``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
The Feast of
St. Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard was
the tenth child born to a couple who were of the noble class. She came
into this world in 1098, in a little town called Bermersheim vor der
Höhe, situated in the middle of the biggest wine-growing area of
Germany.
She was a very sickly child, "being frequently scarcely able to walk
and often deprived even of the use of her eyes,"1 but her
parents promised her to the service of God nonetheless. So, on the Feast of All Saints of
1112, when she was eight years old, her parents sent her to live at the
local Benedctine monastery known as Disibodenberg. Jutta von Sponheim,
the abbess, taught her to read Latin and chant the Divine Office, and
at some point during her stay at the abbey, Hildegard learned to play
the psaltery, a zither-like instrument.
Jutta died in 1136, and Hildegard was elected to take her place. But
Hildegard wanted independence from the Abbot of Disibodenberg, and
elected to form a new abbey. The Abbot denied her request, so she
appealed to the Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. In spite of the
Archbishop's approval, the Abbot still denied her request, and only
relented after Hildegard became very ill and took to her bed. After he
relented, she moved with her nuns to the monastery of St. Rupertsberg
in 1150. It was here that she wrote the world's first morality play -- Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues),
about the struggle over a soul made by the Devil and the virtues.
It
was there, too, that she wrote her Symphonia
-- a collection of seventy-seven plainchant songs -- antiphons,
responsories,
hymns, and sequences -- written to be sung during the Divine Office.
You can listen to them below:
Then, in 1165, she and her sisters moved to the abbey which gives us
the name by which St. Hildegard is known: Eibingen.
Eibingen
Abbey
Now, why was the Abbot of Disibodenberg so reluctant to let her go?
Likely because St.
Hildegard was a money-maker: ever since she was a child, she was prone
to having visions. About them, she said.
Up to my
fifteenth year I saw much, and related some of the things seen to
others, who would inquire with astonishment, whence such things might
come. I also wondered and during my sickness I asked one of my nurses
whether she also saw similar things. When she answered no, a great fear
befell me. Frequently, in my conversation, I would relate future
things, which I saw as if present, but, noting the amazement of my
listeners, I became more reticent.
Great truths would enter her mind not through meditation or the
practices of the mystics, but in an instant, as if by divine
illumination. She said,
In this vision
my soul, as God would have it, rises 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 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... The light that I
see is thus not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud that
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 within it.
Now whatever I have seen or learned in this vision remains in
my memory for a long time, so that, when I have seen and heard it, I
remember; and I see, hear, and know all at once, and as if in an
instant I learn what I know. But what I do not see, I do not know, for
I am not educated... And the words in this vision are not like words
uttered by a human mouth, but like a shimmering flame, or a cloud
floating in a clear sky.
Moreoever, I can no more recognize the form of this light
than I can gaze directly on the sphere of the sun. Sometimes -- but not
often -- I see within this light another light, which I call "the
living Light." And I cannot describe when and how I see it, but while I
see it all sorrow and anguish leave me, so that then I feel like a
simple girl instead of an old woman.
When she was ordered to have these visions written down (a monk friend
named
Volmar acted as her secretary), they became known outside the convent
and attracted lots of
attention and new novices to the monastery. The Archbishop of Mainz
declared the visions to
be gifts from God, and Pope Eugene III read accounts of her visions and
sent her an apostolic letter of greeting and blessing, urging her to
continue writing down what she saw. People from all over began to come
to the abbey to hear the
words of the "Sibyl of the Rhine."
Her visions are contained first in a work called Scivias which consists of
an introduction followed by three books: the first relating six
visions, the second relating seven visions, and the third relating
thirteen visions. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Scivias like
this:
The "Scivias"
represents God on His Holy Mountain with mankind at its base; tells of
the original condition of man, his fall and redemption, the human soul
and its struggles, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the times to come,
the son of perdition and the end of the world. The visions are
interspersed with salutary admonitions to live in the fear of the Lord.
