HELVABAS is an acronym for Helfta – Virtue – Authority – Body – And – Soul.

This German-Swiss collaborative project seeks to decode the creation processes of three central Helfta texts using a well-established digital methodology. It aims to trace their biblical and patristic roots and influences, exemplified through three key theological themes: virtue, authority, and anthropology. The project is expected to yield fundamental insights into the corpus associated with the “Women of Helfta,” focusing in particular on a) Mechthild of Magdeburg (1207–82/94), b) Mechthild of Hackeborn (1241–99), and c) Gertrud of Helfta (1256–1301/02). It is among the most significant bodies of medieval mystical literature. Earlier historiography often oscillated between attributing radical originality to these texts and treating them as derivative of patristic and scholastic traditions. The processes of creation that ultimately produced the versions of the Helfta Corpus preserved today is still not sufficiently understood – mainly because of the limits of conventional methodology which rarely takes a sufficiently large body of sources into account. This is due, on the one hand, to the inadequate mutual integration of patristic and medieval research, and, on the other, to the limitations of the still dominating isolated diachronic close readings of these texts. Particularly, the creative processes at work have not been understood sufficiently with regard as to how the exegetical and theological traditions were taken up here and processed – a process that continued even after the death of the three female author figures as the surviving (later) manuscripts clearly show. Building on the growing recognition that the Helfta writings are both innovative and deeply conversant with inherited theology and biblical texts, this project advances the model of integrierte Rezeption (integrated reception), brings together scholars of patristic and medieval theology, and proposes digital methods to go beyond what could be achieved by previous attempts. The digitized Helfta source texts are being digitally analysed and compared with patristic and biblical material using MAXQDA which will facilitate decoding their structure and discovering parallels and analogies in patristic discourse and their biblical references. In the end this approach will facilitate the reading of the Helfta texts with a new perspective and in a new light.

This website will be continuously updated with the latest project results.

Please also see Project MMMMO (click) for further information on Helfta mysticism and manuscript transmission, as well as a visualization of the distribution of Mechthild manuscripts.