Female Christian Mystics and the Feminine Divine
- Jenna Michelle
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
These highly revered women left behind writings and art that detailed their experiences
Throughout the history of Christianity, many of the most prominent voices have been those of men. However, there is a strain of female voices that has risen above the tide, leaving their own reflections, poetry, and writings behind, which has helped to ensure that we know about them. These women were held in high regard for their unique mystical relationship with—and consequently views about—God. This included the idea, perhaps surprisingly, that God can’t be exclusively defined as male, after all. Yet, instead of being viewed as heretics, their voices were revered and they continue to be thought of as women with powerful insight into the ineffability of the divine. Four of these notable female mystics were Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Hadewijch of Antwerp, and Jane Lead.
Saint Hildegard (b. 1098—d. 1179)
Saint Hildegard of Bingen—whom the Roman Catholic Church canonized as a saint and Doctor of the Church in 2012 after centuries of unofficial veneration—is one of Christianity’s most renowned female mystics. A German Benedictine abbess born in 1098, Hildegard recorded her beliefs in writings, art, and music.
While Hildegard was hesitant to pursue her spiritual calling, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux offered her encouragement in 1146, saying, “We rejoice in the grace of God which is in you, and that you may hold that as grace and strive to respond to it with all sentiment of humility and devotion.” The following year, Pope Eugene III endorsed Hildegard’s visions, authorizing her to write and speak in public.
Unlike many other theologians throughout history, Hildegard celebrated women and their bodies. She even described the menstrual cycle—a process often demonized throughout history—as a manifestation of viriditas, God’s life force that permeates, animates, and heals all of creation. In fact, she described visions in which the divine appeared in feminine form as Caritas and Sapientia (meaning Love and Wisdom, respectively, two principles that the Bible explicitly identifies with God).
“Wisdom and Love are one,” said Hildegard, detailing the Holy Spirit as the root of all life, a “supreme and fiery force” that shines throughout all creation and whose essence enlivens the air, fields, sun, moon, stars, and more. She composed artwork of how Caritas presented in her visions—a winged woman in an incandescent red robe, crowned with the face of an old man, caressing a lamb, and treading a venomous monster at her feet.
A talented hymnwriter, Hildegard composed “O Holy Spirit, Root of Life,” which ends with the plea: “O Holy Wisdom, soaring power, encompass us with wings unfurled, and carry us, encircling all, above, below and through the world.”
Julian of Norwich (b.1342—d. after 1416)
As an anchoress—a woman who withdrew from society to live a life of religious seclusion—Julian spent the final years of her life living in a cell connected to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich, England. There, she recorded her visions in Revelations of Divine Love—a devotional text that became the earliest English book attributed to a female author.
Despite living through the black plague, Julian’s radical optimism found rivalry only in her unfading hope. She couldn’t answer why suffering occurs, but instead of harping on divine judgment, she taught that God is with us in our suffering and that “all shall be well” in the end.
She described the comfort of a divine father, yes, but taught equally of God’s role as mother. Interestingly, she ascribed maternal imagery not only to the Holy Spirit, as is typical, but to Christ, saying, “Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.”
According to Julian, one could see God's motherhood through God's creation and adoption of human nature, especially through the incarnation of Christ. In fact, Julian’s texts highlight Christ’s abundant blood flow in a manner that some scholars find reminiscent of menstruation and childbirth. As Elisabeth Melattukunnel notes: “Much like a mother, Christ sacrifices his body, and by this sacrifice he gives (everlasting) life to his children.” Julian espoused what many people may consider a sort of universalist theology, asserting that “our Heavenly Mother” gave birth to nature and will eventually restore it.
Julian of Norwich offered religious guidance to others, including Margery Kempe, a fellow mystic who wrote that "the anchoress was expert in such things and could give good advice.” While Julian is not among the Roman Catholic Church’s canonized saints, she hasn’t gone unrecognized. The Catholic Catechism quotes her, popes honor her, and the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches commemorate her.
Hadewijch (b. circa 1200—d. circa1260)
Not much is known about Hadewijch, known to some as Hadewijch of Antwerp and to others as Hadewijch of Brabant. What we do know, however, is that she was a poet and mystic in the 13th century, and likely a beguine living in what has since become Dutch-speaking Belgium. Beguines were medieval European women who led religious lives without taking vows or joining an approved religious order. Most of them lived in devotional communities called beguinages, and unlike nuns, they were free to return to the secular world if they wished.
Hadewijch was a proponent of love mysticism, an ecstatic religious phenomenon that involved living in perfect love and union with the divine. She embraced “Minne”—meaning Love, identified with God in 1 John 4:8—as a name for God, describing Minne as a divine figure that encompasses God, the mystic, and the bond between the two. She taught not only that Minne suffuses and sustains the world, but even went as far as to say “Minne is all” and gives “the all,” thereby equating her to the Absolute.
