Women’s Visionary Preaching: From Hildegard von Bingen to Juana de la Cruz

What is it about?

This chapter explores how women in the Middle Ages and early modern period used visions as a way to preach and share religious teaching. It focuses on five key figures — Hildegard von Bingen, Elisabeth von Schönau, Hedewjich van Brabant, Domenica da Paradiso, and Juana de la Cruz — and compares how each understood their prophetic mission, spoke publicly, and explained scripture. The author shows, for example, that Elisabeth and Juana both experienced their visions during church services and that their communities played an important role in recording what they said. This created a kind of “shared authorship” — the visions belonged not just to the visionary but to the whole convent. These “liturgical visions” used songs, readings, and rituals to trigger spiritual experiences that were later written down as sermons. By tracing these connections, the chapter argues that Juana’s work is part of a long tradition of women’s visionary preaching that began in the twelfth century and continued to evolve across Europe. It helps us see her not as an isolated figure but as part of a larger spiritual and literary lineage.

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Photo by Brad Weaver on Unsplash

Photo by Brad Weaver on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This chapter helps us understand that Juana de la Cruz — and other visionary women — were not isolated voices but part of a long European tradition of women using visions to teach, guide, and challenge their communities. By connecting Juana’s sermons to figures like Hildegard von Bingen and Elisabeth von Schönau, the author shows that these women created a shared spiritual and literary heritage that gave them authority in a male-dominated Church. This matters for historians, theologians, and literary scholars because it reframes women’s mystical writing as a powerful form of preaching and public speech — not just private devotion.

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