Margaret of Oingt (ca. 1240-1310) was to a noble family in southwestern France. She entered a Carthusian convent probably before 1268 and is later recorded as a prioress. Her writings show her to be a visionary. Of considerable intelligence, she wrote in both Latin and the Provençal dialect. She also recorded the life of another nun, named "Saint Beatrice or Ornacieux" who was deeply devoted to meditation on the Passion of Christ. Beatrice was granted a vision that occurred at the time of the elevation of the host at Mass (a moment that Margery Kempe speaks of with fervor). Beatrice: 
  

Excerpts: 

For a long period of time every day at the elevation she saw the Body of our Lord in the form of a little child. Thus she saw a great brightness between the priest's hands, so vivid and so bright and of such wonderful beauty that in her opinion it could not be compared to anything the human spirit could imagine. And it seemed to her that this brightness had a circular shape and the in the brightness there appeared a great red brightness, so resplendent and so beautiful that it illuminated with its great beauty all the white brightness. 

And in that white brightness appeared a little child. . . . Above this child there appeared a great brightness which looked like gold; it gave off such a vivid brilliance that enfolded all the other brightnesses into itself and entered itself into the other brightness. . . . And it seemed to her that the beauty and the splendor they had in common appeared united in that child. And that child appeared in the midst of this splendor. 

After she enjoyed this vision for a long time, she thought she was a great sinner and that she was offending her Creator, and she began to be fearful. So she anxiously begged of our Lord that it may please His great goodness to show her His glorious body quite simply at elevation. After that prayer she saw him for some time as one can see from afar an image painted on parchment (that is, as an illustration in a book). Nevertheless His beauty was so great that she could not describe nor make anyone understand it. After that, she saw Him quite simply, as the other nuns did. (Writings of Margaret of Oingt, pp. 54-55). 
  

SOURCES Renate Blumfeld-Kosinski, The Writings of Margaret of Oingt, Medieval Prioress and Mystic, d. 1310. Focus Information Group: Newburyport, MA, 1990.

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