‘A New and Special Joy’: Increasing the Happiness of Mary and the Saints in the Helfta Spirituality

Convinced of the meaningfulness of virtually their every desire, every thought, and every action to Mary and the saints, the thirteenth-century nuns of Helfta celebrate the joy they brought to those already bathed in the bliss of eternity, as one reads in the nuns’ hybrid compositions, Book of Special Grace and the Herald. Collaboratively composed with almost no discernable male involvement, and consisting of revelations and ecstasies, teachings, prayers, and testimonies to the exemplary devotion of the monastery’s most esteemed members, Mechtild of Hackeborn (1241 - ca. 1298/99) Gertrude of Helfta (1256 - ca. 1301/02) as well as to the holiness of the household as a whole, this literature piles visionary account on top of visionary account to accentuate the privileged place the nuns understood themselves to occupy in the heavenly spheres.