mckayunderstanding2e

Individuals in Society: Hildegard of Bingen

Inspired by heavenly fire, Hildegard begins to dictate her visions to her scribe. The original of this elaborately illustrated twelfth-century copy of Scivias disappeared from Hildegard’s convent during World War II, but fortunately a facsimile copy had already been made. (Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library)

The tenth child of a lesser noble family, Hildegard (1098–1179) was given as a child to an abbey in the Rhineland when she was eight years old; there she learned Latin and received a good education. She spent most of her life in various women’s religious communities, two of which she founded herself. When she was a child, she began having mystical visions, often of light in the sky, but told few people about them. In middle age, however, her visions became more dramatic: “And it came to pass . . . when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming . . . and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books.”* She wanted the church to approve of her visions and wrote first to Bernard of Clairvaux, who answered her briefly and dismissively, and then to Pope Eugenius, who encouraged her to write them down. Her first work was Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord), a record of her mystical visions that incorporates vast theological learning.

Hildegard’s visions have been explored by theologians and also by neurologists, who judge that they may have originated in migraine headaches because she reports many of the same phenomena that migraine sufferers do: auras of light around objects, areas of blindness, feelings of intense doubt and intense euphoria. The interpretations that she develops come from her theological insight and learning, however, not illness. That same insight also emerges in her music, for which she is best known today. Eighty of her compositions survive — a huge number for a medieval composer — most of them written to be sung by the nuns in her convent, so they have strong lines for female voices. Many of her songs and chants have been recorded and are available on CD, as downloads, and on several Web sites.

*From Scivias, trans. Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990), p. 65.

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

Why do you think Hildegard sought church approval for her visions after keeping them secret for so many years?
In what ways is Hildegard’s life representative of nuns’ lives in the High Middle Ages? In what ways were her accomplishments extraordinary?

ONLINE DOCUMENT PROJECT

How did Hildegard of Bingen come to be seen as a worthy instrument for the transmission of God’s word? Keeping the question above in mind, read excerpts from her correspondence and note the qualities that appealed to so many of her contemporaries. Then complete a writing assignment based on the evidence and details from this chapter.

See Document Project for Chapter 9.