R190: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Äbtissin L. von Neuss
A Call to Run in the Circle of the Sun
Hildegard greets the abbess and urges her to pursue good works eagerly while life and strength remain.
Hildegard's reply. O handmaid of God, run in the circle of the sun. Sigh for your sins and yearn for God, and do good works before your days decline, when you can no longer work afterward.
The Steward's Example and the Call to Mercy
Using the image of the unjust steward, Hildegard calls the abbess to wise, merciful leadership that leads to eternal dwellings.
Pay attention also to that steward who was slandered before his own lord. and who reduced by writing up the debts of his lord's debtors. And you, do the same. Where you haven't done your duty well, help your daughters with your counsel, and be moved with mercy toward them.1 Like rain falling on grass that brings forth abundant fruit. Through penitence and mercy you will be wiser than the sons of light—namely, the lost angels.2 because they refused to do this. And when you have done these works, they will receive you into eternal dwellings after your death.✦
The Plow, the Rain, and the Heart
Hildegard uses plowing and rain imagery to call the abbess to cultivate inner devotion and good works through Scripture, sighs, and holy habit.
For if you were to turn the plow into the earth rightly and have suitable rain, the earth would be sprouting. For the dew from which you should have sprouted is lacking in you. And when you go around with the wheel that you say is your salvation, which yet is ashen, Now turn your plow — the knowledge of holy Scripture — into your heart, and through sighs of good intention have rain, and by happy custom retain the dew of blessing through good works.
Before the Day of Death
Hildegard closes with a solemn charge to act now so that the abbess may live forever.
Do these things before the day of your death! so that you may live forever.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. O famula dei. in circulo solis curre. pro peccatis tuis suspirando ad deum anhelans. et bona opera operare priusquam dies tui inclinentur! ubi postea operari non possis. Uillicum etiam illum adtende qui apud dominum suum diffamatus est. et qui debita debitorum domini sui scribendo minuit!
et tu similiter facito. Nam ubi officium tuum non bene seruasti. filias tuas per adiutorium consilij tui adiuua et in motu misericordię super illas esto. sicut congrua pluuia super gramen ascendit et multum fructum prouocat. et per penitentiam et misericordiam prudentior filiis lucis scilicet perditis angelis eris. quoniam ipsi hoc facere noluerunt. Et cum opera ista feceris! in eterna tabernacula post mortem tuam te suscipient.
Nam si aratrum in terram recte uerteres et congruam pluuiam haberes! germinans terra esses. Ros enim unde germinare debuisti. in te deficit. et cum rota quam salutem tuam esse dicis quę tamen cinerosa est circuis. Nunc aratrum tuum cum scientia sanctę scripturę in cor tuum uerte. et per suspiria bonę intentionis pluuiam habe! et felici consuetudine rorem benedictionis per bona opera retine.
Hęc ante diem mortis tuę facito! ut in eternum uiuas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.14.2 — In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you? I go to prepare a place for you.
Notes
- 1 ↩in motu misericordię super illas esto: literally 'be in the movement of mercy over them'; rendered to capture both the affective and active sense of mercy in Hildegard's exhortation.
- 2 ↩prudentior filiis lucis scilicet perditis angelis eris: the comparative 'wiser than the sons of light, namely the lost angels' is striking; Hildegard appears to use the fallen angels as a humbling comparison—those who, despite their original glory, fell. The precise theological nuance is preserved here.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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