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"Flourish like a Garden": Pain, Purgatory and Salvation in the Writing of Medieval Religious Women

2014; University of Iowa; Volume: 50; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.17077/1536-8742.1978

2151-6073

Liz Herbert McAvoy,

Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

n the fifteenth-century female-authored text entitled A Revelation of Purgatory, its author, a Winchester recluse, describes a series of dream visions of a now-dead friend of hers named Margaret. 2 Margaret is a former nun, most likely of the nearby convent of Nunnaminster, who reveals to her friend in graphic detail the multifarious pains of Purgatory and her own torturous route towards the golden gates of Paradise. Her reason for appearing to the visionary is not only to seek her help to alleviate her pains, but also to mobilize a group of influential churchmen, part of the visionary’s own spiritual community, to say prayers on her behalf. 3 Along with the souls of myriad other men and women, both religious and lay, Margaret suffers the most unspeakable torments for her former sins of pride, worldliness, and failure to undertake a promised