Mechthild of Magdeburg at the table

A Beguine living by convent rhythm, Mathilde shared the table governed by the Rule of Saint Benedict: two cooked meals on ordinary days (the midday prandium and the evening cena), each consisting of two pulmenta—stewed dishes of grains, vegetables, or fish—a libra of dark bread, and sometimes a 'pittance' (pietantia), a small treat added on feast days. They ate in silence, listening to holy reading, with water and small beer as drink, wine reserved for the sick and solemnities. Frugality was not deprivation but discipline of the soul.

In Rhenish and Saxon convents, bees provided both wax for candles and honey—the only true sugar of the Middle Ages. It bound gingerbread, sweetened remedies, and made the feast-day pittance a permitted joy. For Mathilde, honey links the work of hands to the light of the altar.