They lived by themselves or in communities called beguinages, which could be single homes for just a few women or, as in Brugge, Brussels, and Amsterdam, walled-in rows of houses where hundreds of beguines lived together-a village of women within a medieval town or city. Beguines were essentially self-defined, in opposition to the many attempts to control and define them. But there were common elements that these medieval women shared across Europe, including their visionary spirituality, their unusual business acumen, and their courageous commitment to the poor and sick. They practiced a remarkable way of living independently, and they were never a religious order or a formalized movement. Beguines were laywomen, not nuns, and they did not live in monasteries. The beguines began to form in various parts of Europe over eight hundred years ago. Print The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement
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