Elisabeth or Elsbeth Stagel (c. 1300 – c. 1360) was a Dominican

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

and prioress of the Töss Convent.

Biography

Stagel was born into a noble family of Zurich, the daughter of a councilor. She developed a deep friendship with

Henry Suso Henry Suso, OP (also called Amandus, a name adopted in his writings, and Heinrich Seuse or Heinrich von Berg in German; 21 March 1295 – 25 January 1366) was a German Dominican friar and the most popular vernacular writer of the fourteenth cen ...

, and the two remained in active correspondence. Suso considered Stagel his spiritual daughter. During their meetings, Stagel asked Suso to help her understand the pathway to God by sharing with her his own experiences. However, Suso did not know that the well-educated nun was keeping the letters he sent her and recording all that Suso told her, concerning both theological matters and his extreme practices of personal penance. When Suso learned of Stagel's undertaking, he requested the texts and proceeded to burn them, saving only the second installment of manuscripts for the sake of educating other religious.Kroll, 166. Suso forbade Stagel to imitate him by engaging in extreme asceticism, fearing for her health.Classen & Sandidge, 483. The historicity of Stagel as the author of the ''Lives of the Nuns of Töss'', a work containing biographies of 39 nuns and providing a comprehensive picture of mysticism in the Töss Convent, is subject to debate. Blessed Elizabeth of Hungary may have been one of the nuns whose life Stagel described but this allegation has been particularly disputed because the book portrays Blessed Elizabeth's stepmother, Agnes of Austria, dowager queen of Hungary, very negatively; it is highly unlikely that such a biography was written before the death of Queen Agnes who outlived Stagel, dying in 1364.Duggan, 116. Stagel died in

Töss Töss is a district in the Swiss city of Winterthur. It is district number 4. The district comprises the quarters Schlosstal, Dättnau, Eichliacker and Rossberg. It is named after the river Töss which flows through the district. In the Middle ...

. Stagel's work is integral to understanding mysticism and monastic life in medieval Germany. File:Stagel Vorrede Original.jpg, Original preface of the book File:Stagel Vorrede.jpg, Preface File:Stagel_Namen.jpg, Names of nuns

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Biography

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