Dorothea of Montau

After her widowhood, Dorothea went to Marienwerder, the seat of the cathedral chapter of the Diocese of Pomesania, then linked to the State of the Teutonic Order. On May 2, 1393, with the agreement of the chapter, she had herself enclosed as a recluse in a cell built against the wall of the cathedral. According to the tradition reported by several sources, her cell had three openings: one facing the sky, another towards the altar in order to follow the liturgy, and the third towards the cemetery. She lived there in fasting, prayer, and mortification, receiving communion every day, a practice that was very exceptional at the time. It was in Marienwerder that she met Johannes von Marienwerder, a canon and theologian trained in Prague, who became her confessor and spiritual director. A witness and confidant to her inner experiences, he recorded her confidences and, after her death, composed several works concerning her, including a Latin life, the Septililium (the seven graces of her spiritual life), and the Liber de festis, a collection of her visions ordered according to the liturgical cycle. These writings make Dorothea one of the major figures of Northern European mysticism at the end of the Middle Ages.

Dorothea's spiritual life is characterized by an ardent interiority, nourished by visions and ecstasies which, according to the accounts collected by Johannes von Marienwerder, accompany the entire liturgical cycle, from Advent to Pentecost. Several sources place her experience of a mystical union with Christ around the autumn of 1393, during her reclusion. Her devotion is particularly attached to the Passion of Christ, the Eucharist, and the Virgin Mary, and she practiced a rigorous asceticism consisting of fasts and penances. A mother who became a recluse, she illustrates a path of lay and conjugal holiness, distinct from monastic life, which brings her itinerary closer to that of other contemporary mystics. During her lifetime, her reputation for holiness already attracted many visitors to her cell who came to seek advice and comfort. It is this renown, confirmed by the large number of witnesses heard shortly after her death, that established the cult rendered to her memory in the lands of Prussia.

The cult of Dorothea developed immediately after her death. A trial for her recognition was opened as early as 1404-1405: according to sources, more than two hundred and fifty witnesses testified regarding her virtues and the graces attributed to her intercession. The procedure, however, did not succeed and remained interrupted for a long time. The cause was only resumed in the 20th century, in the 1950s and then in 1971, in the form of a request for confirmation of the long-standing cult. On January 9, 1976, Pope Paul VI officially confirmed this immemorial cult, an act equated to an equipollent beatification: Dorothea has since been honored as blessed. It should be noted that she was not the subject of a canonization in the strict sense, despite the antiquity and fervor of her veneration. Her liturgical feast is set for June 25, the day of her death; some martyrologies also mention a commemoration on October 30.

The legacy of Dorothea of Montau is primarily due to the place she occupies in the spiritual history of the Baltic countries and Northern Europe. Her cell and tomb, in the cathedral of Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), long remained a place of pilgrimage, and the cathedral preserves an iconographic memory of the recluse saint. She is traditionally honored as the patron saint of Prussia and the monastic state of the Teutonic Order, and popular piety has invoked her as a protector of wives, widows, and parents of large families, echoing her own experience as a mother tried by the death of her children. Her influence owes much to the works composed by her spiritual director Johannes von Marienwerder, in particular the Septililium and the Liber de festis, which transmitted the account of her visions and established her image as a mystic. Today, these texts make her a valuable source for the study of female devotion and lay mysticism at the end of the Middle Ages.