Born for such a time

Few medieval men, much less medieval women, achieved the height of spiritual authority that Hildegard of Bingen held in late twelfth-century society. Her literary and artistic production as an adult solidified her influence, but what set Hildegard apart started long before her years of faithful monastic living and learning. Her calling, rooted in her extraordinary spiritual gifting, began early in her childhood. This would inform her monastic journey and lay the groundwork for her religious leadership. 

 A TIME OF SPIRITUAL SLACKENING

Hildegard of Bingen was born during the decades of the Investiture Controversy (the eleventh and twelfth centuries), when conflicts raged over who had the authority to invest church leaders with the symbols of ecclesiastical office—other church leaders or the state. In her autobiography, Hildegard wrote:

For by the one thousand and one hundredth year after the incarnation of Christ, the teaching of the apostles and the burning righteousness which he had established in Christians and in the spiritual began to slacken and turn to wavering. It was in those times I was born. 

Power struggles between the church and the empire interconnect with the history of Disibodenberg, the monastery where Hildegard was later immured (enclosed or confined) with Jutta of Sponheim, her spiritual mentor. Disibodenberg, founded originally in the seventh century by the Irish missionary Disibod, fell into disrepair during the absence of Ruthard, archbishop of Mainz (d. 1109), exiled by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (r. 1084–1105) in 1098. 

Not until 1105 did Ruthard, whom Hildegard characterized as “pious, humble, and contrite of heart,” return to refound Disibodenberg as a Benedictine monastery. The Benedictines, a monastic order founded by sixth-century Benedict of Nursia, lived a contemplative religious life, usually in separate male and female communities. Disibodenberg eventually became a double monastery, or a dual community in which both nuns and monks lived.

The monastery’s new church was dedicated in 1108, around the time that Hildegard’s parents were making the decision about their precocious child’s future. Mechtild and Hildebert, who ranked in the lower free nobility, reportedly recognized the predictive ability of their five-year-old daughter when she accurately foretold that a pregnant cow’s offspring would be white and covered with spots of a different color. They devoted their young daughter, born in 1098 at Niederhosenbach (near Mainz), to a religious life and placed her in the care of the holy woman Jutta. Paternal ties between Hildegard’s father and Jutta’s father, the count of Sponheim, doubtless facilitated an arrangement for the young girl to reside at Sponheim, where a community grew under Jutta’s tutelage. 

Hildegard remained under Jutta’s direction for around 30 years and was schooled in understanding and singing the Divine Office, especially the Psalter. Sisters were expected to sing the psalms properly in their communal life, understanding both the grammar and the theological meaning. The Life of Hildegard (Vita Hildegardis) by Benedictine monk Theoderic of Echternach (written c. 1180 to 1190) recounts that Jutta instructed the young girl on “the psalms of David and showed her how to make a joyful sound on the 10-stringed psaltery.” 

 Jutta and Hildegard were immured at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg on All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1112, when Hildegard was 14 or 15. Jutta’s renown influenced other noble parents to vow their daughters to her. The enclosure expanded to become a schola (religious school), and a small women’s Benedictine community developed that dependended on the abbot of Disibodenberg with Jutta as superior.

UNTAUGHT AND UNVERSED?

Once installed at Disibodenberg, Hildegard, Jutta, and the other women heard the Divine Office recited day and night by the monks, their cells located near enough to the monks’ cells for that very purpose. The Rule of Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia, governed communal life and provided a program for daily life and learning at Disibodenberg. The Rule mandates prayer according to the Divine Office seven times during the day and once at night and the recitation of the entire Psalter each week, beginning every Sunday at the Night Office. Hildegard also listened to patristic homilies read during the Divine Office. She and other sisters became immersed in Latin, the language of the medieval Western Bible, the liturgy, and the patristic readings incorporated into the Night Office. 

Given this constant exposure to theological education, why did Hildegard call herself “untaught” and “not versed in the Scripture and instructed by no earthly teacher”? The answer lies in the education that girls and women generally received in the monastery in contrast to boys’ education. While grammar was taught through the Psalter to girls and boys, boys continued studying at a higher level. 

Even so, Hildegard’s Psalter-based education involved far more than rote memorization. Glossed manuscripts of the Psalter, used for instruction in monasteries—for women as well as men—reveal commentary on grammar as well as the proper pronunciation of words. The glosses (marginal and interlinear notes) include the paraphrase in simple Latin of psalm and hymn verses with complex syntax. The sense of the text mattered, as did its grammatical features. The nuns were taught the theological content of the psalms and were expected to convey meaning through correct pronunciation and intonation. Furthermore historical evidence indicates that for women of noble birth, education did not stop with the Psalter.

In this context Hildegard stood out as an extraordinarily gifted student. Jutta assigned her a personal tutor, Volmar, to guide her further learning. Volmar, who was a monk, prior, and father confessor at Disibodenberg, taught Hildegard the theological concepts and language needed to describe her visions. She also learned from other secretaries and from exchanges—both written and oral—with visitors. Upon Jutta’s death in 1136, Hildegard became the nuns’ superior—magistra (teacher) and priorissa (prioress), but not abbess. The sisters remained subordinate to the abbot of Disibodenberg. Volmar served as Hildegard’s secretary. 

VISIONS AND AUTHORITY 

In 1141, 43-year-old Hildegard received the first of three elaborate visions, the basis for her visionary treatises: Scivias, Liber vitae meritorum, and Liber divinorum operum (see pp. 24–28). Counseled by Volmar and her fellow nun, Richardis, Hildegard received permission from her superior at Disibodenberg, Abbot Kuno, to accept the divine order to “speak and write.” Passages from her writing gained favor from Pope Eugenius III and Bernard of Clairvaux, presumably after Abbot Kuno showed her writings to Archbishop Henry of Mainz. Bernard and Pope Eugenius both praised the power of the Holy Spirit speaking through Hildegard. This constituted the men’s approval but not their formal permission.

