Next October, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) will join a
most select company of saints if she is proclaimed a Doctor of the Church,
as reports indicate. To
date, there are only 33 of these saints, whose exceptional holiness and wisdom
have made significant contributions to our Faith. Hildegard would be only the
fourth woman so honored, joining Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and
Therese of Lisieux.
Among those luminaries, Hildegard blazes in colors all her
own. Medievalist Peter Dronke describes her as “an overpowering, electrifying
presence—and in many ways an enigmatic one.” The breadth and variety of
Hildegard’s accomplishments are unique. Her voluminous writings encompass
theology, prophecy, poetry, hagiography, medicine, and natural science as well
as extensive correspondence with major figures of the twelfth century including
Bernard of Clairvaux, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. Hildegard is also the first known female composer in the Western
world and wrote Europe’s first morality play—with accompanying music. She
invented her own artificial language as well as an alphabet in which to write
it. An ardent supporter of Church reform, she made four long preaching tours
along the river valleys of southwestern Germany. There she addressed admiring
audiences of clerics, monks and laity, an unprecedented privilege for a
medieval woman. She achieved all this despite chronic ill-health and while
serving as a Benedictine abbess for more than forty years
Hildegard was born near Mainz in 1098, tenth child of an
ancient noble family. Her parents offered her as a living “tithe” to God by
placing her in the care of a holy recluse named Jutta attached to the male
Benedictine abbey of Disibodenberg. Hildegard learned to read from the Psalter
and immersed herself in the Bible, her lifelong font of knowledge. At fifteen,
she made her profession as a nun in the community that coalesced around Jutta.
In 1136, after Jutta died, Hildegard was chosen superior.
By 1150, the convent had become overcrowded. Despite
grumbling from the local monks—as well as her own nuns--Hildegard built a new
home for her community beside the Rhine at Rupertsberg near Bingen. A second
foundation across the river at Eibingen followed fifteen years later. The later
cloister still functions as the Abbey of St. Hildegard and enshrines her
relics.
Nothing would have seemed extraordinary about Hildegard for
the first half of her long life. She did not wish to publicize the visionary
experiences she had been having since the age of three when a blaze of dazzling
brightness burst into her sight. A diffuse radiance which she called her
visio filled her field of vision for the rest of her life
without interfering with ordinary sight. Hildegard came to understand this
phenomenon as “the reflection of the living Light” which conferred the gift of
prophecy and gave her an intuitive knowledge of the Divine.
Hildegard’s visions were not apparitions or dreams. She
scarcely ever fell into ecstasy but rather perceived sights and messages with
the “inner” eyes and ears of her soul. She dictated what she “saw” and “heard”
to secretaries while fully lucid. Because the astonishing images she described
and directed artists to illustrate feature sparkling gems, shimmering orbs,
pulsating stars, curious towers and crenellated walls, modern psychologists
have suggested that Hildegard suffered from a form of migraine called
“scintillating scotomata.” The debilitating illnesses that preceded or
accompanied her visionary episodes might have been migraine attacks. Because
supernatural communications are received according to the capacity of the
receiver, neurology can offer insights on Hildegard’s particular repertory of
forms. But it cannot explain away her experiences or the religious meanings she
assigns to them. These were genuine occasions of contact between Hildegard and
God.
In 1141—on a date she was careful to record exactly—heaven
opened upon Hildegard as “a fiery light of exceeding brilliance” and a mighty
voice commanding her to “tell and write” what she sees of God’s marvels. Like
Jeremiah and several other prophets, Hildegard quailed at her call. Pleading
her sickly female constitution and lack of formal education, she fell ill. But
she confided in the convent’s provost, who shared the matter with his abbot at
Disibodenberg who urged Hildegard to accept her call. She rose from her bed and
set to work on her first book,
Scivias.
Hildegard also asked advice from Bernard of Clairvaux who
also encouraged her. Meanwhile, her local abbot notified the archbishop of
Mainz who mentioned Hildegard to Pope Eugenius III, then visiting Germany.
After a papal commission reviewed chapters of
Scivias, the pope approved Hildegard’s writings and read
portions to a regional synod at Trier in 1147.
Now certified by the highest authorities, Hildegard became a
celebrity seer whose counsel was treasured by rulers, clerics, and laypeople
from England to Byzantium. Visitors streamed to her convent seeking advice and
cures from the “Sibyl of the Rhine.” (This fame was one reason why the
Disibodenberg monks opposed Hildegard’s move to a new location.) Hildegard
always distinguished between her own opinions and God’s. When she had no answer
she would say so and claimed no heavenly authority for her medical and
scientific writings.
Hildegard’s steady humility kept her on the straight way and
protected her from censure. She clung to the Old Testament role of Prophet,
presenting herself as a feeble instrument of the Almighty, pressed into service
because sinful churchmen had failed to act. Similar “modesty” strategies have
been used by other holy women and female leaders in male-dominated societies
who invoke the Biblical theme of weakness overturning strength.
Despite the startling quality of Hildegard’s messages, her
theology was orthodox. Unlike the Cathar heretics, whom she denounced, she was
no threat to the existence, authority or organization of the Church. She
accepted traditional teaching on male headship, the complementary character of
masculine and feminine, and social hierarchies. She condemned offences against
life—contraception, abortion, infanticide, suicide, and homosexuality. But any
sin could be forgiven. Penance and the cultivation of opposite virtues remedied
vices. These conventional views temper some feminists’ enthusiasm for
Hildegard. They would prefer her as a bold rebel against patriarchy. In
contrast, during an address in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI called Hildegard’s
humble deference to ecclesiastical authority “the seal of an authentic
experience of the Holy Spirit.”
