#WindsdayWonders: 2024/03/27 -- St. Hildegard of Bingen

 

WINDSDAY WONDERS

Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Editorial Associate: S. A. Sonnenschein

Vol. 3, No. 22: March 27, 2024

 

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Episode #4: St. Hildegard of Bingen, the Sibyl of the Rhine

 

Introduction

                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.

 

Biographical Sketch

                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!

 

Webliography

·         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 Skylar 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