Luykx, Theo. De grafelijke bestuursintellingen en het grafelijk patrimonium in Vlaanderen tijdens
de regering van Margareta van Constantinopel (1244–1278). Brussels: Vlaamse Academie,
1978.
Vandermaesen, M. “Vlaanderen en Henegouwen onder het Huis van Dampierre, 1244–1384.” In
Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden. 2nd ed. Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1982, Vol. 2,
pp. 399–440.
MARGUERITE D’OINGT
(ca. 1240–1310). Marguerite was born to noble parents in the French Beaujolais region.
By 1288, she became prioress of the Carthusian monastery of Poletains at Lyon.
Although she was never canonized, a popular cult in her honor flourished until the
Revolution, and she was revered as blessed. Marguerite is the only medieval Carthusian
woman writer known to us. The Pagina meditationum, a response in Latin to a visionary
experience during Mass, interweaves liturgical sections with reflections on Christ’s
Passion and the Last Judgment. In a remarkable passage, Marguerite develops the image
of Christ as a woman undergoing the suffering of labor. The Speculum, written in Franco-
Provençal and dedicated to Hugo, prior of Vallebonne, describes three visions and their
meaning. In the first, Christ shows her a book with white, black, red, and golden letters
symbolizing his suffering. In the second, the book opens and reveals a vision of Paradise
and the heavens, whence all goodness emanates. In the third, she is shown the glorified
body of Christ and meditates on its meaning for Christian spirituality. Marguerite’s final
work is the biography of Beatrice of Ornacieux (ca. 1260–1303/09), a stigmatized nun at
the charterhouse of Parmenie, whose cult was recognized by Pope Pius IX in 1869. Also
written in the vernacular, the biography stresses Beatrice’s intense mystical experiences,
including frequent apparitions, the gift of tears, severe acts of penance to ward off the
Devil, and eucharistic visions and miracles. Marguerite’s christocentric mysticism
includes not only Carthusian but also Franciscan and Cistercian elements. Some letters by
Marguerite also survive.
Ulrike Wiethaus
[See also: WOMEN, RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF]
Marguerite d’Oingt. Les œuvres de Marguerite d’Oingt, ed. Antonin Duraffour, Pierre Gardette,
and Paulette Durdilly. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1965.
——. The Writings of Margaret of Oingt, Medieval Prioress and Mystic, trans. Renate Blumenfeld-
Kosinski. Newburyport: Focus Information Group, 1990.
Dinzelbacher, Peter. “Margarete von Oingt und ihre Pagina meditationum.” Analecta cartusiana
16(1988):69–100.
Maisonneuve, Roland. “L’experience mystique et visionnaire de Marguerite d’Oingt (d. 1310),
moniale chartreuse.” Analecta cartusiana 55(1981):81–102.
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