Hildegard’s one clash with Church rules hinged on a point of
fact, not doctrine. In 1178, she and her nuns were placed under interdict for
burying an excommunicated benefactor in their graveyard. Knowing that he had
been reconciled before his death, they endured months without the sacraments or
music until cleared by the archbishop of Cologne. Hildegard died peacefully the
following year.
Hildegard’s three major theological books are:
Scivias [
Know the Ways],
Liber vitae meritorum
[
The Book of the Rewards of Life],
and
Liber divinorum operum [The
Book
of Divine Works]. They range across time
and timelessness, microcosm and macrocosm, the Trinity, Fall, Incarnation and
Redemption, vices and virtues, sacraments, angels and Satin, Genesis and the
Gospel of John, Antichrist, the End of the World and the joys of Heaven.
Hildegard‘s keyword,
viriditas,
communicates the burgeoning, fertile, green freshness of unspoiled Paradise.
Her matchless visions reveal the luminous presence of God permeating all
creation, calling forth life so that matter and spirit will unite in a chorale
of eternal glory.
Hildegard’s works record visions plus inspired commentary,
followed by her interpretations. Her allegorical imagery is so novel,
explication is essential. For instance, it is not immediately obvious that a
four-winged glowing woman balancing a bearded grey head on her own, holding a
lamb and trampling monsters represents Caritas as well as the Holy Spirit with
emblems of the Father and the Son. Caritas proclaims: “I am the supreme and
fiery force who kindled every living spark” Each of the Four Elements reveal
the life that God has bestowed through her.
In Hildegard’s writings, titanic feminine forms personify
Caritas, Sapientia, Ecclesia, Synagoga, and sundry Virtues. Their unique
vividness and vitality invite readers to contemplate the universe with fresh
eyes. For instance, Sapientia “of the whirling wings” is the “encompassing
energy of God” who quickens the world in her clasp. Not every sight, however,
is lovely. In one instance, Ecclesia is battered and besmirched by corrupt
clergy. In another, the vile head of Antichrist is battened on her scabby
crotch.
Hildegard’s allegorical ladies have more personality, as it
were, than her sublime yet oddly abstract Mary, predestined since “the morn of
the universe.” But that does not blemish the eighteen free-verse liturgical
lyrics Hildegard wrote to praise the fruitful Virgin courted by God. Here is a
sample from “
Ave generosa” in Barbara
Newman’s fine translation:
And
your womb held joy when heaven’s
harmonies
rang from you,
a
maiden with child by God,
for in God your chastity blazed.
Yes
your flesh held joy like the grass
when
the dew falls, when heaven
freshens
its green: O mother
of
gladness, verdure of spring.
Hildegard’s Mary, like her overall spirituality is monastic.
The holy abbess was untouched by the new affective style of piety that friars
will popularize across Europe. Untutored in philosophy, she thought in
Biblical, not scholastic, categories. As the dates of her lifespan (1098-1179)
suggest, Hildegard belongs more to the Romanesque than the Gothic spirit.
These factors affected Hildegard’s rank in the pageant of
sainthood. Despite remarkable originality and wide fame in her own day,
Hildegard was quickly forgotten. Her curious writings were seldom copied. She
was never formally canonized because her cause was poorly documented and
records disappeared. In modern times, some scholars even doubted her authorship
and ascribed her work to her male secretaries.
Nevertheless, Hildegard’s reputation for holiness survived
in the Rhineland. In the twentieth century, learned nuns from the refounded
monastery of Eibingen produced landmark scholarship that confirmed Hildegard’s
authorship and made her most important writings available. In 1940, Rome
acknowledged her sanctity on the basis of “persistent cult.” St. Hildegard was
assigned a feast day in Benedictine and German calendars on 17 September, the
anniversary of her death. (The Church of England and the Episcopal Church in
America also count her as a saint.)
As academic interest in saints—especially female ones--grew
in the later twentieth century, Hildegard was rediscovered. New Agers
publicized her—inaccurately—but solid research also multiplied. Her unique
music was performed again to great acclaim. Even her herbal remedies found
users. The nine-hundredth anniversary of Hildegard’s birth was celebrated with
a comprehensive exhibition, “Hildegard von Bingen 1098-1179,” at the Cathedral
and Diocesan Museum of Mainz. German director Margarethe von Trotta’s
well-received film
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard of Bingen was released in 2010.
Hildegard’s elevation to Doctor of the Church, perhaps
preceded by a formal canonization ceremony, is the capstone on her revival for
Catholics. Regardless of what honors are bestowed on Hildegard, Voice of the
Living Light, an old pilgrim’s prayer captures the essence of her heavenly
service: “Through thy great intercession, everyone obtains from God mercy and
consolation in all sorrows, in Time and Eternity.”
***
Suggested Reading
• Sabina Flanagan,
Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary
Life. 2
nd ed. Routledge: New
York, 1998.
• Hildegard of Bingen,
The Book of the Rewards of
Life. Trans. Bruce W. Hozeski. Oxford University
Press: New York. 1994.
• ___,
Scivias. Trans. Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. Paulist Press:
Mahwah NJ, 1990.
• ___,
Symphonia. Trans. Barbara Newman. Cornell University Press:
Ithaca NY,
1988.
• Barbara Newman,
Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s
Theology of the Feminine. University of
California Press: Berkley, 1987.
•
Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her
World. Ed. Barbara Newman. University of
California Press: Berkley, 1998.
Early music groups including Sequentia and Anonymous Four
have recorded many of Hildegard’s songs.
Sandra Miesel, who holds a masters degree in medieval history from the University of Illinois, is the co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax and the author of hundreds of essays and articles on history, art, and hagiography.