Per Catholic theologian Rosemary Ruether in her book Goddesses and the Divine Feminine, Minne can be imagined as a goddess figure, characterized in Hadewijch’s visions as follows:
“I saw in the eyes of the Countenance a seat. Upon it sat Love, richly arrayed, in the form of a queen. The crown upon her head was adorned with the high works of the humble... From Love's eyes proceeded swords full of fiery flames. From her mouth proceeded lightning. Her countenance was transparent, so that through it one could see all the wonderful works Love has ever done and can do... She had opened her arms and held embraced in them all the services that anyone has ever done through her. Her right side was full of perfect kisses without farewell.”
Hadewijch had a profound influence on her contemporary John of Ruusbroec, a 14th-century priest now remembered as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Not only did Ruusbroec recommend Hadewijch’s works to others in his order, but his own writings drew direct inspiration from her images of courtly love mysticism.
Jane Lead (b. 1624—d. 1704)
Born in England in 1624, Jane Lead led the Philadelphian Society, a Protestant group in London. She taught of universal salvation, the presence of God in all of creation, and of Lady Wisdom (Sophia) as a Divine Mother who governs jointly with the Father. Lead’s texts on Lady Wisdom—of whom she started to experience visions shortly after her husband’s death—are some of the most extensive on the subject among all Christian mystics. They were also among the most explicit—describing Lady Wisdom as an Eternal Goddess, Empress, and Queen of All Worlds—and contained vivid and extraordinary descriptions.
“There came upon me an overshadowing bright Cloud, and in the midst of it the Figure of a Woman, most richly adorned with transparent Gold, her hair hanging down and her Face as the terrible Crystal for brightness, but her Countenance was sweet and mild… Immediately this Voice came, saying, ‘Behold I am God’s Eternal Virgin-Wisdom… I am to unseal the Treasures of God’s deep Wisdom unto thee, and will be as Rebecca was unto Jacob, a true Natural Mother; for out of my Womb thou shalt be brought forth after the manner of a Spirit, Conceived and Born again.’”
According to Lead, Lady Wisdom came bearing a flaming sword—commending it to her followers not as an instrument of wrath, but as a tool to slay whatever inside them didn’t bear the image of God. With a flaming heart, Wisdom also brought radiance to Lead’s darkness, “lighting [Lead’s] Lamp from her Seven Pillars of Fire.”
The tree of life imagery attributed to Wisdom in Proverbs 3:16 and depicted in Revelation 22:2 also made an appearance in Lead’s visions—with Wisdom’s heart sprouting forth a Tree bearing fruit from Twelve Branches. Like Hildegard, Lead described Wisdom as nursing her children at her breasts, “from which the Word of Life so sweetly did flow.”
Lead’s Philadelphian Society attracted so many women that some people referred to it as the “Taffata Meeting.” Lead also had male followers, with one of the most notable being Richard Roach (1661–1730), who became the leader of the Philadelphian Society after Lead’s death. Roach echoed Lead’s belief in a divine feminine presence, saying that Wisdom will reveal herself especially to women, and therefore "excite and animate that Sex whereby she is represented; and endow them with her peculiar graces and gifts, in such degrees, that they shall often out run and exceed the males themselves."
Summary
Christian history has suppressed many female voices, but that hasn’t stopped mystics such as Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Jane Lead from leaving their mark. These women painted an image of a God—in some cases, a Goddess—who could manifest not only as three persons, both human and immortal, but as female and male. A common thread connects all of these visions: the idea of a divine mother who gives life to humanity and permeates all of creation, not only holding it but sustaining it with everlasting love and compassion.
These women were not the first to venerate the divine feminine within Christianity—that honor goes to some of the earliest Christians, including those in ancient Syria—nor were they the only ones of their time. However, they carried forth a tradition that has echoed through the centuries and culminated in the feminist theologies of the modern day.
Jenna Michelle is a writer and editor who has contributed to more than ten publications. When she’s not writing, she can often be found diving deep into obscure topics related to health, religion, and spirituality. Check out her LinkedIn to learn more about her work.
Further reading
Primary Sources
Hadewijch. Hadewijch: The Complete Works. Paulist Press, 1980.
Hildegard. Book of divine works: The complete English translation of Hildegardis bingensis Liber Divinorum Operum. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2009.
Julian. “Revelations of Divine Love.” Revelations of Divine Love - Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Accessed October 20, 2025.
Lead, Jane. A fountain of gardens. London: Printed, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1697.
Lead, Jane. The laws of paradise. Glasgow: J. Thomson, 1903.
Leade, Jane, and John Thomson. The Revelation of Revelations: Reprinted from an original copy, 1884.
Additional Sources
Hillgardner, Holly. Longing and Letting Go. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Kurian, George Thomas, and James D. Smith III. The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, 2010.
Newman, Barbara. God and the goddesses: Vision, poetry, and belief in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Newman, Barbara. Sister of wisdom: St. hildegard’s theology of the feminine. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the divine feminine: A western religious history. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 2005.
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