These visions are a phantasmagoria that evokes what Ezechiel saw with
his
the four living creatures with four faces four wings, hooved feet that
sparkled like brass, human hands, and wheels within wheels with eyes
all around, or what St. John describes in his Apocalypse. It's all very
abstruse, almost psychedelic, and gave rise
to unique art, such as her depiction of the universe as a "cosmic
egg":
She was also a natural philosopher, gathering together the 12th.
century European world's knowledge about plants, the elements, trees,
stones, fish, birds, animals, reptiles, and metals, which she collated
in a volume known as Physica.
As with other bestiary-type works of the time, the information
contained in this book makes for fascinating reading in that some of it
reflects what are, to us moderns, strange beliefs whose origins are
hard to imagine. For ex., in her entry on mice, she writes that
[w]hen a mouse
gives birth, she has difficulty in bringing forth the young. She goes,
in pain, to the edge of some water and seeks very small stones there.
She eats as many as she can hold in her throat, runs to her hole, and
spits them out there. She breathes on them and gets on top of them. She
warms them up and immediately gives birth. As soon as she has given
birth she hates the stones and kicks them away. She then lies over her
young, warming them. If it is possible to find those stones within the
same month that she has rejected them, one can tie them over the
umbilicus of a pregnant woman who is already in labor but not able to
give birth. She will then give birth and, as soon as she does, they
should be removed.
Seriously, what observations were made that led to this idea? Isn't it
interesting?
In a book called Causaeet Curae (Causes and Cures), she
writes about diseases and how to treat them, with the always present
medieval focus on bodily humors.2
Then there is Liber Vitae Meritorum
(Book of the Rewards of Life) about the virtues
and vices. For her
sisters, she wrote a commentary on the Athanasian Creed, and, in her
later years, she wrote Liber
Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) containing ten visions
focused on divine love, cosmology, history, and eschatology.
She also carried out correspondence with very illustrious figures of
her time, including the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, with
whom she had a falling out: he had been a great benefactor of hers,
even inviting her to his palace to learn what she foresaw. But then he
supported three antipopes instead of Pope Alexander III, and Hildegard
had it out with him, calling him a
madman.
Oh, and she invented an alphabet and language -- litterae ignotae and lingua ignota respectively (she
uses some of her language's words mixed with Latin in her song O orzchis ecclesia). The purpose of
the language, and who, aside from Hildegard herself, used it is
unknown.
In the last year she lived, she had some trouble when a man who'd been
excommunicated was buried in her convent's cemetery. It was demanded
that his body be removed and buried elsewhere, but Hildegard knew that
the man had repented and received Unction
before dying and was,
therefore, reconciled to the Church. So she refused. A sentence of
interdict was put on her convent, but it was lifted after her case was
made.
Hildegard died at the age of 81 on September 17, 1179. She was first
buried at the convent in Rupertsberg, but then her relics were taken to
Cologne, and finally to the parish church -- now named after her -- in
Eibingen, where they can be venerated today.
She, like many early Saints, was never formally canonized, but she's
been listed in the martyrology since the 16th century, and has been
venerated since her death. Pope Benedict XVI extended her veneration to
the entire Church in 2012 -- which effects canonization without the
formal process -- and in that same year, named her a Doctor of the Church -- one of the
four female Doctors out of thirty-seven Doctors so honored -- and she
is known as "The Sibyl of the Rhine" (learn about
the Sibyls here). Her feast
is an
optional memorial on the Novus Ordo calendar, and is not present on the
traditional, 1962 liturgical calendar.
