Hildegard of Bingen (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the "Sibyl of the Rhine", was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath, active during the High Middle Ages as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. A number of scholars have considered her to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
Hildegard's convent at Disibodenberg elected her as (mother superior) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters, hymns, and antiphons for the liturgy. She wrote poems, and supervised miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, . There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the , is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. She is noted for the invention of a constructed language known as .
Although the history of her formal canonization is complicated, regional calendars of the 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 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church, in recognition of "her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching."
Biography
Hildegard was born around 1098. Her parents were Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, a family of the free lower nobility in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim. Sickly from birth, Hildegard is traditionally considered their youngest and tenth child, although there are records of only seven older siblings. In her , Hildegard states that from a very young age she experienced visions.
Monastic life Perhaps because of Hildegard's visions or as a method of political positioning, or both, Hildegard's parents offered her as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg, which had been recently reformed in the Palatinate Forest. The date of Hildegard's enclosure at the monastery is the subject of debate. Her says she was eight years old when she was professed with Jutta, who was the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim and about six years older than Hildegard. Jutta's date of enclosure is known to have been in 1112, when Hildegard would have been 14., esp pp. 32–33. Their vows were received by Bishop Otto of Bamberg on All Saints Day 1112. Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in Jutta's care at the age of eight and that the two were enclosed together six years later.
In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed together at Disibodenberg. They formed the core of a growing community of women attached to the monastery of monks, known as a Frauenklause, a type of female hermitage. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the monastery. Hildegard states that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned, and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard sound Biblical interpretation. The written record of the Life of Jutta indicates that Hildegard probably assisted her in reciting the psalms, working in the garden, other handiwork, and tending to the sick. This might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed psaltery. Volmar, a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create.
Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as of the community by her fellow nuns. Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg asked Hildegard to be prioress, which would be under his authority. Hildegard, wanting more independence for herself and her nuns, asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg. This was to be a move toward poverty, from a stone complex that was well established to a temporary dwelling place. When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that rendered her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery.McGrade, "Hildegard", MGG. Hildegard and approximately 20 nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165, Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at Eibingen.
Before Hildegard died in 1179, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz: a man buried in Rupertsberg had died after being excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard rejected this idea, saying it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.
Friendship with Richardis von Stade While completing Scivias, Hildegard found a close friend and personal assistant in Richardis von Stade, a fellow nun. In 1151, Richardis was elected abbess of a distant convent, much to Hildegard's displeasure. In a series of letters to multiple church officials (including the Pope), Richardis' family, and even Richardis herself, Hildegard pleaded for her companion to be allowed to stay with her. Hildegard remained adamant that it was "not God's will" for Richardis and her to be separated.
Despite Hildegard's efforts, Richardis was eventually moved. A year later, Richardis' brother sent Hildegard a letter notifying her that Richardis had died, and had met "a good Christian end". In response to this, Hildegard grieved the death of her friend, and assured her brother that she was confident in Richardis' salvation, and that she cherished Richardis with "divine love".
Visions
Hildegard said that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" () at the age of three, and by the age of five, she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term (Latin for 'vision') to describe this feature of her experience, and she recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Her letter to Guibert of Gembloux, which she wrote at the age of 77, describes her experience of this light:
Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:
It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenius heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from this that she received papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credence.
On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters said they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.
Hildegard's hagiography, , was compiled by the monk Theoderic of Echternach after Hildegard's death. He included the hagiographical work , or "Little Book", begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg. Godfrey had died before he was able to complete his work. Guibert of Gembloux was invited to finish the work; however, he had to return to his monastery with the project unfinished. Theoderic utilized sources Guibert had left behind to complete the .
Works
Hildegard's works include three great volumes of visionary theology;Critical editions of all three of Hildegard's major works have appeared in the Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Medievalis: Scivias in vols. 43–43A, Liber vitae meritorum in vol. 90, and Liber divinorum operum in vol. 92. a variety of musical compositions for use in the liturgy, as well as the musical morality play ; one of the largest bodies of letters (nearly 400) to survive from the Middle Ages, addressed to correspondents ranging from popes to emperors to abbots and abbesses, and including records of many of the sermons she preached in the 1160s and 1170s; two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures; an invented language called the ('unknown language'); and various minor works, including a gospel commentary and two works of hagiography.
Several manuscripts of her works were produced during her lifetime, including the illustrated Rupertsberg manuscript of her first major work, ; the Dendermonde Codex, which contains one version of her musical works; and the Ghent manuscript, which was the first fair-copy made for editing of her final theological work, the . At the end of her life, and probably under her initial guidance, all of her works were edited and gathered into the single Riesenkodex manuscript. The Riesenkodex manuscript is a collection of 481 folios of vellum bound in pig leather over wooden boards that measure .
Visionary theology
Hildegard's most significant works were her three volumes of visionary theology: ("Know the Ways", composed 1142–1151), ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life", composed 1158–1163); and ("Book of Divine Works", also known as , "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. Then she interprets their theological contents in the words of the "voice of the Living Light."
With permission from Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg, she began journaling her visions (the basis for ). is a contraction of ('Know the Ways of the Lord'), and it was Hildegard's first major visionary work, and one of the biggest milestones in her life. Perceiving a divine command to "write what you see and hear," Hildegard began to record and interpret her visionary experiences. In total, 26 visionary experiences were captured in this compilation.
is structured into three parts of unequal length. The first part (six visions) chronicles the order of God's creation: the Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve, the structure of the universe (described as the shape of an "egg"), the relationship between body and soul, God's relationship to his people through the Synagogue, and the choirs of angels. The second part (seven visions) describes the order of redemption: the coming of Christ the Redeemer, the Trinity, the church as the Bride of Christ and the Mother of the Faithful in baptism and confirmation, the orders of the church, Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the Eucharist, and the fight against the devil. Finally, the third part (thirteen visions) recapitulates the history of salvation told in the first two parts, symbolized as a building adorned with various allegorical figures and virtues. It concludes with the Symphony of Heaven, an early version of Hildegard's musical compositions.