On October 7,
2012, Pope Benedict XVI formally canonized and declared Hildegard of Bingen
a “Doctor of the Universal Church” -- that is, a preeminent teacher of the
Christian faith tradition whose exemplary life, ministry, and writings continue
to inspire people today, over 900 years after her birth. This is an honor that
is long overdue and richly deserved. Hildegard, through her music and books and
artwork, can inspire us to rejoice in and be good stewards of God’s creation,
encourage young women to pursue careers in theological, scientific, and medical
fields of study, and remind all of us to work for justice and peace, especially
for those who dwell on the margins of our society.
Hildegard was the
tenth child of a noble family who was “tithed” to the Church by her parents at
the age of eight. Already gifted with a keen mind, a kind heart, and a
visionary imagination, she was taught by Jutta (her distant cousin), a learned
anchoress who had the gift of healing. Jutta gathered around herself a
community of Benedictine nuns, and at her death, the mantle of their leadership
fell to her brilliant student, Hildegard.
Hildegard had
learned at an early age to keep her visionary experiences to herself, after
realizing that most people cannot see into the spiritual world and behold
visions of angels and feel the ebbing and flowing of God’s “uncreated energies
of love” that vivify and sustain the Universe. However, a midlife crisis in her
early forties caused her to yield to the well of inspiration that was bursting
forth from her soul, and so she began to write books and create stunning works
of art that were based on her experiences with the Living Light (one of her
favorite titles for God). Major themes in Hildegard’s musical compositions and
voluminous writings included the Trinity, the Incarnation of Christ, Sophia
(the Divine Wisdom), the Virgin Mary, the goodness of the created world, and
the history of salvation.
“Hildegard’s Visionary Awakening: A Poem”
By Jerusha Emrys, Contributing Writer
Hildegard von
Bingen is a prolific and fascinating medieval figure, celebrated for her work
in music, theology, and spirituality. Her unique perspective and deep insight
into the human condition have left a lasting legacy on Western culture. This
poem explores a profound encounter with the Holy and with creation that
Hildegard's writings so beautifully describe.
She walked in the woods alone,
And wandered amongst the trees;
Her heart was weary, her spirit worn,
And she searched for solace and peace.
With every step she took,
Her soul was growing sadder still;
No light, no hope, no meaning left,
And the woods grew darker and colder still.
There was a heaviness surrounding her,
A burden that weighed her down;
But the wood's solitude and silence
Created a safe space and sound.
The night was creeping in,
And it covered the sky;
The darkness grew thicker, the shadows deeper,
And her fears started to rise.
The silence was deafening,
The darkness all-encompassing;
In the depths of the forest,
And in her own mind, the shadows began to dance.
Then, a sound caught her ear;
A whisper, a murmur, a rustling;
Something was out there, moving through the trees;
But what was it, she could not see.
She stood still, trying to listen;
Trying to see some shape, some outline;
But all that she saw was a dark movement,
As if something was creeping towards her.
The movement got faster,
The noise got louder, getting her closer;
It was getting closer, closer still;
The rustling, that murmuring, that whispering.
She felt so vulnerable,
So frightened, so weak;
The shadows dancing around her,
Creeping ever so curiously near.
The murmuring, the whispering, the rustling;
The movement growing faster...
And the shadows dancing,
So close to her, closing in, closing in...
In the depths of the woods,
Surrounded by shadows,
Surrounded by dangers,
Surrounded by threats...
The shadows moving ever closer.
The rustling, the shadows, the murmuring, the whispering;
They were getting louder, getting closer, getting even near.
She could almost feel their touch,
The coldness of their presence,
The danger they carried.
She stood there, motionless,
With fear filling her heart
And in her soul, a feeling
Of unease, of foreboding, of dread.
All she felt was hopelessness,
All she wanted was peace,
All she craved was some light,
And yet...
She stood there, still, motionless.
All she saw was the shadows,
And heard the rustling, the murmuring, the whispering;
Yet she felt nothing physical,
Which confounded her, confused her,
And left her feeling utterly lost.
Still, she continued to stare,
Waiting, wondering, watching;
And as she stood there,
The shadows grew bolder,
Waiting, watching, staring, hearing, feeling, fearing,
As the shadows approached.
Ever so close now,
Ever so near...
And she could almost feel its breath,
The shadow was nearly right there.
The shadows dancing,
Getting closer, getting closer, almost there...
And then, just as the shadows were almost upon her,
Almost touching, the night began to fade,
And the woods lit up with a bright light, illuminating ... the Moon.
Background Resources for
This Poem
·
Dante’s Inferno: Canto 1 @ https://poets.org/poem/inferno-canto-i
·
The Wood Between the Worlds – Broceliande @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broc%C3%A9liande & https://narnia.fandom.com/wiki/Wood_Between_the_Worlds
·
The Guardian of the Threshold @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_of_the_Threshold
Visionary
Insights Meet Scientific Inquiry
Hildegard was a
true polymath, writing books on pharmacology, natural science, cosmology, and
medicine. Her theological treatises were firmly grounded in her visionary
experiences and were copiously illustrated with amazing representations of the
divine pictures that she beheld with the eye of her heart. She invented a new
language (complete with an original alphabet) to communicate with her nuns at
the abbey and with her friends who lived far away.
