Jaime Jarmin

English 167
Wiki
Beatrice of Nazareth

In the fourth chapter of Nin, written by Cass Dalglish, we are brought into the beginning
portion of Nin’s journey toward finding more information on women writers and philosophers.
Without Nin’s knowledge, she had gained a small crowd at her father’s gathering celebrating his
newest translation of Aquinas. The poem she had orally recited while in jail had surfaced onto
the internet, and captured the attention of women who felt the same way regarding the bitterness
toward male philosophers, including Aquinas. This is evident by Nin stating this right after she
had said the first line of her poem, “They must have read my ‘unwritten’ poem on the Internet”
(67). There was quite an uproar when the women who had come to see Nin recite her poem
decided to speak during the engagement. After the women had left, we are introduced to Sister
Hildegard who proceeded to educate Nin on many different women writers who seemed to
contradict the idea of Aristotle and Aquinas’s ideals and perceptions about women. One of the
writers she introduces to Nin is Beatrice of Nazareth, who seemed to take a different approach to
life than the outspoken women who crashed the Aquinas party.

Beatrice of Nazareth was the youngest of six children, and was sent to live among
beguines at the age of seven after her mother had passed away, according to the Other Women’s
Voices website. The way in which Nin describes Beatrice of Nazareth sums up the way she lived
out her life: “Give the people memory… / Of Beatrice of Nazareth / who found frenzy in the
quiet of her well-kept house, / whose veins opened, whose bones cracked, / whose chest
exploded in the rage of love” (85). The women-philosophers.com website described Beatrice’s
childhood of desiring to live in a monastery, but was unable due to her lack of experience, young
age, and money (most likely dowry in those days). She was extremely intelligent, and was able
to write manuscripts for choir books while at a Cistercian monastery when she became a little
older. After a period of time she did indeed become a Cisterican Saint according to the Boston
University website, where she enjoyed being solitude. She was extremely focused on the theme
of love, and was able to write The Seven Ways of Divine Love, which describes a loving
relationship with God. This piece of writing illustrated that love can indeed “grow deeper and
deeper” and has “stages and growth” (Women-philosophers.com).

Beatrice of Nazareth was a quiet force to be reckoned with in her day, and it would be
interesting to see what Aristotle and Aquinas would think of her writings if they had the chance
to read them or learn about them, just like Nin.

Works Cited

“Beatrice of Nazareth 1200-1268 CE”. Women-philosophers.com. n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2010.

“Beatrijs of Nazareth/Beatrice/Beatrijs van Tienen (c.1200-1268)”. Other Women’s Voices. 27

July 2010. Web. 8 Oct. 2010.

Dalglish, Cass. Nin. Minnesota: Spinsters Ink, 2000. Print.

De Ganck, Roger. “III. Beatrice of Nazareth.” Boston University. n.d. Web 8 Oct. 2010.