R37: Gottfried von Rhenen an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Salutation and Sender
Godfrey, Bishop of Utrecht, greets Hildegard as his beloved and singular daughter in Christ with a scriptural blessing.
Bishop of the people of Utrecht. To Hildegard. Godfrey, by divine favoring grace Bishop of the people of Utrecht! To her only daughter. To her singular daughter. To her special daughter. To Sister Hildegard, mistress of the sisters of St. Robert! Greeting from the One who commands greeting in Jacob.✦
Love, Memory, and Prayer
Godfrey expresses his enduring love for Hildegard, rooted in the grace at work in her, and asks for her prayers.
Dearest sister, from the very first moment I began to love you in the love of Christ your memory has never been anything but sweeter than honey and honeycomb to me. It has never slipped from my mind. For the power of God, which dwells in you and works through you, compels me into your love. which makes you more intimately his than all others, to that Bridegroom who eternally saves all who hope in him. And because love has been poured into your heart, I ask you, by that love in which you abound toward all,
Petitions and Blessings
Godfrey asks Hildegard to pray for his sins and blesses her with eternal joy, peace, and longing for her replies.
Strive with all your diligence and every effort to entreat God for me. So that in this age I may deserve to be relieved of the burdens of my sins. May the Lord lead you to that place where blessed eternity is. Eternal blessedness. Joyful peace! Delight without end. How I thirst for the fountain!1 That is how I long for your replies.
Read the original Latin
Episcopus traiectensium. hildegardi. Godefridus diuina fauente gratia traiectensium episcopus! unicę suę. singulari suę. speciali suę. sorori hildegardi magistrę sororum de sancto roberto! salutem ab eo qui mandat salutem in iacob.
Soror carissima ex quo primo te cepi in christi caritate diligere! numquam memoria tua super mel et fauum dulcis mihi. animo meo potuit excidere. Cogit enim me in tuam dilectionem uirtus dei quę habitat in te quę operatur per te. quę familiarem pre ceteris illi sponso reddit te! qui eternaliter saluat omnes sperantes in se. Et quoniam caritas diffusa est in corde tuo! rogo te in caritate qua in omnes habundas.
ut omni diligentia omni conamine studeas deum pro me exorare. quatenus in hoc seculo oneribus peccatorum meorum merear alleuiari. Dominus te illuc perducat ubi est felix eternitas. eterna felicitas. iocunda tranquillitas! sine fine iocunditas. Vt siciens fontem! sic tua rescripta desidero.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.49.18 — For your salvation I wait, O LORD.
Notes
- 1 ↩'Vt siciens fontem' is an exclamatory fragment; 'siciens' is a rare/uncertain form, here rendered as 'thirsting' to capture the likely devotional sense of longing for God as fountain/spring.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
Read one voice like Hildegard's every morning
Chosen Portion delivers daily excerpts from Hildegard and 77 other historic devotional writers, free on iOS.
Hildegard directed souls through short written portions sent one at a time, and Chosen Portion continues that letter-a-day rhythm as daily devotionals.
- Daily 2-minute readings including Hildegard's letters and visions
- 78 complete historic works, translated into modern readable English
- A weekly email tracing one writer's story in depth