Hildegard composed
music for the nuns of her abbey to sing -- haunting polyphonic hymns that are
still performed today (in Latin!). She preached in public and wrote letters to
kings, emperors, and popes, denouncing corruption in high places and urging charity
toward “heretics” and other disenfranchised members of society.
Hildegard’s
Teaching on Viriditas (Greenness)
One concept that
runs like an emerald thread through Hildegard’s writings is viriditas
(the medieval Latin word for “greenness”). Some natural philosophers of
medieval Europe had postulated that there was some mysterious “greenifying”
power at work in Nature that revivified the world each year as the Sun crossed
the equator on its way northward at the March Equinox. This “greenifying” power
– by whatever names it might be called in various times and climes – inspired
reverential awe in peoples of the ancient world, for it was regarded as a
divine attribute. Hildegard called this “greenifying” power of Nature viriditas.
She reasoned that this power was present in all living things, causing them to
grow, flourish, and reproduce like plants in springtime.
This illumination from Hildegard’s book Scivias
(Know the Ways) is a “map” of the Universe as she understood it. Notice
the “greenness” that encircles the spherical Earth in the center and the viriditas
sprouting forth from the stars. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia
Commons)
Viriditas
was celebrated by Hildegard in this poem from her Symphonia, a
collection of innovative polyphonic music (with an English translation by
R.H.C.):
O nobilissima Viriditas,
quae radicas in Sole,
Et quae in candida
serenitate luces in rota,
Quam nulla terrena
excellentia comprehendis!
Tu circumdata es
amplexibus divinorum mysteriorum.
Tu rubes ut Aurora et
ardes ut Solis flamma.
O very noble Greenness,
you are rooted in the Sun,
And you shine in bright
serenity in a circle
That no terrestrial excellence comprehends!
You are enclosed by the embrace of divine mysteries.
You blush like the Dawn
and burn like a flame of the Sun.
In these Latin verses, Hildegard identifies the source of viriditas
as something “rooted in the Sun” – that is, in the energy radiating from our
parent star that makes life possible on Earth. In modern scientific terms, we
would say that solar radiation is the catalyst for photosynthesis in green
plants, which form the base of the food chain.
The vivifying
life-force, viriditas, is further described by Hildegard in her Book
of Divine Works. During her first vision recorded in the book, the
Cosmic Christ (personified as Caritas – God’s unconditional love) identifies
himself as the Source of the “fiery force” of viriditas – which is,
therefore a truly divine mystery, one of God’s “uncreated energies” that
communicates life and light to all creation. According to Eastern Orthodox
theology, the Triune God (whose Essence remains incomprehensible) interacts
with the created order through “uncreated energies,” such as grace, love,
truth, viriditas, etc. Creatures can perceive God’s energies at work
in the world, but not the Divine Essence, which remains hidden from all
creatures. This is why Scripture, on the one hand, declares that no one can see
God (in the Divine Essence), but that certain mortals (with the help of divine
grace) can see God (in the divine energies), which are perceived with the “eyes
of the heart.” St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), Archbishop of Thessalonica in
Greece, was the greatest expositor of this teaching about God’s “uncreated
energies” and their role in “divinization” (the Eastern Orthodox understanding
of salvation as the process of becoming more and more like God, which will
culminate in the glorification of the entire human person at the Resurrection
on the Last Day).
Excursus: Hildegard and the Star
Wars Mythos
“May the Force be with you all!” (Viriditas
vobiscum omnibus!)
At this point, it
might be interesting to note a possible connection between Hildegard’s (and the
Eastern Orthodox Church’s) teachings about viriditas and the “uncreated
energies” of God, on the one hand, and the metaphysical speculations underlying
the Star
Wars mythos. From a classical Christian perspective, it would be
possible to understand the Force as one of God’s “uncreated energies,” and
perhaps even more specifically, as viriditas. The Force is
depicted as impersonal in the Star Wars mythos – and likewise, the
“uncreated energies” are understood to be impersonal, because they are not
persons but they nonetheless communicate life and light to all creation from
the Tri-Personal Godhead. Famous descriptions of the Force include the
following:
“Well, the force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s
an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates
us. It binds the galaxy together.”
à Jedi Master Obi-Wan
(Ben) Kenobi in Star Wars IV: A New Hope
“Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds
us and binds us.”
à Jedi Grand Master Yoda
in Star
Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
So we can see that the Force is not a deity of any kind; rather, it
appears to be the universal living energy of all creation. The ultimate source
of the Force, however, is not expounded in the Star Wars mythos – it
remains a mystery, just like the “uncreated energies” of God.
A digital portrait of St. Hildegard of Bingen, created
by the Editor, using the likeness of this week’s featured poet, Jerusha Emrys. Thanks, Jerusha!
·
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viriditas (Viriditas)
·
http://www.antiochian.org/gregory-palamas (Light for the World: The Life of
St. Gregory Palamas)
·
http://www.hildegard.org/ (Index Page of
Hildegardian Resources on the Internet)
Weekly Words of Wisdom
Contributed by Skyla Sonnenschein, Editorial Associate
"The
greening of the grass of the fields ... is an act of the Holy Spirit which
gives joy to the heart of humankind." – Hildegard of Bingen
