Reformers and Mystics (1100 CE – 1500 CE)

The period from 1100 to 1500 was an age of extraordinary spiritual flowering. The mendicant orders - Franciscans and Dominicans - transformed religious life and brought the Gospel to the growing cities of Europe. The great cathedrals rose, the universities flourished, and mystics plumbed depths of prayer that continue to guide souls today.

Here you will meet St Francis of Assisi, who embraced Lady Poverty and renewed the Church through radical simplicity; St Dominic, whose Order of Preachers combined contemplation with apostolic zeal; and St Clare, who founded a community of women dedicated to prayer. You will encounter St Thomas Aquinas, whose theological synthesis remains the foundation of Catholic thought, and St Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor.

This era also produced great women mystics: St Catherine of Siena, who counselled popes and wrote of divine love; St Bridget of Sweden, whose revelations shaped late medieval piety; and Julian of Norwich, the first woman to write a book in English. Their writings remain treasures of Christian spirituality.