R215: Priester S. von Otterburg an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Salutation and Self-Description
The priest S. greets Hildegard as his spiritual mother, describes himself as the lowest and sinful brother, and expresses his desire to serve with Martha and Mary while rejoicing in her.
A certain priest. To Hildegard. To Lady Hildegard. To a spiritual mother! A brother — S. [lacuna] of the church of brothers, the lowest. But obscured above all by the filth of sins! With Martha, to serve spiritual feasts, and with Mary, to yearn for the joys of heavenly life. With joy I rejoice, O spiritual mother.
Hildegard's Grace and a Plea for Prayer
The writer praises Hildegard's grace, her Spirit-filled soul, and her contemplative focus, then urgently begs her prayers for his sins and the spirit of blasphemy surrounding him.
You have found grace in the sight of the Lord our God. And you have had the lamp of a happy soul, kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit without any weariness or lukewarmness, on account of his coming. Therefore you, O fellow-priest of God, are strong in the integrity of chastity together with wise virgins.1 And you have the eye of contemplation fixed continually on the divine brightness — my devotion begs this of your timidity.2 That you may take care to appease the face of the Lord — which I have provoked too greatly by the cunning of perversity — with your most just prayers on my behalf.3 For I am certain that God is our refuge and strength. He will gladly deign to hear your entreaty on my behalf! And for his own piety's sake, the spirit of blasphemy — through which my unhappy soul is surrounded — having been put to flight far away, and on account of you, having been justified for me.4
Request for a Reply and Final Greeting
The writer asks Hildegard to reply through the bearer, sends greetings to her holy women monastics, alludes to mansions in the Father's house, and closes with a farewell.
Not into eternal wavering. But I earnestly ask — from your abundant goodness — that through the bearer [REDACTED] this letter you write back to me, in my lowliness, letters from your holiness. To your holy women monastics, guardians of religious life — as many as there are — speak greetings and prayers on my behalf. However many mansions there are in the house of the Lord, Farewell.
Read the original Latin
Sacerdos quidam. hildegardi. Dominę hildegardi. matri spiritali! frater S. [lacuna] ęcclesię fratrum extimus. sed super omnes peccatorum sordibus obfuscatus! cum martha dapes spirituales ministrare et cum maria gaudia uitę celestis anhelare. Gaudio gaudeo o mater spiritualis.
uos in conspectu domini dei nostri gratiam inuenisse. lampademque felicis animę uestrę propter ipsius aduentum absque teporis ullius fatigatione igne sancti spiritus hactenus accensam habuisse. Vos igitur o simista dei quia cum prudentibus uirginibus castitatis integritate polletis. oculumque contemplationis circa diuinam claritatem fixum iugiter habetis pusillanimitatis meę precatur deuotio. ut faciem domini quam peruersitatis cauterie nimis exacerbaui uestris iustissimis orationibus pro me placare curetis. Certus enim sum quia deus noster refugium et uirtus. uestram pro me libenter dignabitur exaudire deprecationem! et pro sua pietate blasphemię spiritu per quem nimis infelix anima mea circumuallatur longius fugato mihique propter uos iustificato.
non in eternum fluctuationem. Sed et a largiflua uestra bonitate deposco! ut per presentem litterarum portitorem uestrę sanctitatis litteras paruitati meę rescribatis. Uestris sanctimonialibus monasticę religionis seruatricibus tot de me dicite saluationes et orationes. quot sunt in domo domini eternę mansiones. Ualete.
Notes
- 1 ↩simista (fellow-priest) is a rare form; the gloss suggests sacrista or similar, but the address is clearly to a priestly colleague.
- 2 ↩pusillanimitatis meę precatur deuotio: syntactically compressed. The sense is that the writer's devotion makes petition on behalf of the recipient's timidity/faintheartedness, or that the recipient's timidity is what the writer's devotion prays against. Rendered to preserve the devotional tone.
- 3 ↩peruersitatis cauterie: 'cauterie' is a rare/uncertain form, glossed as caution or cunning. The sense is that the writer's own perverse cunning has provoked God's face (i.e., angered God).
- 4 ↩The sentence is syntactically compressed and elliptical. The sense: the writer asks that the spirit of blasphemy be driven far away, and that through the recipient's intercession the writer may find justification. 'mihique propter uos iustificato' is an ablative absolute construction with a dative of reference, rendered to preserve the causal and intercessory logic.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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