Day 13 -- Blessed Hildegard von Bingen

Today I am writing about one of my favorites....Hildegard von Bingen. I remember writing a paper about her in Grad School and making a CD of her music when I had to do research about Benedictines. The picture here to the left is one of my favorites of her as well. It in intrigued me that in the 1100s she was writing major works of theology and about her visions. She lived in a time when women were not respected, but she was often consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She is the first musical composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed. It is such a surprise that she is not canonized, even though many miracles have been attributed to her, she is often mentioned as Saint Hildegard, and her name is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.

Hildegard was the tenth child born to a noble family and as was customary with the tenth child, which the family could not count on feeding, the child could be considered a tithe and she was dedicated at birth to the Church. At the age of three, Hildegard started to have visions of luminous objects, but soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid this gift for many years. By eight years old, her family sent Hildegard to an anchoress (women who renounce the world in order to spend their lives alone in penance and prayer) to receive a religious education. Her education was elementary and Hildegard never lost the feelings of inadequacy over her lack of schooling. Her knowledge of Latin grammar was never complete and she had to have a secretary write down her visions, but she was capable of constructing complicated sentences which today students still have a challenge reading it.

Hildegard's anchoress, Jutta, lived close to a Benedictine monastery and it is here where Hildegard was exposed to religious services which became the basis for her own musical compositions. Her visions were recorded in icons. Jutta died when Hildegard was 38 and she was elected the head of the convent near the anchorage. With Hildegard head of the convent, they had many aspirants and opened another convent. This was somewhere between 1147 and 1150 and in 1165 another convent opened.

This image here is an illumination from Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe and secretary.

She never did doubt the divine origin of her visions and she wanted them approved by the Church. She wrote to Saint Bernard and he took the matter to Pope Eugenius who encouraged Hildegard to finish her writings. With papal imprimatur, after 10 years of writing Hildegard finished her first visionary work Scivias ("Know the Ways of the Lord"). It was through this writing that her fame grew around Germany and beyond. Hildegard wrote explicitly about the natural world as God's creation and how God has entrusted creation to our care, to be used for our benefit and to not be destroyed. This manuscript is an illumination from Scivias.

To listen to her song "O frondens virga" click here.

Hildegard was born in 1098 and died on September 17, 1179.

PRAYER
O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

QUOTES
"Without woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman. Thus woman is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation for woman. Neither of them could henceforth live without the other. Man is in this connection an indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of the humanity of God's Son."

"A human being is a vessel that God has built for Himself and filled with His inspiration so that His works are perfected in it."

This second quote reminds me of what God wants for us and why He put us on this planet. It goes to the questions I ask all the time "What do you want of me Lord?" "Why purpose am I serving on this earth?" "What is God's plan for me?" It reminds me of one of my favorite verses from Scripture from 1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?" Oh Lord, I pray that You show Your plan for me.