Bijns, Anna (1493/94–1575)
Bijns, Anna (1493/94–1575)
Flemish religious poet. Name variations: Byns; Sappho of Brabant. Born in 1493 or 1494 in Antwerp (Netherlands); died on April 10, 1575, probably in Antwerp; never married; no children.
Known as the Brabantine Sappho, Anna Bijns was one of many women whose religious writings found a receptive audience in the 16th century, though she was one of the few who was not a nun to achieve success. Bijns, who did not marry but chose to live with relatives her entire life, was a schoolteacher with a strong devotion to the Catholic Church, which was threatened with a serious decline as Protestant ideas spread through Western Europe. Along with teaching, Bijns wrote poetry, often lamenting the attacks made on Catholicism and making her own attacks on the leaders and ideas of the Protestant movement. She also composed some poetry on secular themes. In the 1530s, Bijns founded her own school, but this did not keep her from her literary endeavors. She eventually published three collections of her verses on religious themes. Anna Bijns died about age 82.
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