Hildegard of Bingen
Anchoress and abbess, mystic and administrator, composer, artist, preacher, healer, feminist, exegete, theologian, correspondent of popes and emperors, there was little that Hildegard of Bingen set her mind and soul to that she did not excel at, and the body of her collected works reveals both her authoritative mastery of a wide range of scholarly discourses as well as the vividly innovative touch of the true visionary. Born in 1098 in Bermersheim von der Höhe in what is now Germany but was then the County Palatinate of the Rhine and a part of the Holy Roman Empire, Hildegard was the youngest of about ten children of parents belonging to the lesser nobility. Even as a small child, Hildegard began experiencing spiritual visions; by about age eight (ca. 1106-1110), she was placed by her family into the care of Jutta von Sponheim, an anchoress of noble birth dwelling adjacent to the Benedictine abbey of Disibodenberg. Jutta herself was only a few years older than Hildegard but proved an invaluable mentor and friend. When Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard was elected by her fellow nuns to be their new abbess, a position she occupied until her death forty-three years later. Indeed, her leadership skills were such that her nuns even followed her across the valley to found a new abbey at nearby Rupertsberg in 1150.
At the center of Hildegard's voluminous body of work lies her masterpiece, the Scivias. Composed probably from about 1145-1152, this book, whose title is a contraction of the Latin for "know the ways [of the Lord]," focuses on the exposition of a series of mystical visions that Hildegard reports that she had from her childhood on. Each vision is vividly described, and then interpreted in equally vivid detail; the earliest manuscripts also provide striking illustrations of many of these visions. The robust and surprising imaginative turns manifested throughout her visions are richly poetic and generative of a series of theological positions that range from the idiosyncratically doctrinal to the downright heterodox. Among the most striking features of the visions in the Scivias (and in Hildegard's second collection of visions, The Book of Divine Works) are her innovative emphases on the roles played by female figures in salvation history. In stark contrast to more typically misogynist medieval understandings of the central role of Eve in the Fall, for instance, Hildegard instead stresses the culpability of the Devil in tempting the primal couple. In fact, she presents an almost entirely positive view of Eve, "whose soul was innocent, for she had been raised out of innocent Adam, bearing in her body the whole multitude of the human race" (Scivias 1:2:10); for Hildegard, Eve and Adam share a common origin, a common burden, and a common human destiny. Other female figures also appear prominently in the visions: the Virgin Mary, of course, but also the more allegorical figures of Ecclesia (the Church), the Virtues, Caritas (Heavenly Love) and Sapientia Dei (the Wisdom of God), who symbolizes, in feminine form, many aspects of the Godhead: "through her all things are created and ruled by God ... and so she will proceed to the end of the world, and her admonition will not cease, but will spread as long as the world endures" (Scivias 3:9:25).
The Scivias concludes with a riveting morality play, the Ordo Virtutum, which Hildegard also set to music. And this highlights the point that Hildegard seemed to approach all the arts as modes of theological expression, as she "translates" the visions she experienced into exegesis, drama, music, and the stunning and unforgettable manuscript illuminations that originally accompanied the texts of her visions. With the Symphonia, the full collection of Hildegard's musical compositions, we glimpse the ways in which Hildegard as abbess of Disibodenberg and later of Rupertsberg and Elbingen may have influenced, in intimate and real ways, the daily life and spiritual development of the nuns under her guidance. And, it should be noted, the range of Hildegard's interests -- and thus of the real-world impact of her teaching -- were not purely monastic. Outside of the more strictly theological books of visions, Hildegard also composed practical works on the virtues and vices (The Book of Life's Merits), on the various efficacies of stones and herbs (Natural History), and on the craft of healing (Causes and Cures). This engagement with the world at large -- and particularly with the social world -- is also reflected in the fact that Hildegard was a talented homilist and public speaker who was granted permission to preach in public; altogether, she went on four preaching tours throughout the Rhineland, a rare accomplishment for a woman in the Middle Ages.
Even in old age, Hildegard testified to the reality of her visionary experiences and their centrality to her life. As she wrote to a correspondent late in life, "Since my infancy ... when I was not yet strong in my bones and nerves and veins, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even till now, when I am more than seventy years old. ... And because I see these things in such a manner, for this reason I also behold them in changing forms of clouds and other created things. But I hear them not with my physical ears, nor with my heart's thoughts, nor do I perceive them by bringing any of my five senses to bear -- but only in my soul, my physical eyes open, so that I never suffer their failing in loss of consciousness; no, I see these things wakefully, day and night" (tr. Dronke, 168). The immediacy Hildegard ascribes to the visions she experienced throughout her life affords her not only the authority to speak and write, but also, just as importantly, a justification for looking at the cosmos anew -- unfettered by the male-oriented curricula of the trivia or the quadrivia -- in order to forge for herself a new understanding of nature, of human beings, and of the divine.
The Scivias concludes with a riveting morality play, the Ordo Virtutum, which Hildegard also set to music. And this highlights the point that Hildegard seemed to approach all the arts as modes of theological expression, as she "translates" the visions she experienced into exegesis, drama, music, and the stunning and unforgettable manuscript illuminations that originally accompanied the texts of her visions. With the Symphonia, the full collection of Hildegard's musical compositions, we glimpse the ways in which Hildegard as abbess of Disibodenberg and later of Rupertsberg and Elbingen may have influenced, in intimate and real ways, the daily life and spiritual development of the nuns under her guidance. And, it should be noted, the range of Hildegard's interests -- and thus of the real-world impact of her teaching -- were not purely monastic. Outside of the more strictly theological books of visions, Hildegard also composed practical works on the virtues and vices (The Book of Life's Merits), on the various efficacies of stones and herbs (Natural History), and on the craft of healing (Causes and Cures). This engagement with the world at large -- and particularly with the social world -- is also reflected in the fact that Hildegard was a talented homilist and public speaker who was granted permission to preach in public; altogether, she went on four preaching tours throughout the Rhineland, a rare accomplishment for a woman in the Middle Ages.
Even in old age, Hildegard testified to the reality of her visionary experiences and their centrality to her life. As she wrote to a correspondent late in life, "Since my infancy ... when I was not yet strong in my bones and nerves and veins, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even till now, when I am more than seventy years old. ... And because I see these things in such a manner, for this reason I also behold them in changing forms of clouds and other created things. But I hear them not with my physical ears, nor with my heart's thoughts, nor do I perceive them by bringing any of my five senses to bear -- but only in my soul, my physical eyes open, so that I never suffer their failing in loss of consciousness; no, I see these things wakefully, day and night" (tr. Dronke, 168). The immediacy Hildegard ascribes to the visions she experienced throughout her life affords her not only the authority to speak and write, but also, just as importantly, a justification for looking at the cosmos anew -- unfettered by the male-oriented curricula of the trivia or the quadrivia -- in order to forge for herself a new understanding of nature, of human beings, and of the divine.
Further Reading
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