HILDEGARD

Hildegard of Bingen was born nearly 1000 years ago in Germany. Her spirituality from all that time ago still inspires many today. From her earliest years she lived a powerful, visionary life, becoming a Benedictine nun at the age of eighteen.

She was greatly influenced by her foster-mother, Jutta, who had set up the community and whom she succeeded as Abbess in 1136. She moved her sisters to a new Abbey at Bingen;  travelled much in the Rhineland, influencing many, including the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. She was a visionary, a composer, and spent much of her later life defending her community against political and ecclesiastical turmoil.

Hildegard's Musical Compositions Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard's music. In addition to the Ordo Virtutum, 69 musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost.This is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers.

Hildegard's 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 visio to describe this feature of her experience, and she recognised 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.

It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenius heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from him 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 advice when experiencing difficulties

“Even in a world that's being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.”

Hildegard's Prayer in the face of difficult people (she had a few!)

“Lord give us the grace to see thy presence

in the challenging and most difficult people for us to love and forgive.

Help us to truly appreciate thy love for each and every living being in our lives.  

Hildegard's Prayer to the Holy Spirit

 Holy Spirit, the life that gives life:

Thou art the cause of all movement.

Thou art the breath of all creatures.

Thou art the salve that purifies our souls.

Thou art the ointment that heals our wounds.

Thou art the fire that warms our hearts.

Thou art the light that guides our feet.

Let all the world praise thee.

  

Hildegard's Praise of the Holy Trinity

“To the Trinity be praise!

God is music,

God is life that nurtures every creature in its kind.

Our God is the song of the angel throng

and the splendour of secret ways hid from all humanity,

But God, our life, is the life of all.”

 

The Collect Prayer in honour of Hildegard

Most glorious and holy God,

whose servant Hildegard, strong in the faith,

was caught up in the vision of thy heavenly courts:

by the breath of thy Spirit

open our eyes to glimpse thy glory

and our lips to sing thy praises with all the angels;

through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with thee,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.