Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte (January 13, 1616 – October 30, 1680) was a Flemish mystic

Mysticism

Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...

. From an early age she was under the influence of religion, which took in course of time a mystical turn.

Biography

Born in Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...

 with a facial deformity

Deformity

A deformity, dysmorphism, or dysmorphic feature is a major difference in the shape of body part or organ compared to the average shape of that part.Deformity may arise from numerous causes:*A Genetic mutation*Damage to the fetus or uterus...

, Antoinette belonged to a rich Catholic family. She left her family and home after being proposed to, unwilling to marry. She started a girls' correction home with inheritance money. When one of the girls died, she fled to Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

 and Mechelen

Mechelen

Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...

. With a follower she moved to Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, where she met Jean de Labadie, Comenius

Comenius

John Amos Comenius ; ; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica...

 and Anna Maria van Schurman

Anna Maria van Schurman

Anna Maria van Schurman was a German-Dutch painter, engraver, poet and scholar. She was a highly educated woman by seventeenth century standards...

. There she published her ideas. Her religious enthusiasm, peculiarity of views and disregard of all sect

Sect

A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...

s raised both zealous persecutors and warm adherents. In 1671 she inherited the island Nordstrand

Nordstrand, Germany

Nordstrand is a peninsula and former island in North Frisia on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 50 km², and its population is 2,300...

 not far from Husum, where she moved with a few followers and started a commune

Commune (intentional community)

A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...

. She set up a printing press

Printing press

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

 and carried on the liveliest literary controversy, calling herself the new Eve

Eve (Bible)

Eve was, according to the creation of Abrahamic religions, the first woman created by God...

until her press was confiscated by the local government. The Lutheran clergy no longer tolerating her actions, she moved to East-Friesland and founded a hospital. On her way to Amsterdam she died at Franeker

Franeker

Franeker is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Franekeradeel. It is located about 20 km west of Leeuwarden on the Van Harinxma Canal. As of 1 January 2006, it had 12,996 inhabitants. The city is famous for the Eisinga Planetarium from around...

, Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, on 30 October 1680. She left a large number of followers, which dwindled rapidly away.

In the early 18th century her influence was revived in Scotland (see Andrew Michael Ramsay

Andrew Michael Ramsay

Andrew Michael Ramsay , commonly called the Chevalier Ramsay, was a Scottish-born writer who lived most of his adult life in France. He was a Baronet in the Jacobite Peerage....

), sufficiently to call forth several denunciations of her doctrines in the various Presbyterian general assemblies of 1701, 1709 and 1710. So far as appears from her writings and contemporary records, she was a visionary of the ordinary type, distinguished only by the audacity and persistency of her pretensions.

Writings

Her writings, containing an account of her life and of her visions and opinions, were collected by her disciple, Pierre Poiret

Pierre Poiret

Pierre Poiret was a prominent 17th century French mystic and Christian philosopher. He was born at Metz April 15, 1646 and died at Rijnsburg Pierre Poiret was a prominent 17th century French mystic and Christian philosopher. He was born at Metz April 15, 1646 and died at Rijnsburg Pierre Poiret was...

 (19 vols, Amsterdam, 1679–1686), who also published her life (2 vols, 1683):

• La vie de Dam^lle Antoinette Bourignon. Ecrite partie par elle-méme, partie par une personne de sa connoissance, dans les Traités dont on void le tiltre a la page suivante. Amsterdam: J. Riewerts & P. Arents, 1683. The first volume of the book (pp. 137-223) contains her autobiography up to 1668.

For a critical account see Hauck, Realencylopädie (Leipzig, 1897), and Étude sur Antoinette Bourignon, by M. E. S. (Paris, 1876). Three of her works at least have been translated into English, some by Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...

in an earlier stage:

• An Abridgment of the Light of the World (London, 1786)
• A Treatise of Solid Virtue (1699)
• The Restoration of the Gospel Spirit (1707).

External links

• http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/theology/2004/m.p.a.de.baar/
• http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.ccl.htm