Caveat: One has to be careful when reading about St. Hildegard and
doing research on her life. Feminists and New Agers have done to her
what hippies and New Agers have done to St. Francis: they've taken
surface details of her life and used them to turn her into an icon of
their movements. St. Francis loved animals? Then he was a PETA-loving,
obsessed-with-climate-change Greenpeacer who was just born too soon to
sit in traffic to protest Big Oil! St. Hildegard spoke her mind? Then
she was a fierce feminist! She was an herbalist (as was everyone in the
Middle Ages)? Then she was a New Age witchy-pagan type! That
illumination of the universe as a great cosmic egg shown above? "That
actually represents vulva! And Hildegard was the first to write about
female orgasm, so she must have been feminist" -- as if female orgasms
aren't simply a lovely fact of life meant to be associated with
procreation inside marriage and not the purpose of being that's
only realized by feminists who haven't stopped yammering about them
since 1970. She spoke about the Spirit of God "greening" the world and,
so, was a pantheistic pagan? No, she simply knew that God willed
creation into existence, continues to will its existence from moment to
moment, and is the source of the "life force" that animates creatures.
And on it goes. As an example, a trailer for a movie about her life is
interspersed with these bits of text: "Germany in the 12th century....
A woman who broke with tradition and
challenged the Church... Her name was Hildegard von Bingen... She was
loved and admired...She was a healer...She was a prophet...She fought
against injustice... She remained true to herself..." No, St. Hildegard
did not "challenge the Church." At all. Quite the opposite: she wrote
of obedience. She challenged an abbot about moving her convent, and she
held fast to her conviction that the formerly excommunicated man had
reconciled with the Church and deserved a Christian burial, but that's
not "challenging the Church," Her authority, or Her teachings. The
Hildegard of history, a woman who only allowed women from the nobility
into her convent, and who said "it is fitting for a woman to always be
timid If she did not have fear, she would not be able to
cultivate chaste modesty because likewise without fear a snake bites
everything it can," was not an egalitarian feminist type in the least;
she was not for female ordination, and she was very strongly protective
of virginity and clerical celibacy. She did teach and preach, but not
in a church. And she didn't "break with tradition," nor did she spend
her time fighting "against injustice"; she fought against heresy,
especially the heresies of the Cathars. Don't let foolishness spoil St.
Hildegard (or SS. Francis,
Sebastian, or
Julian of Norwich) for you!
Customs
Some may prepare for her feast by praying the Novena to St. Hildegard beginning on
September 8 (Our Lady's
birthday) and ending on September 16, the eve of St. Hildegard's
feast.
As to ways to honor St. Hildegard, today is a good day for listening to
St. Hildegard's music and opening
the Book of Nature. About that,
Hildegard wrote,
No creature has
meaning
without the Word of God.
God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.
The Word is living, being,
spirit, all verdant greening,
all creativity.
This Word flashes out in
every creature.
This is how the spirit is in
the flesh -- the Word is indivisible from God.
Go outside, take a walk, and take in the beauty of the natural world,
pondering how the Logos -- the Divine Order that is Christ Himself --
created, preserves, and
"flashes out" in all you see.
As for foods for the day, St. Hildegard left us a few recipes, such as
one for what are usually called "Cookies of Joy" because they alleviate
melancholy. The recipe reads,
Take some nutmeg
and an equal weight of cinnamon and a bit of cloves and pulverize them.
Then make small cakes with this and fine whole wheat flour and water.
Eat them often. It will calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open
your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful. It
purifies your senses and diminishes all harmful humors in you. It gives
good liquid to your blood and makes you strong.
Youtuber Max
Miller, whose channel is called Tasting History, made the recipe as she
wrote it and apparently didn't find much joy in eating them: he said
they were hard, wafer-like things that he wouldn't
make again. Mind you, these "cookies" are made for health, as medicine,
and not as "cookies" to be enjoyed with a cuppa tea. But if you want to
try them as medicine, Mr. Miller gives measurements he used:
Cookies of Joy - Original
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt *
Mix the flour, spices, and salt, if using, and then stir in 1
cup water. You want a texture that's just a bit thicker than a pancake
batter, so if you need more water, add more -- one tablespoonful at a
time. Bake on parchment at 350F for 25-30 minutes, until crisp.
* Regarding the salt, Mr. Miller said that "that ingredient was often
included in old dishes, but almost never actually makes it into
recipes." So use or don't use as you wish.
