Description

A new form of religious life for women developed during the thirteenth century. The beguinage provided women with a new option, one which was allowed them to live within a community of religious women, but also to remain within the larger civic community. The Beguine movement began in Belgium, in the diocese of Liege, in the early thirteenth century.

large beguinages were walled communities within the larger city. They usually included communal housing for poorer beguines, individual homes for wealthier beguines, a chapel, a hospital and a cemetery, as well as other buildings which served the needs of the religious community. These large beguinages were often quite wealthy, not only serving the poor, but also financially able to provide for their own beguines and also for other, less urgent, needs, including the decoration of their chapels. The Beguine convents in Lier and Brugge are still inhabited by Benedictine sisters.