Definition for Hildegard of Bingen, St.
Glossary
St. Hildegard of Bingen
(German: Hildegard von Bingen; born circa 1098; died September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath[1] active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages.[2] She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony[3], as well as the most recorded in modern history.[4] There are two saint from whose writings I have learned more about Scripture and God's creation than from any other Magisterial writings. The two saints are St. Hidegard of Bingen and St. Catherine of Siena. I can honestly say that without them, STOSS could never have been developed. I consider them both, but especially Hildegard, to be the unofficial patron saints of STOSS.
Hildegard's convent elected her as magistra (mother superior) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works,[5] as well as letters, hymns, and antiphons for the liturgy.[6] Furthermore, she wrote poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.[7]
Although the history of her formal canonization is complicated, regional calendars of the Roman Catholic church have listed her as a saint for centuries. On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as “equivalent canonization.” On October 7, 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church,[8] in recognition of “her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching.”
Hildegard's most significant works were her three volumes of visionary theology:
1). Scivias (“short for Scito Vias Domini (Know the Ways of the Lord)”, written 1142–1151);
2). Liber Vitae Meritorum (“Book of Life’s Merits” or “Book of the Rewards of Life”, written 1158–1163); and,
3). Liber Divinorum Operum (“Book of Divine Works”, also known as De operatione Dei, “On God's Activity”, begun around 1163 or 1164 and completed around 1172 or 1174).
In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was well into her seventies, Hildegard first describes each vision, whose details are often strange and enigmatic, and then interprets their theological contents in the words of the “voice of the Living Light.”[9]
Both St. Hildegard and St. Catherine of Siena are known loosely as God’s secretaries. In other words, they were told to write everything God said to them. In reality, because they themselves were in the midst of a vision of God, they would dictate God’s words out loud to another person who would be the one to actually write the words down. How serious of a responsibility was this task to Hildegard?
Hildegard saw herself as the voice of another, not as a speaker in her own right, she often seems disturbingly unaware of the human element in her writings. Not only does she lapse easily from speaking about God in the third person, as preacher, to speaking for him in the first person, as prophet; she also claims direct verbal inspiration for her entire opus and threatens terrible divine vengeance on anyone who dares to add, delete or alter a word.[10]
ENDNOTES:
[1]. A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.
[2]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Bennett, Judith M. and Hollister, Warren C. Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 317; also “Women of Historic Note,” Washington Post, By Gayle Worl, March 9, 1997.
[3]. In music, monophony is the simplest of musical textures, consisting of a melody (or “tune”), typically sung by a single singer or played by a single instrument player (e.g., a flute player) without accompanying harmony or chords.
[4]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Jones, Gaynor G.; Palisca, Claude V. (2001). Grout, Donald J(ay). Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.11845.
[5]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Campbell, Olivia, Abortion Remedies from a Medieval Catholic Nun(!), JSTOR Daily, October 13, 2021.
[6]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Bennett, Judith M. and Hollister, Warren C. Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 317; also “Women of Historic Note,” Washington Post, By Gayle Worl, March 9, 1997.
[7]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Madeline Caviness, "Artist: 'To See, Hear, and Know All at Once'", in Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World, ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 110–24; Nathaniel M. Campbell, Imago expandit splendorem suum: Hildegard of Bingen's Visio-Theological Designs in the Rupertsberg Scivias Manuscript in Eikón/Imago 4 (2013, Vol. 2, No. 2), pp. 1–68, 16 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
[8]. A recognition given to saints for having made a significant contribution to theology or doctrine through their research, study, or writing.
Bennett, Judith M. and Hollister, Warren C. Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 317; also “Women of Historic Note,” Washington Post, By Gayle Worl, March 9, 1997.
[9]. Wikipedia contributors, “Hildegard of Bingen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hildegard_of_Bingen&oldid=1086569361, (accessed May 24, 2022).
Cited by Wikipedia: Beuys, Barbara (2020). “Mit Visionen zur Autorität”. Damals (in German). No. 6. pp. 22–29.
[10]. Barbara J. Newman, “Introduction,” in Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias, ed. Bernard McGinn, trans. Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1990), 17–18.