Brides in the Desert

The voices of the Beguines, women who sought to make sense of their experience of God in a world where suffering was commonplace, can be difficult to hear. By placing them in their historical, literary and theological context this book introduces the reader to some of the most challenging religious texts of the middle ages. The four women discussed in this book between them span the thirteenth century, a period which was the time of greatest flowering of Beguine mystic literature.