Over the course of the Middle Ages, a shift took place in the concept of the bride of Christ. Initially, this was understood to refer to the Church, the Virgin Mary, or the human soul in a generalized rather than individual sense. Bridal status was conferred by the early Church upon virgins and then upon nuns with the rise of coenobitic monasticism. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, chaste widows and even sexually active married women began to claim their own individual status as celestial brides. They participated in mystical weddings that were vividly imagined and described, and their spousal relationships with Christ became increasingly romanticized and eroticized. This created theological and practical difficulties for some late medieval women, who risked controversy and found themselves struggling to reconcile a spiritual vocation with conjugal obligations and the care of children and the home. This essay outlines how spousal relationships with Christ progressed and developed during this time, taking as illustrative examples Marie of Oignies (1177–1213), Bridget of Sweden (1303–73), and Dorothy of Montau (1347–1394). It explores how oral and written accounts of their lives influenced the devotional and mystical experiences of married and widowed women in England, including the rise in popularity of the vowess vocation and the extraordinary life of English mystic Margery Kempe (c.1373 – after 1438).