Two Middle English Prayer Cycles

The book makes available two vivid and lyrical expressions of medieval faith, one a rare example of female authorship, the other composed by one of England’s last anchorites.

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This volume presents the first critical editions of two fascinating but overlooked medieval prayer sequences: the Holkham “Prayers and Meditations” (c. 1400-1420), a rare example of medieval religious literature by a female author written to guide a “religious sustir” in her devotions; and Simon Appulby’s “Fruyte of Redempcyon (1514), composed by one of England’s last anchorites to serve his urban community. Patterned after the widely influential fourteenth-century Meditationes vitae Christi (“Meditations on the Life of Christ”) and its psychological model of prayer, both cycles direct their readers to imagine themselves in Jesus’s presence during key events of Christian history, mystically envisioning and experiencing Christ’s life and passion in the here and now through a state of spiritual intimacy. Despite their differences in century, contexts, and intended audiences, these prayer sequences together introduce readers to one of the most vital and idiosyncratic traditions of medieval Christian devotion.