Elizabeth Stagel

Elizabeth (Elsbeth) Stagler, a Dominican nun in the convent at Töss in southern Germany, was a central figure in the mysticism movement that coursed through the Rhineland in the fourteenth century. Mystics aspired to a direct, intense experience of the divine, and came together in fellowship groups such as the Friends of God, of which Stagel was a member. She recorded the lives of her sisters at Töss, the history of the Friends, and the life and works of her mentor, the prominent mystic Heinrich Suso. Stagel’s work is integral to understanding mysticism and monastic life in medieval Germany.