R161: Sophia von Kitzingen an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Greeting and Self-Introduction
Sophia, abbess of Kitzingen, greets Hildegard with humble devotion and seeks the refuge of her spiritual care.
The abbess in Kitzingen. To Hildegard. O Hildegard of singular merit, O mistress adorned with sapphires among spiritual virtues. S., called abbess in Kitzingen, but profiting little before her own eyes. Unfailing in the service of prayer. Having heard, by the prerogative of your holiness, with swift wings. I fly to the bosom of your love! Desiring, for the light's sake, to be commended to you.
Hildegard as Light to the Nations
Sophia celebrates Hildegard as the divinely foreordained instrument of the Holy Spirit, whose sound has gone out into all the earth.
Through true light you deserved to be revealed for the illumination of the nations.✦ Who wouldn't delight in the hearth of the mother of wisdom? Who wouldn't willingly lend an ear to heavenly harmony? Or who wouldn't want to hear the instrument of the Holy Spirit? With so many resounding virtues it was foreordained!1 With so many miracles it was mystically inscribed!2 Indeed, that sound has gone out into all the earth.✦ The Spirit who proceeds from the Father has composed its harmony.
Exhortation and Personal Plea
Sophia exhorts Hildegard to cry out with strength and then humbly places herself among those who run in hope, acknowledging that attainment depends not on human will but on God's mercy.
Therefore, cry out with strength!✦ You who announce peace in its fullest measure.✦3 All the nations will come to you.✦ Those beyond the rivers of Ethiopia will bring you gifts of praise.4 For I too, though not according to the prize,✦5 nevertheless run toward the stadium in hope, as the others do.✦6 because this is in accord with that word of the Apostle.✦ Nor of the one willing.✦7
Commendation and Final Petition
Citing Romans 9:16, Sophia commends a noble companion to Hildegard, expresses her desire to know the venerable mother, and asks for guidance on whether to set down or continue bearing her burden.
And not of the one running. But it is of God who shows mercy. Because whoever receives a share of your most holy prayer, which you freely offer to all, owes it to neighborly love and to the love of God. I bring with me a noble companion, a nun — praiseworthy, one of the most perfect sisters, acceptable — whom the heavenly Father has begotten for me in the spirit. Desiring to know you — venerable and most worthy mother, worthy of all praise — no less for her sake than for my own. Let your voice ring in my ears. And what could be more wholesome: should I set down the burden I carry, or bear it longer? Tell me, as I ask, by divine inspiration.
Read the original Latin
Abbatissa in kizingun. hildegardi. Hildigardi singularis meriti magistrę spiritalium uirtutum saphiris distinctę. S. in kizingun dicta abbatissa sed sibi parum proficiens. orationis obsequium indeficiens. Audita prerogatiua tuę sanctitatis pennis prepetibus. ad sinum conuolo tuę caritatis! pro luce cupiens apud te commendari.
quę per ueram lucem ad illuminationem gentium meruisti reuelari. Quis enim non delectetur in laribus matris sophię? Quis non sponte apponat aurem celesti armonię? Aut quis non optet audire sancti spiritus organum. tot uirtutum tinnulis prefinitum! tot miraculorum anaglifis mistice insignitum. Bene quidem sonus iste in omnem terram exiuit. cuius euphoniam spiritus qui a patre procedit condiuit.
Ergo clama in fortitudine! que annuncias pacem in latitudine. Et uenient ad te omnes gentes. ultra flumina ethiopię munera laudis offerentes. Nam et ego licet non secundum brauium. secundum spem tamen ut ceteri curro ad stadium. quia iuxta illud apostoli. neque uolentis.
neque currentis. sed dei est miserentis. quia quisquis comprehendit partem sanctissimę tuę orationis quam gratis prestas omnibus debitam proximitatis et dei dilectionis. Adduco mecum nobilem par monialem scilicet laudabilem perfectissimarum sororem acceptabilem quam spiritu mihi generauit celestis pater. non minus illi quam mihi cupiens tui noticiam ueneranda et omni laude dignissima mater. Sonet uox tua in auribus meis. et quid salubrius sit utrum onus quod porto deseram an diutius feram! mihi petenti diuinitus enarra.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.2.32 — a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
- ↩Rom.10.18 — But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed, their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world.
- ↩Isa.40.9 — Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
- ↩Zech.9.10;Isa.52.7 — And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow will be cut off, and he will speak peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. Isa.52.7 — How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings good news of good, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
- ↩Ps.85.9;Isa.2.2-Isa.2.3 — I will listen to what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his faithful ones, but let them not turn back to folly. Isa.2.2 — And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established at the top of the mountains, and lifted up above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. Isa.2.3 — Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
- ↩1Cor.9.24 — Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
- ↩1Cor.9.24-1Cor.9.26 — Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 1Cor.9.25 — Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 1Cor.9.26 — So then I run not as one who is uncertain; I box not as one beating the air.
- ↩1Cor.9.24-1Cor.9.27 — Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 1Cor.9.25 — Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 1Cor.9.26 — So then I run not as one who is uncertain; I box not as one beating the air. 1Cor.9.27 — But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, so that after preaching to others, I myself might not be disqualified.
- ↩Rom.9.16 — So then, it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.
Notes
- 1 ↩'Tinnulis' is a rare word suggesting a ringing or tinkling quality; 'prefinitum' conveys predestination or foreordination. The exclamatory, fragmentary style resists a fully certain rendering, but the sense is that Hildegard's virtues, as if with bells, were divinely preordained.
- 2 ↩'Anaglifis' (likely from 'anaglyphis') is rare, suggesting engraved or carved ornamentation. The sense is that Hildegard's many miracles were mystically marked or inscribed, as if in relief sculpture.
- 3 ↩que is ambiguous: it may function as a relative pronoun ('you who') or as an enclitic conjunction. The relative reading is preferred here to maintain the address to Hildegard.
- 4 ↩ethiopię is normalized from ethiopi; the form is uncertain but contextually rendered as a genitive of Ethiopia.
- 5 ↩brauium is an uncertain form, possibly a variant of praemium (prize/reward). Rendered as 'prize' following the Pauline athletic metaphor that follows.
- 6 ↩ut is ambiguous between purpose ('so that') and comparison ('as'). The comparative reading is preferred to parallel ceteri.
- 7 ↩uolentis is ambiguous: it could be a substantivized participle ('the one willing') or a genitive modifying an implied noun. The substantivized reading is preferred as a continuation of the Pauline thought.
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