Hildegard of Bingen
Introduction:
The Medieval Era – roughly the thousand or so years from 500 AD to 1500 AD – was truly a more event-filled time than most historians have led you to believe. What a shame that historians skim over this millennium and write it off as the “Dark Ages”. Advances in all areas of culture were taking place including agriculture, religion, politics, economics, and science. There were many changes taking place in the Church. Though historians often neglect the facts, women took part in all areas of ministry during the Medieval Ages.
We have looked at only a few of the many stories of women from the Medieval period. We covered early Middle Ages with woman such as Genovefa and Brigid of Ireland (5th and 6th centuries). Then we moved on to the 7th and 8th centuries with stories of abbesses and queens such as Gertrude, Frideswide, and Lioba. We continued with the stories of 9th and 10th century women such as Dhuoda (writer and Theologian), and Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora who were Byzantine empresses. Then we presented the story of the amazingly gifted Hrotsvitha, a poet and a playwright whose works are still influential today. We then moved into the 11thand 12th centuries with the stories of strong, passionate, and gifted women like Anna Komnene and empresses, queens and princesses including Empress Adelheid, Queen Margaret of Scotland and Queen Eleanor of England and Duchess of Aquitaine.
In the 12th and 13th centuries many women sought to grow in their faith by joining a convent or some other form of spiritual community. In our last post we discovered that many different groups of women served the Lord Jesus in unique ways. The Beguines were in communities but not as formal as church convents. This enabled them to go into the places where the poor and needy were in order to serve them better. Many other women served in cloisters (convents). A stellar example of a woman who was totally focused on God and helped to contribute to the many changes in society in all areas of culture is Hildegard of Bingen.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) – Part 1
Composer, writer, artist, poet, prophet, theologian, healer, teacher, and monastery abbess, Hildegard of Bingen is one of the most amazing women in church history. She was able to integrate her thinking about theology, music, and teaching in a way that gives us a holistic picture of life. She truly believed that she was in communion with God. Her visions helped her to understand and appreciate God. And as a true blessing form God, she remained humble throughout her life.
“On humility: Thus beware lest you attribute to yourself alone those good qualities which are yours in both your spirit and your works. Rather, attribute them to God, from whom all virtues proceed like sparks from a fire. . . For whoever is aware that he has good qualities, but ascribes them to himself alone, that person is like an infidel who worships only the works of his own hands.” Hildegard of Bingen.
These wise words are taken from a letter written by Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard is best known as a twelfth-century abbess with an extraordinary mind but especially she is known for her music and her visions. Whatever one thinks about the subject of visions and dreams, certainly Hildegard was a wise, talented, intelligent, dedicated, and devout Christian woman who rose above her circumstances to serve God in extraordinary ways.[1]
Hildegard was born around 1098 in Bemersheim, Germany, the daughter of a nobleman. She was a frail child and displayed a mystical disposition from early childhood. She perhaps had the first of her famous visions before the age of five. It may have been this ability to see visions that led her parents to “tithe” her to God. Sometimes when parents were blessed with many children, they gave one back to God. This was Hildegard’s case and when she was only eight years old, she went to a convent to stay with her Aunt Jutta. Jutta was living as an anchoress, walled up in a cell, for she had dedicated her whole life to Christ.
Many recluses expected to stay solitary for life, but Jutta attracted other women to join her. When the cell became too small, a Benedictine convent was built for them at Disibodenberg. When Hildegard was fourteen years old, she became one of the nuns. We do not know much about her next few years, except that she must have been a good assistant to Jutta. When her aunt died in 1136, Hildegard was chosen to be the abbess in her place. Hildegard was thirty-eight years old.
Now that Hildegard was the superior at the convent, she began to make decisions of her own. She had many talents and it was not until this time that she had an opportunity to start putting them to use.
She began by recruiting many nuns. When their numbers were too large for their present convent, she asked to have a bigger facility in a different location built. This was a significant accomplishment because at the convent where she was, she had to get permission from male supervisors before she could do anything. She personally oversaw the construction of the new convent at Rupertsberg, near Bingen, Germany. The nuns moved into the new convent in 1150, and she became known as Hildegard of Bingen.
Today, Hildegard is most remembered as a composer. In the next post, we will look at Hildegard’s contributions to literature, science, theology, and medicine. For now, let’s take a look at Hildegard’s musical compositions which were considered as excelling above others even in her own day.
Hildegard’s music followed the traditional incantations of Church music. Her compositions consisted of a single, chant-like melodic line called “antiphons”. Antiphons are single lines of music sung before and after a psalm.
Hildegarde combined all of her music into a cycle called Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum (The Symphony of the Harmony of the Heavenly Revelations), around 1151. It is easy to see how her music reflects her belief that music was the highest praise to God. Her works, including In Evangelium and O Viridissima Virga, were rediscovered in the 1980’s and have been recorded and released today.[2]
Hildegard was intensely concerned with the praise of the entire Trinity including the Holy Spirit. For
Hildegard the Holy Spirit is associated with abundant life. The Holy Spirit is also the One Who brings understanding of the Scriptures (John 16:13). He helps believers in their search for knowledge and wisdom. The following work illustrates Hildegard’s faith in the Holy Spirit.
O ignis spiritus paracliti, written to honor the Holy Spirit, begins with the following text:
O spirit of fire, bringer of comfort,
Life of the life of every creature,
You are holy, giving life to forms.
You are holy,
anointing those perilously broken;
you are holy,
cleansing foul wounds.
O breath of holiness,
O fire of love,
O sweet savor in our breasts,
infusing hearts with the scent of virtue.
I don’t know about you but my spirit soars as I read these words. Hildegard’s theology of the Holy Spirit speaks to us today. It is all too common to hear sermons on the Father or the Savior without mentioning the Spirit. Hildegard emphasized the One-ness of God – the complete Triune God.
Hildegard calls us today to pay more attention to the third person of the Trinity. Her life was an ongoing conversation with the Holy Spirit. We need that message in our twenty-first century materialistic society. Is the Holy Spirit real in our lives? Is He there helping us daily in our walk with the Lord? If we really believe that, then like Hildegard we are practicing a form of mysticism. We should not be afraid of it but embrace it as an aspect of a holistic life – body, soul, and spirit.
With her lifelong learning and perseverance, Hildegard overcame many obstacles for women in her day. Hildegarde of Bingen remains a most extraordinary figure in women’s history, not only as a gifted musician but also because she seized the opportunities placed before her and worked to her limits. She is a fine example to women to not give up. In our day, women complain of not having the same rights as men, but we have way more than Hildegard did. She did not let that stop her; she was an over-comer.
[1] For more information on visions and mysticism in the Middle Ages see the post from October 6, 2020 – “Christian Women in the Medieval Era – Part 29”.
[2] You can listen to her works performed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YTOiJ-zjP0&list=RD0YTOiJ-zjP0&index=1
