Marguerite Porete

Marguerite Porete (c. 1258 – 1 June 1310) was a Beguine mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian mysticism exploring the nature of divine love. She is believed to have originated from the region of Hainaut, in what is now Belgium.

As a Beguine, Porete belonged to a movement of pious laywomen in northwestern Europe who sought to live a spiritual life outside the control of a formal religious order. Notably, she wrote her book in vernacular French rather than Latin, placing her spiritual ideas beyond the reach of ecclesiastical authorities.... a radical choice for the time.

The Mirror of Simple Souls is considered by some to be the greatest religious tract written in Old French. However, her depiction of the soul as transcending conventional morality through union with God brought her into conflict with Church authorities. She refused to withdraw her book or recant her views, and was burned at the stake on 1 June 1310 in Paris at the Place de Grève.

After her death, The Mirror continued to circulate anonymously, and her authorship was not rediscovered until 1946, when scholar Romana Guarnieri identified Latin manuscripts of the work in the Vatican.