The Book of Margery Kempe

Margery wears a ring that reads, in Latin, “Jesus is my love.” She fears it might be stolen or lost. One day, while staying with a friendly man and his wife, she loses it. She and the wife search the home, including around the bed, where Margery finds it. The wife apologizes to Margery and requests her forgiveness. Margery then travels to Assisi where she encounters an English friar to whom she tells her spiritual story and who claims to have never heard of anyone “on such homely terms with God by love and homely conversation as she was” (81).

Margery sees the relic of the Virgin’s kerchief in a church in Assisi, which causes her to weep and scream. The date is Lammas Day [Blessing of the Harvest], when many pilgrims flock to the church for remission of sins by appealing to the Virgin. Margery meets a gentlewoman called Margaret Florentyne here and joins her party so that she and her escort, Richard, can travel to Rome unscathed—a fact that surprises her former travel companions when they meet her.

Margery then clothes herself in white, in fulfillment of God’s command. She goes to the Hospital of St.