For a modern take -- one that provides gustatory enjoyment that
warrants the title of "cookie" -- try this
one:
Cookies of Joy - Modernized
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Cream together the butter and the brown sugar. Beat in the
egg. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients half at
a time, mixing with each addition. Chill the dough for a half an hour,
and at the 20 minute mark, pre-heat oven to 350F°. Take the cold dough
and form walnut sized balls, place on greased and floured cookie sheet
and press flat. Bake 12-15 minutes, 'til edges of are golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes, remove from cookie sheet and finish cooling on
racks.
For the sake of completeness, I have to include the German recipe for
these "Cookies of Joy," which are known as Hildegardplätzchen in Germany:
Hildegardplätzchen
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
Melt the butter, then add it to a medium bowl with the sugar,
honey, and egg yolks. Beat gently, then fold in the rest of the
ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.
Flour a surface and roll out the cookie dough until about 1/4
inch thick. Cut the dough into 3" rounds and place on a baking sheet
lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes, or until
golden-brown.
Another melancholia-defeating recipe that Mr. Miller made and did enjoy
was Violet Wine, given by St. Hildegard like this:
Anyone oppressed
by melancholy with a discontented mind, which then harms his lungs,
should cook violets in pure wine. He should strain this through a
cloth, add a bit of galingale, and as much licorice as he wants, and so
make spiced wine. When he drinks it, it will check the melancholy, make
him happy, and heal his lungs.
The measurements Mr. Miller used:
Violet Wine
1/2 cup dried violets
2 cups white wine
1 slice galingale root (ginger root is the closest thing
easily found in most places if you must substitute)
1/4 tsp powdered licorice
Mix violets and wine and simmer over low heat for about 10
minutes. Strain. Add the galingale and licorice and let sit for two
hours.
To read some of St. Hildegard's works, see this site's Catholic Library.
Readings
Apostolic Letter
Proclaiming
Saint Hildegard of Bingen,
professed nun of
the Order of Saint Benedict,
a Doctor of the
Universal Church
Benedictus PP.
XVI E
For Perpetual
Remembrance
1. A “light for her people and her time”: in these words Blessed John
Paul II, my Venerable Predecessor, described Saint Hildegard of Bingen
in 1979, on the occasion of the eight-hundredth anniversary of the
death of this German mystic. This great woman truly stands out crystal
clear against the horizon of history for her holiness of life and the
originality of her teaching. And, as with every authentic human and
theological experience, her authority reaches far beyond the confines
of a single epoch or society; despite the distance of time and culture,
her thought has proven to be of lasting relevance.
In Saint Hildegard of Bingen there is a wonderful harmony between
teaching and daily life. In her, the search for God’s will in the
imitation of Christ was expressed in the constant practice of virtue,
which she exercised with supreme generosity and which she nourished
from biblical, liturgical and patristic roots in the light of the Rule
of Saint Benedict. Her persevering practice of obedience, simplicity,
charity and hospitality was especially visible. In her desire to belong
completely to the Lord, this Benedictine Abbess was able to bring
together rare human gifts, keen intelligence and an ability to
penetrate heavenly realities.
2. Hildegard was born in 1098 at Bermersheim, Alzey, to parents of
noble lineage who were wealthy landowners. At the age of eight she was
received as an oblate at the Benedictine Abbey of Disibodenberg, where
in 1115 she made her religious profession. Upon the death of Jutta of
Sponheim, around the year 1136, Hildegard was called to succeed her as
magistra. Infirm in physical health but vigorous in spirit, she
committed herself totally to the renewal of religious life. At the
basis of her spirituality was the Benedictine Rule which views
spiritual balance and ascetical moderation as paths to holiness.
Following the increase in vocations to the religious life, due above
all to the high esteem in which Hildegard was held, around 1150 she
founded a monastery on the hill of Rupertsberg, near Bingen, where she
moved with twenty sisters. In 1165, she established another monastery
on the opposite bank of the Rhine. She was the Abbess of both.
