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Biography & Personal Stories
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Meet Margery Kempe: The Medieval Mystic Who Wrote the First Autobiography and Wept Her Way Through Europe
Margery Kempe, a 15th-century English mystic, defied convention by writing the first autobiography in English. A mother of 14, she was famous for her loud, public weeping, unauthorized preaching, and repeatedly facing down heresy charges during her extensive pilgrimages across Europe.
Long before the age of tell-all memoirs and viral confessionals, a 15th-century English mother of fourteen decided to tell her story. Her name was Margery Kempe, and she was anything but ordinary. She wasn't a quiet, cloistered saint but a loud, disruptive, and controversial figure who traveled Europe, challenged bishops, and dictated the very first autobiography in the English language. Her life story is a fascinating, sometimes bizarre, window into the passions and perils of late-medieval faith.
From Merchant's Daughter to Mystic Mother
Born around 1373 in King's Lynn, Norfolk, Margery came from a respectable background; her father was a merchant and mayor. She married John Kempe and, by her own account, lived a conventional life focused on worldly status and vanity. Everything changed after the traumatic birth of her first child. She experienced a severe mental and spiritual crisis, which culminated in a vision of Jesus Christ sitting on her bedside. This moment became the pivot of her entire existence.
Her first attempts at a new life were clumsy. She tried to run a brewery and then a horse-mill, both of which failed spectacularly. Margery interpreted these failures as divine punishment for her pride, pushing her further toward a life of pure devotion. Eventually, she negotiated a vow of chastity with her husband—a radical move after having 14 children—and embarked on her new calling as a pilgrim and mystic.
The Gift of Tears
Margery Kempe is perhaps most famous for her "gift of tears." This wasn't gentle weeping; it was loud, uncontrollable sobbing, wailing, and roaring that would overcome her during Mass, in the streets, or whenever she contemplated Christ's suffering. She believed it was a profound spiritual experience bestowed by God. Her contemporaries were less convinced. Many found it disruptive and annoying, while others suspected it was a fraudulent performance or even a sign of demonic possession. In her own book, she describes the public's reaction to her fits while on pilgrimage:
"And this creature had cryings, roarings, and weepings... so loud and so wonderful that it made the people astonished unless they had heard it before or else they knew the cause of the crying."
This public display of extreme emotion, so at odds with the expected quiet piety of a woman, made her an outcast in many of the communities she visited. Yet, she refused to stop, convinced it was her sacred duty.
A Woman on a Mission (and on Trial)
Fueled by her visions, Margery undertook extensive pilgrimages to the most sacred sites in Christendom, including Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. But she didn't just travel quietly. She spoke publicly about theology, shared her divine revelations, and offered spiritual counsel to anyone who would listen. For a woman with no formal religious authority, this was tantamount to unauthorized preaching and was incredibly dangerous.
Her behavior repeatedly landed her in trouble with church authorities. She was arrested and interrogated on suspicion of Lollardy—a reformist movement condemned as heresy. In an era when heretics could be burned at the stake, Margery faced archbishops and clergymen, defending herself with a surprising command of scripture and sharp wit. Time and again, she was examined and released, never formally convicted of heresy, a testament to her unshakeable conviction and intelligence.
The First Autobiography in English
Margery's ultimate legacy is *The Book of Margery Kempe*. Likely illiterate, she dictated her life's story to two scribes, creating a work that is unprecedented for its time. It is not a hagiography written to prove sainthood, but a raw, personal, and deeply human account of one woman's spiritual journey. It details her struggles with doubt, her visions, her travels, her arguments, and even her temptations. The manuscript was lost for centuries, only to be rediscovered in 1934 in the library of a private family. Its discovery opened a unique portal into the mind of a medieval laywoman, unfiltered by the male-dominated church hierarchy.
Margery Kempe remains a complex figure. Was she a genuine mystic, a proto-feminist challenging patriarchal structures, or a woman grappling with severe mental health issues? The truth is likely a mixture of all three. She was a brave, stubborn, and utterly unique individual who refused to be silenced, leaving behind a story that continues to challenge and fascinate us over 600 years later.