I have finished up the novel, the Owl Killers, by Karen Maitland. It is an interesting read, a well-written suspense/mystery story set in the 14th century. It seems that the Middle Ages are an endless goldmine for period piece novels these days, and many of them are quite good. I can't rave about this book, but I enjoyed the historical twist which makes in unique.
The central characters are members of a little-known religious movement from that era, the Beguines. Women who may never have married, or were shunned because of their apparent infertility, came together in an informal religious movement that was outside the confines of the convent. Here is one description:
Béguines were an informal sisterhood of laywomen who did not have the means to or interest in entering a convent or were refused by religious orders but desired to live a life of service to God. (Their male counterparts were Beghards.) The community required celibacy although Béguines could later marry. Even though a vow of poverty was required to fulfill a life of charity and prayer, women of some wealth could keep their homes and land. So on one end of the economic spectrum were women of modest means, and on the other were women who owned property and often created small, free communities of Béguines.
Begun in present-day Holland, the movement also flourished in England, Germany, France, and the Low Countries in the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Béguines created hospitals, homes for the aged, and orphanages. Somewhat like the Franciscans, Béguines took the biblical mandate of poverty and charity seriously for daily living. Their work with the sick and dying was gratefully accepted and badly needed during the Black Death that swept Europe in the 1300s.
Listen to an interview about the book with Karen Maitland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HnElGedKdQ&feature=channel_page
Have you heard about this movement? There has been a renewed interest in the Beguines as a early feminist movement. Are you intrigued. Will you look for the novel?
Likely won't look into the novel just yet as I'm loving The Count of Monte Cristo and the diaries of Ronald Regan just now, but this movement does strike me for its willingness to buck the religious establishment of its time to pursue God and good deeds on its own terms.
ReplyDeleteThe considerable courage required to do so during that time period is quite remarkble!
I had not heard of this religious movement. I am intrigued.
ReplyDeleteHaving spent last weekend with a group of Catholic nuns I have been thinking how comitted and disciplined these ladies are. They appear so selfless, such a contrast to what appears as growing "selfishness" in modern society.
I am often struck by the fact that we are a fairly tame bunch when it comes to our convictions.
ReplyDeleteI too have benefitted greatly from retreats at convents and monasteries. I agree that the monks and nuns usually come across as spiritually unencumbered and open people, the opposite of what many might imagine.
Yes, I will look up the book. I had an interest in the mystics of this time, and Mechtild of Magdeburg was one I studied. She was a Beguine.
ReplyDelete#534 in our Voices United even has some of her words set to song.