Within the walls of the cloister, she cared for the spiritual and
material well-being of her sisters, fostering in a special way
community life, culture and the liturgy. In the outside world she
devoted herself actively to strengthening the Christian faith and
reinforcing religious practice, opposing the heretical trends of the
Cathars, promoting Church reform through her writings and preaching and
contributing to the improvement of the discipline and life of clerics.
At the invitation first of Hadrian IV and later of Alexander III,
Hildegard practised a fruitful apostolate, something unusual for a
woman at that time, making several journeys, not without hardship and
difficulty, to preach even in public squares and in various cathedral
churches, such as at Cologne, Trier, Liège, Mainz, Metz, Bamberg and
Würzburg. The profound spirituality of her writings had a significant
influence both on the faithful and on important figures of her time and
brought about an incisive renewal of theology, liturgy, natural
sciences and music. Stricken by illness in the summer of 1179,
Hildegard died in the odour of sanctity, surrounded by her sisters at
the monastery of Rupertsberg, Bingen, on 17 September 1179.
3. In her many writings Hildegard dedicated herself exclusively to
explaining divine revelation and making God known in the clarity of his
love. Hildegard’s teaching is considered eminent both for its depth,
the correctness of its interpretation, and the originality of its
views. The texts she produced are refreshing in their authentic
“intellectual charity” and emphasize the power of penetration and
comprehensiveness of her contemplation of the mystery of the Blessed
Trinity, the Incarnation, the Church, humanity and nature as God’s
creation, to be appreciated and respected.
These works were born from a deep mystical experience and propose a
perceptive reflection on the mystery of God. The Lord endowed her with
a series of visions from childhood, whose content she dictated to the
Benedictine monk Volmar, her secretary and spiritual advisor, and to
Richardis von Stade, one of her women religious. But particularly
illuminating are the judgments expressed by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,
who encouraged her, and especially by Pope Eugene III, who in 1147
authorized her to write and to speak in public. Theological reflection
enabled Hildegard to organize and understand, at least in part, the
content of her visions. In addition to books on theology and mysticism,
she also authored works on medicine and natural sciences. Her letters
are also numerous — about four hundred are extant; these were addressed
to simple people, to religious communities, popes, bishops and the
civil authorities of her time. She was also a composer of sacred music.
The corpus of her writings, for their quantity, quality and variety of
interests, is unmatched by any other female author of the Middle Ages.
Her main writings are the Scivias, the Liber Vitae Meritorum and the
Liber Divinorum Operum. They relate her visions and the task she
received from the Lord to transcribe them. In the author’s view her
Letters were no less important; they bear witness to the attention
Hildegard paid to the events of her time, which she interpreted in the
light of the mystery of God. In addition there are 58 sermons,
addressed directly to her sisters. They are her Expositiones
Evangeliorum, containing a literary and moral commentary on Gospel
passages related to the main celebrations of the liturgical year. Her
artistic and scientific works focus mainly on music, in the Symphonia
Harmoniae Caelestium Revelationum; on medicine, in the Liber
Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum and in the Causae et
Curae, and on natural sciences in the Physica. Finally her linguistic
writings are also noteworthy, such as the Lingua Ignota and the
Litterae Ignotae, in which the words appear in an unknown language of
her own invention, but are composed mainly of phonemes present in
German.
Hildegard’s language, characterized by an original and effective style,
makes ample use of poetic expressions and is rich in symbols, dazzling
intuitions, incisive comparisons and evocative metaphors.
4. With acute wisdom-filled and prophetic sensitivity, Hildegard
focused her attention on the event of revelation. Her investigation
develops from the biblical page in which, in successive phases, it
remains firmly anchored. The range of vision of the mystic of Bingen
was not limited to treating individual matters but sought to offer a
global synthesis of the Christian faith. Hence in her visions and her
subsequent reflections she presents a compendium of the history of
salvation from the beginning of the universe until its eschatological
consummation. God’s decision to bring about the work of creation is the
first stage on this immensely long journey which, in the light of
sacred Scripture, unfolds from the constitution of the heavenly
hierarchy until it reaches the fall of the rebellious angels and the
sin of our first parents.
