MARIA d'OOSTERWIJK (Maria Van Hout; de Ligno, Lignana). - Mystic, b. at Oosterwijk, a village near 's Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in North Brabant, c. 1470, of a wealthy family; d. at Cologne on 30 Sept. 1547. From her father’s house she passed into the beguinage of her native place, and still very young she set out on the path of high contemplation.
In 1531 the Carthusian G. Kalckbrenner published anonymously a first work of M. Van Hout, Der rechte wech tzo der Evangelischer volkomenheit (The True Way to Evangelical Perfection), with an appendix of some of her spiritual letters, which reveal the sublime development of this soul inflamed with love for the absolute divine; then in 1532: Dat Paradijs der liefhacender sielen (The Paradise of Loving Souls). Two masterpieces of Netherlandish spirituality in the 16th century cannot be attributed to M.: Vanden tempel onser sielen (Of the Temple of Our Soul [1543, reprinted several times until 1626 and translated into various languages]) and Die evangelische Peere (The Evangelical Pearl [1535 and 1538]), which are instead works of one of her intimate friends, whose doctrine and spirit M. shares.
The influence of her books in the Netherlands, France (French School) and Germany is incalculable. M.’s doctrine, of a highly speculative character, is essentially Christocentric and theocentric; sacramental and liturgical life has a well-defined organic function in II. M. presents the synthesis of the mystical currents of the Middle Ages in the Netherlands and the Rhineland.