Hildegard completed her account of the vision in Scivias after about 10 years and began to record and interpret a second lengthy vision of virtues and vices in the Liber vitae meritorum (Book of Life’s Merits), completed in 1157. In 1163 Hildegard’s third vision at age 65 shook and stirred her to undertake the highest goal for Christian exegetes, the relationship between Genesis 1 and John 1. After years of grappling with her visions and the biblical texts, she completed the Liber divinorum operum in 1173. 

In addition to laboring over her complex visions, Hildegard established new houses for her nuns and ventured to take her message outside the monastery walls. Hildegard resolved to move her community to Rupertsberg, but Kuno resisted her plan. He relented only after her illness and inability to write convinced him of her suffering. She finally obtained permission to establish a new community for women around 1150 with a man of her choice as provost (in Benedictine communities, a provost served as “second-in-command” and oversaw the administrative needs of the monastery). She chose Volmar, who continued to work as her secretary and provided testimony on her sacred activities.

In 1165 some sisters were sent to Eibingen, founded across the Rhine from Bingen. As the superior of both communities, Hildegard took on responsibility for preaching to them, crossing the river to Eibingen and back once per week. The Life of Hildegard attests that she regularly crossed the river near Rüdesheim to visit Eibingen. When her boat came close to the shore, people approached her to seek healing. A miracle story rich in biblical symbolism recounts an instance when Hildegard, in the boat, blessed the river water, sprinkled it on the eyes of a child in her mother’s arms, and restored her sight.

Over the years Hildegard would visit with numerous religious communities, both male and female, to offer counsel and admonitions. Clergy and early historians were careful not to call these teaching tours “preaching,” but nonetheless the effect of her speaking was that of a sermon (see p. 30). 

When Volmar, Hildegard’s lifelong friend and secretary, died in 1173, the magistra cried out to God for help: “O my God, you have done as it pleased you with your servant whom you gave me to help with these visions. Now help me as it befits you!” 

Hildegard’s nephew Wezelin, prior of St. Andrew’s, Cologne, came to his aunt’s  rescue and assisted her with her writing. He diligently “listened to and noted down the words of these visions.” Wezelin comforted his aunt in her grief and through “other wise men.” He also appointed Godfrey of Disibodenberg as provost of Rupertsberg, where Godfrey stayed from 1173 until his death in 1176. While at Rupertsberg, Godfrey composed a “little book” (libellus) about Hildegard’s life that became the first book of the Vita Hildegardis. 

Succeeding Godfrey was Guibert of Gembloux (c. 1124–1214), a learned monk present at Rupertsberg from 1177 to 1180, who described his discussions with Hildegard during the last year of her life:

I am guided by her counsels . . . and daily refreshed by conversations with her. . . . nothing would please her more to see . . . that I stay here . . . and undertake the spiritual service of herself and her daughters and examine the books she has written. 

Hildegard valued not only Guibert’s spiritual direction and friendship but also his reading and checking of her works. A manuscript of Liber divinorum operum in the University Library at Ghent shows corrections made by Guibert as well as Hildegard’s acceptance and rejection of the same. 

CORRUPTION AND THE CATHARS

 At several key points during Hildegard’s years as magistra, she disagreed with ecclesiastical leaders and faced crises of authority. In the 1160s the Cathar heresy gained a stronghold in the Rhineland (see p. 24). Hildegard denounced this austere, dualistic heresy and the worldly and ecclesiastical corruption that she considered responsible for its rise. Her differences with the emperor can be discerned from her works, especially her letters, but her call to combat heresy resounds even more strongly. Moreover in Hildegard’s account of the life of Disibod, one may readily imagine that the description of the past schisms and quarrels with imperial power, which plagued the saint and the history of Disibodenberg, allowed her to speak loudly if not directly against the schism of 1159–1177. 

Hildegard also opposed Archbishop Christian and the prelates of Mainz in 1178–1179 over the burial of a deceased man at Rupertsberg. The Mainz prelates claimed that he was still excommunicated, but Hildegard adamantly refused their order to have the body exhumed. During the archbishop’s absence, the prelates imposed an interdict, 1178–1179, banning the sacraments and sacred music at Rupertsberg.

Hildegard’s Letter 23, a beautifully composed masterpiece of theological reasoning, responds forcefully to the prelates who imposed this interdict. She boldly asserts that God implanted the authorizing vision for the letter in her soul before her birth. Her comprehension of Adam’s transgression in the plan of salvation history leads her to determine what constitutes obedience and disobedience. When Adam disobeyed he lost the divine voice of Spirit for himself and for humankind. However, God renews the hearts of the elect through music, and for that reason, God commands the elect to praise him with music. Voices and instruments aid the restoration of the soul to its heavenly condition, and the ability to hear the celestial symphony becomes manifest when the community sings. Much to Hildegard’s distress and sadness, the interdict was not lifted until shortly before her death. 

Historians recognize Hildegard as the most influential woman of the twelfth century, and for good reason. However, for her religious community, Hildegard was more: a Spirit-empowered prophetess who imagined and explained God’s truth in novel ways. In an 1170 epistolary sermon to Abbot Helenger of Disibodenberg, Hildegard reflected on the ages of human life and human history, explaining that a child sucks her mother’s milk, next eats soft food, then makes choices and chews what she wishes to eat. After reaching maturity, the human’s marrow in brain and bone fills up with all knowledge and she knows the truth. In the same way, Hildegard helps believers progress from milk to marrow; ultimately her visions, admonitions, and systematic exegesis of Scripture would fill the church with knowledge for ages to come.   CH