Welcome to the blog for the Vernacular Devotional Cultures Group.

After sponsoring our first session for this new society at the Medieval Congress in May 2016, we are delighted to be expanding our reach and proposing several sessions of papers for May 2017. Our mandate for the Vernacular Devotional Culture includes making up for the loss of the Mystics Quarterly sessions no longer taking place at Congress by sponsoring sessions on medieval mystics and mysticism, fostering collaboration among societies devoted to religious cultures, and showcasing recent scholarship on vernacular spiritual traditions in medieval Western Europe.

The session topics we are proposing are:

1. “New Approaches to the Helfta Nuns and Their Contemporaries” (Organizing Committee)
2. Co-sponsored with the Syon Abbey Society: “Syon Abbey and its Associates” (Organizers: Stephanie Morley and Brandon Alakas)
3. “Imitatio Mariae in the Meditations vitae Christi traditions across Europe” (Organizers: Leah Buturain and Laura Saetvit Miles)
4. “Vernacular Spiritualities in the Later Middle Ages: Adaptations and Transformations” (Organizing Committee)

Once approvals have been made then we will advertise the selected sessions – please stay tuned.