A 'mystical' writer?
Referring back to the definition of mysticism given at the beginning, Marie Noël's work fits perfectly; she bears witness to a desire, sometimes fulfilled, to be inhabited by God. Her poems and prose give an account of her constant oscillation between feelings of love and of 'silence' felt in the inner emptiness of daily life like a calling.
As with all mystics, and often a cause of frustration, this “knowledge” of God is seen as exclusively emotional. Neither reason nor theological knowledge are employed. Furthermore, Marie Noël insists several times on her lack of learning in this subject. On the contrary, she places great stress in her work on childishness. The magical, even fairytale faith experienced by the ignorant little girl, the wonder she felt in listening to mass and in singing the religious offices is willingly evoked. The “naivety” of a religious sentiment unencumbered by book learning functions as an indicator of authenticity.
In Marie Noël's correspondence, one learns that this extreme emotionality is felt in the flesh, which is also a characteristic of the experience of the mystic, corporeal rather than mental. Hildegard of Bingen[1] , who was writing in the 12th century, is often cited: “God does not abide in the healthy body.” The breath of God caresses Marie Noël in the real meaning of the word. Besides, she suffered continually from psychiatric and physical illness. She told her friends that she suffered from vertigo, hypertension, overwork, languor, exhaustion (perhaps after long days of meditation and prayer), nervous tics, torturous hypersensitivity, anxiety, sclerosis of the eyes, colonitis, depressive melancholy, deafness, shingles, blindness (in the last years of her life she completely lost her sight)..... her hypersensitivity deprived her of the use of her legs for many months. Apart from her stay in the psychiatric hospital in 1920, she was often confined to her bed and regularly went to the country for a rest cure. But her continually failing body did not stop her. On the contrary, it was a fundamental element of her being in the world. She explained this in a letter to her confessor, abbé Mugnier[2] .
Extreme sensibility profoundly affecting a suffering body, the emphasis on emotion, and the use of writing to mark her spiritual journey are among the characteristics which place Marie Noël amongst the great mystics of Christianity such as Teresa of Avila[3] , François de Sales[4] , and Thérèse de Lisieux[5] .At times she gained her inspiration from Thérèse de Lisieux and the saints and martyrs of the Golden Legend[6] .However, she categorically refused to be compared to these women and men. In her Notes intimes, she humorously describes mystics as “mad people who strike their feet in order to grow wings” (p.59). In her correspondence she firmly refutes any mystical inspiration for her works.
From then on, it was above all her readers who were to find a mystical dimension in her texts. Her confessor and literary mentor abbé Mugnier wrote to her on 15 August 1930: The Rosaire de Joies [Rosary of Joy] is perhaps the masterpiece of mystic poetry.” Since then, a whole literature, academic or not, from theology to literary analysis, has been devoted to describing the characteristics of a literary output which is both part of an ancient tradition of mystical literature and a testament, in a more contemporary style, to fierce religious doubt, sometimes to the cost of dogma. Marie Noël descended 'to Hell' many times and made of this a source of inspiration. In this way, she revealed the painful aspect of faith, not an easy option, but a relentless quest for souls who are inconsolable at not being saints. Certainly, such literature already existed, but the novelty of Notes intimes is that it was not written by a nun who aspired to sanctity and with whom it would be difficult to identify.
