Rolle d e Hampole, R ichard (c.1300–1349)

Abstract Richard Rolle was a 14th century English mystic and hermit, notable for the spiritual fervor and devotion of his prolific writing about the soul's love for, journey toward, and ecstatic union with God. His writings were extremely popular, treasured by unlearned laypeople and by those in religious vocations, both for the spiritual renewal he encouraged by his instruction and for the lyricism or accessibility of his language: wanting to reach a wide audience, he wrote in Latin and in English, the first English mystic to write in his native tongue.