pain

is

largely

incidental

to

the

larger

discussion

in

these

works,

treated

as

a

feature

of

the

"physical

and

spiritual

disjointedness,"

of

human

ex-

istence,12

or

the

manifestation

of

the

female

mystic's

commitment

to

bodily

imitatio

Christi.

Mechthild

and

other

medieval

women

mystics

employ

the

language

of

suffering

and

pain

to

describe

both

their

practical

piety

and

mystical

experience.