Comparison Of Marguerite Porete And Catherine Of Siena

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The concept of women’s struggle to find a place in society appears to be a relatively modern one, though in reality women have struggled with living in a time period that works against them for the entirety of history. Even throughout the Middle Ages, a period known for its suppressing and constraining ideals, some extraordinary women stood up against what was socially accepted at the time and made history in a line of work that is vastly underrepresented by women leaders: Medieval Christianity. Marguerite Porete and Catherine of Siena were two women who pushed the boundaries of the belief system in their times. These two women show simple congruencies such as, underlying theological similarities as well as astounding differences, such as their …show more content…

A woman’s image was believed to be a clash between sin and salvation (p. 433). The dualistic nature of women, much like the dualistic nature of Jesus Christ, created a unique relationship between spiritualist and Christ. For many spiritualist, even those that were female themselves, “woman” was something that was weak and with evil nature, while “male” was what was strong and good. Beliefs such as these, trace back to the story of the fall in which Eve was the cause for original sin. Catherine of Siena notably “used woman to symbolize humanity” while also describing women, including herself, as was weak, poor maids, beggars, little girls, or despised (p 432-433). This shows a significant difference between the two spiritualists. Marguerite Porete, unlike Catherine of Siena, never equated woman as weak, and never apologized for being so. Instead, in her writings, woman was the reason of salvation. Marguerite Porete’s wrote a conversational-styled piece in which the superior being was feminine, showing her rebellion towards the idea of woman as weak, instead she depicted this female character as the goal that people should work towards …show more content…

For Marguerite Porete, there is no doubt that perfection can be reached in this life. For her, perfection is when the soul stops desiring anything that is not God’s desire. In her book, A Mirror of Simple Soul’s Marguerite Porete adds a disclaimer that the book itself is plagued with imperfection because she had to leave the state of perfection, the state of not wanting anything, in able to write the book. In the place of perfection, Marguerite Porete places Love, or as she calls it the highest name of God. Marguerite explains that Love is the heir to God and “through the Love from the Holy Spirit” the world knew Jesus Christ (PAGE

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