Canticle is set against the backdrop of a vibrant and often contentious religious landscape in late-13th-century Flanders, defined by the rise of lay piety. This movement saw ordinary people, especially women, seeking a direct, personal relationship with God outside the rigid confines of monastic life. Two key expressions of this phenomenon shape the novel: the Beguine movement and the tradition of lay mysticism. The Beguines were communities of lay religious women who lived pious lives of work and charity without taking formal vows. These women occupied a unique social niche, gaining autonomy but also attracting suspicion from the established Church. In the novel, Aleys is sent to the Wijngaerde begijnhof, a real community in Brugge, where she initially scorns the women as “wanton” but eventually discovers their deep, practical faith.

Parallel to this communal movement was a rise in individual mysticism, wherein figures like Aleys sought a direct, ecstatic experience of God. Her visions, in which she feels she has “entered the psalter” (27), mirror the experiences of historical mystics like Hadewijch of Antwerp. This personal spirituality often clashed with Church authority, particularly over the prohibition of translating scripture into vernacular languages, which was viewed as a path to heresy. Canticle dramatizes this tension through Katrijn’s secret translations and Aleys’s trial, exploring the precarious but powerful spiritual world inhabited by devout laywomen.