This initial picture is followed by the redemptive Incarnation of the
Son of God, the activity of the Church that extends in time the mystery
of the Incarnation and the struggle against Satan. The definitive
Coming of the Kingdom of God and the Last Judgement crown this work.
Hildegard asks herself and us the fundamental question, whether it is
possible to know God: This is theology’s principal task. Her answer is
completely positive: through faith, as through a door, the human person
is able to approach this knowledge. God, however, always retains his
veil of mystery and incomprehensibility. He makes himself
understandable in creation but, creation itself is not fully understood
when detached from God. Indeed, nature considered in itself provides
only pieces of information which often become an occasion for error and
abuse. Faith, therefore, is also necessary in the natural cognitive
process, for otherwise knowledge would remain limited, unsatisfactory
and misleading.
Creation is an act of love by which the world can emerge from
nothingness. Hence, through the whole range of creatures, divine love
flows as a river. Of all creatures God loves man in a special way and
confers upon him an extraordinary dignity, giving him that glory which
the rebellious angels lost. The human race may thus be counted as the
tenth choir of the angelic hierarchy. Indeed human beings are able to
know God in himself, that is, his one nature in the Trinity of Persons.
Hildegard approached the mystery of the Blessed Trinity along the lines
proposed by Saint Augustine. By analogy with his own structure as a
rational being, man is able to have an image at least of the inner life
of God. Nevertheless, it is solely in the economy of the Incarnation
and human life of the Son of God that this mystery becomes accessible
to human faith and knowledge. The holy and ineffable Trinity in supreme
Unity was hidden from those in the service of the ancient law. But in
the new law of grace it was revealed to all who had been freed from
slavery. The Trinity was revealed in a special way in the Cross of the
Son.
A second “space” in which God becomes known is his word, contained in
the Books of the Old and New Testament. Precisely because God “speaks”,
man is called to listen. This concept affords Hildegard the opportunity
to expound her doctrine on song, especially liturgical song. The sound
of the word of God creates life and is expressed in his creatures.
Thanks to the creative word, beings without rationality are also
involved in the dynamism of creation. But man of course is the creature
who can answer the voice of the Creator with his own voice. And this
can happen in two ways: in voce oris, that is, in the celebration of
the liturgy, and in voce cordis, that is, through a virtuous and holy
life. The whole of human life may therefore be interpreted as harmonic
and symphonic.
5. Hildegard’s anthropology begins from the biblical narrative of the
creation of man (Gen 1:26), made in the image and likeness of God. Man,
according to Hildegard’s biblically inspired cosmology, contains all
the elements of the world because the entire universe is recapitulated
in him; he is formed from the very matter of creation. The human person
can therefore consciously enter into a relationship with God. This does
not happen through a direct vision, but, in the words of Saint Paul, as
“in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). The divine image in man consists in his
rationality, structured as intellect and will. Thanks to his intellect,
man can distinguish between good and evil; thanks to his will, he is
spurred to action.
Human beings are seen as a unity of body and soul. The German mystic
shows a positive appreciation of corporeity and providential value is
given even to the body’s weaknesses. The body is not a weight from
which to be delivered. Although human beings are weak and frail, this
“teaches” them a sense of creatureliness and humility, protecting them
from pride and arrogance. Hildegard contemplated in a vision the souls
of the blessed in paradise waiting to be rejoined to their bodies. Our
bodies, like the body of Christ, are oriented to the glorious
resurrection, to the supreme transformation for eternal life. The very
vision of God, in which eternal life consists, cannot be definitively
achieved without the body.
The human being exists in both the male and female form. Hildegard
recognized that a relationship of reciprocity and a substantial
equality between man and woman is rooted in this ontological structure
of the human condition. Nevertheless the mystery of sin also dwells in
humanity, and was manifested in history for the first time precisely in
the relationship between Adam and Eve. Unlike other medieval authors
who saw Eve’s weakness as the cause of the Fall, Hildegard places it
above all in Adam’s immoderate passion for her.
