With their revolutionary, religious views and idiosyncratic
interpretation of a spiritual experience, they managed to
seriously offend both the church and society

The Beguinage site is not only a symbol of caring and sharing in a society, it also represents the
multiple facets that are hidden behind one and the same gate

Marcella Pattyn

Marcella Pattyn, the world’s last Beguine, died on April 14th, aged 92

At Courtrai in 1960 Sister Marcella was one of only nine scattered among 40 neat white houses, sleeping in snowy linen in their narrow serge-curtained beds. And then there were none.

Almost her only concession to modernity was the motorised wheelchair in which she rode - at high speed - through the streets of Kortrijk, wrapped in a thick knitted scarf against the cold, brandishing her white cane dangerously like a lance.

Their writings—in their own vernacular, Flemish or French, rather than men’s Latin—were free-spirited and breathed defiance. “Men try to dissuade me from everything Love bids me do,” wrote Hadewijch of Antwerp:

They don’t understand it, and I can’t explain it to them. I must live out what I am

Typical occupations:

Tutoring children
Nursing & healthcare
Household duties
Charitable work

For income

Lacemaking