Women Mystics, Sex and the Eucharist

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there were a large number of extremely pious wommen, both nuns and lay women, who had very unique relationships with Jesus. The term "relationship" is used intentionally in every sense of the word. These women often spoke to him as a friend, saw and touched him as if he were another person in the room. All of the women have the common denominator of having very intense experiences with the eucharist and the celebration of Mass.

It was very common for extremely pious women, often called the Women Mystics, to relate to Jesus as a man, rather than as a mythical esoteric being that was very abstract and sacred. They didn't see God the fatherly figure inspiring awe, reverence and fear as did men of the period, instead he appeared to them as a very beautiful, very real man. Some of the women experienced him physically, either when they were embraced by him or touched in some other way.

Much of the language used by Kempe and others is that which would normally be used to describe a marriage, implying that Jesus was the women's holy spouse, almost literally. Often sexual imagery is used and is accepted by the women and is welcomed, whereas sexual or physical relations with anyone else in the "real" world is highly discouraged and disapproved of. For example, in the article by Caroline Walker Bynum she quotes one woman who says "he took me entirely in his arms and pressed me to him and all my members felt his in full felicity..." (Bynum 180). This same woman had been with a lover for nine years, for which she did three years of penance. * Margery Kempe begs her husband not to touch her, and punishes herself for sleeping with him by wearing a hair shirt next to her skin at all times. During this time however, she still manages to bear him children without his ever noticing the shirt. *

It seems apparent that there is some inherent link between repressed sexuality, and visions of Jesus and what Bynum calls "eucharistic fervor."Margery Kempe begins her story talking of some heinous act which she has never confessed to anyone, and it has been theorized that she was raped, which was considered to be the woman's fault at that time. Throughout her Book, she is consistantly fighting sexual temptations, which she occasionally gives in to. She used to enjoy sex with her husband, before she saw the error of her ways, and nowhere does she ever say that she no longer desires him, but says "You know what sorrow I have had to be chaste for you in my body" (Kempe, 59). Chastity became a very big issue for many of the women mystics, both married and unmarried, but nowhere in Margery does she quote Jesus has having told her sex was evil or bad, but he calls it "your desire" rather than his command (Kempe, 60). So while these women deny themselves pleasures of the flesh, including sex, meat, wine and fine clothes, their devotion to Jesus and the Eucharist increases. The women spend hours, indeed all their time praying to and conversing with Jesus, and attending as many masses as they possibly could every day. The women's strongest desire was to partake of the body of Christ via the eucharist, which were written about using many very physical even sexual imagery to describe their feelings and experiences. Jesus, as manifested through the eucharist, was used as a substitute or instead of the men in their lives. This is very clearly expressed in the case of Margaret of Ypres from the thirteenth century, who had lost her true love, her father and her uncle, with whom she was very close. She replaces these men with her confessor, but when he becomes no longer available, she turns to Christ, and needs human comforting no longer.

Earthly companionship isn't the only thing that was replaced by obsessive participation in the eucharist, but earthly food as well. The women often denied themselves wine, meat and any other animal products, sustaining themselves only on bread, water, and the eucharist. This was often accompanied by the experience of having the eucharist itself taste like substances other than bread, like honeycomb in the experience of one woman. Margery abstains from meat and wine until one Midsummer's Eve when she prays to Jesus and tells him her husband will have sex with her unless she takes up eating the same foods with him. Jesus tells her he had only told her to fast so she could force her husband to that decision faster, and she makes the exchange. Eucharistic miracles were also very common, and highly theatrical displays of devotion. One woman had to sneak into church before feast days because so many people tried to see her ecstasy as she took communion. Margery Kempe cried violently "as if her sould and her body were going to be parted" every time she received communion, and several times had visions of Jesus and the movement of the host and chalice. When women were denied communion, it was very common for them to report that Jesus himself had played the priest and given it to them. Another aspect of the ecstasy was the fact that women often reported having visions and seeing Christ at the elevation, especially among women who only had communion annually or monthly, as was common among Franciscan nuns.

Most importantly was the joining with Jesus in a very physical, corporeal sense, not just the theoretical, spiritual sense, again returning to the concept of substitution for physical contact from men. The images of eating and being eaten, taking "flesh into flesh" is very common. For example one woman spurns a suitor and instead suckles at the breast of Christ. There are many instances of erotic behaviour tied inextricably to the physical manifestation of Jesus, either through the eucharist or in visions. The concept of literally wedding Jesus is not uncommon, complete with bridal bed and sexual consummation of the marriage. Many of the women talk about drinking his milk and liquid, very sexual images.

Whether or not this is a result of repressed sexuality being expressed in the only way possible or just the redirection of very intese emotion and physical awareness is an interesting question that can only be truthfully and fully answered by the women who experienced such things. However, there is a definite importance placed on the physical representation of Jesus' humanity to the women of the late medieval Europe.