KEMPE, MARGERY. - English mystic, b. at Kings Lynn (Norfolk) ca. 1373, d. ca. 1440.
Married ca. 1393 to a well-to-do fellow citizen, she was the mother of 14 children, but vain and ambitious, until her failed enterprises taught her to return to God. Weeping over the past and out of devotion to the passion of Our Lord, she undertook great pilgrimages: to the Holy Land, stopping on the return journey for six months in Rome (1413-15), where she received direct news about the life of St. Bridget; to St. James of Compostela (1417), and later to Wilsnack and Aachen (1433), often a nuisance to her traveling companions because of her irrepressible tears and loud sobbing. Suspected of hypocrisy and of Lollardy, she was several times examined by ecclesiastical authority, but was always victorious in her profession of the Catholic faith.
Illiterate, in 1436 she recounted with great frankness the story of her life and of her mystical experiences to a priest, a book that is the oldest autobiography in English. Only some extracts of it were known (published in 1510). A modernized edition of it was prepared by the owner of the only manuscript, W. Butler-Bowden, The Book of M. K. (London 1936, New York 1944). The scholarly edition (with the same title) is the work of S. B. Meech and H. E. Allen (Early english text society, 212), London 1940.
Bibliography5 worksBesides the introductions to the said editions: J. R. O'Connell, Mistress M. K. of Lynn, in The Downside review, 55 (1937), pp. 174-82; A Be
BIBL.: Besides the introductions to the said editions: J. R. O'Connell, Mistress M. K. of Lynn, in The Downside review, 55 (1937), pp. 174-82; A Benedictine of Stanbrook, M. K. and the Holy Eucharist, ibid., 56 (1938), pp. 468-82; K. Cholmeley, M. K. genius and mystic, London 1947; H. S. Benner, Chaucer and the fifteenth century, Oxford 1947, p. 184 ff.; L. Oliger, in Antoniann, 23 (1948), pp. 402-404 (review).
Oliger, Livario. “Kempe, margery.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, col. 671. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/kempe-margery.
MLA
Oliger, Livario. “Kempe, margery.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 671. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/kempe-margery.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_kempe_margery,
author = {Oliger, Livario},
title = {Kempe, margery},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {671},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/kempe-margery}
}
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