A woman who was born 925 years ago has had a lot of ink spilled over the centuries for us to know so much about her life.
She was a Benedictine abbess and polymath -- a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages.
She described her spiritual awareness as
umbra viventis lucis, the reflection of the living Light. Late in life, she tried to describe her experience of this light:
"From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old. In this vision my soul, as God would have it, rises up high into the vault of heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places. And because I see them this way in my soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my soul alone, while my outward eyes are open. So I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in the visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now. The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it 'the reflection of the living Light.' And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam."

TheologyHer three great volumes of theology, journals of her visions are:
- Scivias

("Know the Ways" 1142-1151)
- Liber Vitae Meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" 1158-1163); and
- Liber DIvinorum Operum ("Book of Divine Works" 1163-1172)
Music
- Veni creator spiritus (Anonymous 4)
- Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues). This morality play consists of 82 songs, an allegory of the Christian story of sin, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Notably, it is the female Virtues who restore the fallen to the community of the faithful, and not the male Patriarchs or Prophets.
- The group Sequentia recorded much of the rest of her music here:
- O quam mirabilis est
- O pulchare facies
- O virga ac diadema purpurae regis
- Instrumental piece I
- O clarrisima mater
- Instrumental piece II
- Spiritui Sancto honor sit
- O virtus sapientiae
- O lucidissima Apostolorum turba
- Instrumental piece III
Scientific and medicinal writings
- Physica
- Nine books describing scientific and medicinal properties of various plants, stones, fish, reptiles and animals.
- Causae et Curae (300 chapters)
- An exploration of the human body, its connections to the rest of the world, and the causes and cures of various diseases.
Lingua ignota (Unknown language)
Hildegard invented around 1000 nouns which she glossed over the traditional medieval German and Latin. Scholars disagree on their purpose.
How wonderful to come upon this brief article on the amazing Hildegard of Bingen. I discovered her musical compositions many years ago. Thank you.
Posted by: Emily Fragos | April 18, 2023 at 07:16 AM