Even in their condition as sinners, men and women continue to be the
recipients of God’s love, because God’s love is unconditional and,
after the Fall, acquires the face of mercy. Even the punishment that
God inflicts on the man and woman brings out the merciful love of the
Creator. In this regard, the most precise description of the human
creature is that of someone on a journey, homo viator. On this
pilgrimage towards the homeland, the human person is called to a
struggle in order constantly to choose what is good and avoid evil.
The constant choice of good produces a virtuous life. The Son of God
made man is the subject of all virtues, therefore the imitation of
Christ consists precisely in living a virtuous life in communion with
Christ. The power of virtue derives from the Holy Spirit, poured into
the hearts of believers, who brings about upright behaviour. This is
the purpose of human existence. In this way man experiences his
Christ-like perfection.
6. So as to achieve this goal, the Lord has given his Church the
sacraments. Salvation and the perfection of the human being are not
achieved through the effort of the will alone, but rather through the
gifts of grace that God grants in the Church.
The Church herself is the first sacrament that God places in the world
so that she may communicate salvation to mankind. The Church, built up
from “living souls”, may rightly be considered virgin, bride and
mother, and thus resembles closely the historical and mystical figure
of the Mother of God. The Church communicates salvation first of all by
keeping and proclaiming the two great mysteries of the Trinity and the
Incarnation, which are like the two “primary sacraments”; and then
through administration of the other sacraments. The summit of the
sacramental nature of the Church is the Eucharist. The sacraments
produce the sanctification of believers, salvation and purification
from sin, redemption and charity and all the other virtues. However, to
repeat, the Church lives because God within her has manifested his
intraTrinitarian love, which was revealed in Christ. The Lord Jesus is
the mediator par excellence. From the Trinitarian womb he comes to
encounter man and from Mary’s womb he encounters God. As the Son of
God, he is love incarnate; as the Son of Mary, he is humanity’s
representative before the throne of God.
The human person can have an experience of God. Relationship with him,
in fact, is not lived solely in the sphere of rationality, but involves
the person totally. All the external and internal senses of the human
being are involved in the experience of God. “But man was created in
the image and likeness of God, so that he might act through the five
bodily senses; he is not divided by them, rather through them he is
wise, knowledgeable and intelligent in doing his work (...). For this
very reason, because man is wise, knowledgeable and intelligent, he
knows creation; he knows God — whom he cannot see except by faith —
through creation and his great works, even if with his five senses he
barely comprehends them” (Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii in PL
197, 1073). This experiential process finds once again, its fullness in
participation in the sacraments.
Hildegard also saw contradictions in the lives of individual members of
the faithful and reported the most deplorable situations. She
emphasized in particular that individualism in doctrine and in practice
on the part of both lay people and ordained ministers is an expression
of pride and constitutes the main obstacle to the Church’s evangelizing
mission to non-Christians.
One of the salient points of Hildegard’s magisterium was her heartfelt
exhortation to a virtuous life addressed to consecrated men and women.
Her understanding of the consecrated life is a true “theological
metaphysics”, because it is firmly rooted in the theological virtue of
faith, which is the source and constant impulse to full commitment in
obedience, poverty and chastity. In living out the evangelical
counsels, the consecrated person shares in the experience of Christ,
poor, chaste and obedient, and follows in his footsteps in daily life.
This is fundamental in the consecrated life.
7. Hildegard’s eminent doctrine echoes the teaching of the Apostles,
the Fathers and writings of her own day, while it finds a constant
point of reference in the Rule of Saint Benedict. The monastic liturgy
and the interiorization of sacred Scripture are central to her thought
which, focusing on the mystery of the Incarnation, is expressed in a
profound unity of style and inner content that runs through all her
writings.
