Marian Virtues and Margery Kempe: the Influence of Carmelite Devotion to the Virgin

Abstract

Medieval devotion to the Virgin is one of the most disseminated, dynamic and popular aspects of late medieval spirituality. Margery’s devotion to the Virgin is grounded in this widespread Marian devotion, and it permeates the Book of Margery Kempe. References to the Virgin in the Book are roughly categorized into three aspects of the Virgin: the Virgin as the Mother of Christ; the Virgin as the Bride of Christ; and the Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse, all of which are established in the late medieval culture of Marian devotion and elucidate the virtues that the Virgin embodies.