechthild von Magdeburg at about the same time ).

literature

  • Johannes von Magdeburg: The Vita of Margareta Contracta, a Magdeburg Rekluse of the 13th century. Published by Paul Gerhard Schmidt, Leipzig 1992.
  • Johannes OP of Magdeburg: The Vita of Margaret the Lame, a thirteenth-century German recluse & mystic. Translated & with commentary by Gertrud Jaron Lewis, Ontario 2001.
  • Kurt Ruh: History of Occidental Mysticism , Volume II: Women's Mysticism and Francistcan Mysticism of the Early Period. Munich 1993, p. 125 ff.
  • Bardo Weiss: Margareta von Magdeburg: a paralyzed mystic of the 13th century. Paderborn 1995.
personal data
SURNAME Contracta, Margareta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Magdeburg reclamation
DATE OF BIRTH 12th century or 13th century
DATE OF DEATH 13th century or 14th century