The teaching of the holy Benedictine nun stands as a beacon for homo
viator. Her message appears extraordinarily timely in today’s world,
which is especially sensitive to the values that she proposed and
lived. For example, we think of Hildegard’s charismatic and speculative
capacity, which offers a lively incentive to theological research; her
reflection on the mystery of Christ, considered in its beauty; the
dialogue of the Church and theology with culture, science and
contemporary art; the ideal of the consecrated life as a possibility
for human fulfilment; her appreciation of the liturgy as a celebration
of life; her understanding of the reform of the Church, not as an empty
change of structure but as conversion of heart; her sensitivity to
nature, whose laws are to be safeguarded and not violated.
For these reasons the attribution of the title of Doctor of the
Universal Church to Hildegard of Bingen has great significance for
today’s world and an extraordinary importance for women. In Hildegard
are expressed the most noble values of womanhood: hence the presence of
women in the Church and in society is also illumined by her presence,
both from the perspective of scientific research and that of pastoral
activity. Her ability to speak to those who were far from the faith and
from the Church make Hildegard a credible witness of the new
evangelization.
By virtue of her reputation for holiness and her eminent teaching, on 6
March 1979 Cardinal Joseph Höffner, Archbishop of Cologne and President
of the German Bishops’ Conference, together with the Cardinals,
Archbishops and Bishops of the same Conference, including myself as
Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and Freising, submitted to Blessed John
Paul II the request that Hildegard of Bingen be declared a Doctor of
the Universal Church. In that petition, the Cardinal emphasized the
soundness of Hildegard’s doctrine, recognized in the twelfth century by
Pope Eugene III, her holiness, widely known and celebrated by the
people, and the authority of her writings. As time passed, other
petitions were added to that of the German Bishops’ Conference, first
and foremost the petition from the nuns of Eibingen Monastery, which
bears her name. Thus, to the common wish of the People of God that
Hildegard be officially canonized, was added the request that she be
declared a “Doctor of the Universal Church”.
With my consent, therefore, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
diligently prepared a Positio super Canonizatione et Concessione tituli
Doctoris Ecclesiae Universalis for the Mystic of Bingen. Since this
concerned a famous teacher of theology who had been the subject of many
authoritative studies, I granted the dispensation from the measures
prescribed by article 73 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.
The cause was therefore examined and approved by the Cardinals and
Bishops, who met in Plenary Session on 20 March 2012. The proponent
(ponens) of the cause was His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect
of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. At the audience of 10 May
2012, Cardinal Amato informed us in detail about the status quaestionis
and the unanimous vote of the Fathers at the above-mentioned Plenary
Session of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On 27 May 2012,
Pentecost Sunday, I had the joy of announcing to the crowd of pilgrims
from all over the world gathered in Saint Peter’s Square the news of
the conferral of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church upon Saint
Hildegard of Bingen and Saint John of Avila at the beginning of the
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and on the eve of the Year of Faith.
Today, with the help of God and the approval of the whole Church, this
act has taken place. In Saint Peter’s Square, in the presence of many
Cardinals and Prelates of the Roman Curia and of the Catholic Church,
in confirming the acts of the process and willingly granting the
desires of the petitioners, I spoke the following words in the course
of the Eucharistic sacrifice: “Fulfilling the wishes of numerous
brethren in the episcopate, and of many of the faithful throughout the
world, after due consultation with the Congregation for the Causes of
Saints, with certain knowledge and after mature deliberation, with the
fullness of my apostolic authority I declare Saint John of Avila,
diocesan priest, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen, professed nun of the
Order of Saint Benedict, to be Doctors of the Universal Church. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
I hereby decree the present Letter to be perpetually valid and fully
effective, and I establish that from this moment anything to the
contrary proposed by any person, of whatever authority, knowingly or
unknowingly, is invalid and without force.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the ring of the Fisherman, on 7
October 2012, in the eighth year of my Pontificate.
Benedictus PP. XVI
Footnotes:
1 Catholic Encyclopedia
2 Research written up in a paper called
"Are the correct herbal claims by Hildegard von Bingen only lucky
strikes? A new statistical approach" concluded that "The finding that
medical claims provided by a medieval author are significantly related
to modern herbal use supports the importance of traditional medicinal
systems as an empirical source."
