R56: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Bernhard von Clairvaux
Greeting and Visionary Authority
Hildegard opens by greeting Bernard in the spirit of God's mysteries and introduces her visionary calling with humility and dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Hildegard. I speak to you in the spirit of the mysteries of God. O venerable father, who are wonderfully, greatly to be feared in the great honors of God's power — above the illicit foolishness of this world. With the banner of the holy Cross, when you are exalted with burning zeal in the love of the Son of God — taking men to be fought in wars in Christian military service against the cruelty of tyrants — because I am greatly constrained in a vision that appears to me in the spirit of the mystery. A vision that I do not see with the outward eyes of the flesh. I, wretched and more than wretched in my womanly name, have seen from my childhood great and wondrous things that my tongue cannot utter. Unless the Spirit of God teaches me how I am to speak of them.
Humility and Interior Teaching
Hildegard confesses her lifelong anxiety and unlearned state, yet testifies that her soul teaches her in the vision, especially concerning Scripture and Bernard himself.
Most certainly, most gentle father, hear me in your goodness — your unworthy servant. I've never lived free from anxiety since my childhood. And concerning your piety and wisdom, understand in your soul — according to what you've been taught in the Holy Spirit.1 Because those things that were said to me about you — they are according to this manner. For I know in the text the deeper understanding of the exposition of the Psalter — and of the Gospel, and of other volumes that are shown to me in this vision that touches my breast. And like a burning flame, my soul teaches me these deep things of exposition. But it doesn't teach me letters in the German language, which I don't know! But I only know how to read in simplicity, not in the cutting apart of the text. Because I am an unlearned woman, without any mastery of external material. But inwardly, in my soul, I am taught, and so I speak to you about you without doubting. But I will be consoled by your wisdom and piety. For this reason — because there are many schisms among people. Just as I hear people say.
Discernment, Confidentiality, and a Vision of Bernard
Hildegard recounts how she first tested a trusted monk, shared her secrets, was consoled, and then recalls a vision of Bernard gazing boldly at the sun.
For I first said these things to a certain monk whom I had examined and found to be of more proven character in his way of life. And I showed him all my secret things. And he consoled me! So much so that these things are great and awe-inspiring.2 I want this, father. That for the love of God you would remember me in your prayers. Two years ago I saw you in this vision — gazing into the sun as a person would, without fear, but with great boldness! And I wept, because I am so full of shame and so lacking in boldness.
Petition for Prayer amid Visionary Suffering
She asks Bernard to pray for her because of her great visionary labors and infirmities, lamenting her fallen, changeable nature before calling him to rise up.
Good father, most gentle one, I place myself into your soul — pray for me! Because I have great labors in this vision. So that I may speak what I see and hear. And sometimes in great infirmities brought on by this vision I am prostrated in bed, because I am silent! So that I can't pull myself up. So with grief I lament before you, because I'm changeable, tossed about like a tree in a winepress, in my own nature. Having sprung from the root rising into Adam, who was made an exile into a foreign world by the suggestion of the devil.✦ But now — rise up!
Exhortation to Bernard as Victor and Eagle
Hildegard urges Bernard to recognize that he is stable, victorious, and like an eagle looking at the sun, raising up both himself and others to salvation.
I run to you. I say to you. You are not fickle, but always raising up a tree. and you are a victor in your soul. not only yourself alone. but also raising up other people to salvation. You are also an eagle looking at the sun. I beg you through the serenity of the Father.
Urgent Prayer Through the Trinity and the Word
She begs Bernard through the Father, His wondrous Word, the spirit of truth, and the creative Word by which the world and the Incarnation came to be, asking him to take her words to heart.
And through his wondrous word. And through the sweet moisture of compunction — that is, the spirit of truth.3 And through the holy sound through which every creature resounds. And through that very word from which the world arose, and through the majesty of the Father, who sent the Word in his power and vigor into the womb of the virgin.4 From which it drew flesh, just as honey is enclosed within the comb.5 So that you don't grow numb in my words through idleness. But place them in your heart. So that you do not cease, as you pass through the opening of your soul toward God, looking to me on your behalf.6
Final Blessing and Farewell
Hildegard closes by affirming that God wants Bernard, bidding him farewell in the soul, and exhorting him to be strong in the struggle in God.
because he himself wants you. Farewell, farewell, in your soul!7 Be strong in the struggle, in God.8 Amen.
Read the original Latin
Hildegardis. In spiritu misteriorum dei tibi dico. O uenerabilis pater qui mirabiliter in magnis honoribus uirtutis dei ualde metuendus es illicitę stulticię huius mundi. uexillo sanctę crucis cum excelso studio in ardenti amore filij dei. capiens homines ad bella pugnanda in christiana milicia contra tirannorum seuiciam quod sum ualde constricta in uisione quę apparet mihi in spiritu misterij. quam non uideo exterioribus oculis carnis. Ego misera et plus quam misera in nomine femineo ab infantia mea uidi mirabilia magna quę lingua mea non potest proferre. nisi quod me docet spiritus dei qualiter ea dicam.
Certissime et mitissime pater audi me in tua bonitate indignam famulam tuam. quę numquam ab infantia mea secura uixi. et de tua pietate et sapientia intellige in anima tua secundum quod doctus fueris in spiritu sancto. quoniam ea quę tibi de me dicta sunt. secundum hunc modum sunt. Scio enim in textu interiorem intelligentiam expositionis psalterij. euangelij. et aliorum uoluminum quę monstrantur mihi in hac uisione que pectus meum tangit.
et animam meam sicut flamma comburens docens me hęc profunda expositionis. sed tamen non docet me litteras in teutonica lingua quas nescio! sed tantum scio in simplicitate legere non in abscisione textus. quia homo sum indocta de ulla magistratione cum exteriori materia. sed intus in anima mea sum docta unde loquor tibi de te non dubitans. sed de sapientia et pietate tua consolabor. pro eo quia multa scismata sunt in hominibus. sicut audio homines dicere.
Nam cuidam monacho quem scrutata sum in conuersatione probatioris uitę hęc primum dixi. et illa omnia secreta mea monstraui. et consolatus est me! ita quod hęc magna et timenda sint. Volo pater. ut propter amorem dei in orationibus tuis mei recorderis. Ego ante duos annos te in hac uisione uidi sicut hominem in solem aspicere et non timere sed ualde audacem! et ploraui quod ego tantum erubesco et inaudax sum.
Bone pater et mitissime pono me in animam tuam ora pro me! quia magnos labores in hac uisione habeo. quatenus quod uideo et audio dicam. Et interdum in magnis infirmitatibus de hac uisione in lectum prosternor quia taceo! ita quod non possum me erigere. Ergo cum merore coram te plango quia mobilis sum cum motu in torculari arbore in natura mea. orta de radice surgente in adam qui factus est exul in peregrinum mundum de suggestione diaboli. Nunc autem surgens!
curro ad te. Ego dico tibi. Tu non es mobilis sed semper erigens arborem. et uictor in anima tua es. non tantum teipsum solum. sed etiam alios homines in saluationem erigens. Tu etiam aquila es aspiciens in solem. Oro te per serenitatem patris.
et per eius uerbum admirabile. et per suauem humorem conpunctionis scilicet spiritum ueritatis. et per sanctum sonitum per quem sonat omnis creatura. et per ipsum uerbum de quo ortus est mundus et per altitudinem patris qui uerbum in sua ui uiriditate in uterum uirginis misit. unde illud carnem sicut circumedificatur mel fauo suxit. ut non ociose in uerbis meis torpeas. sed ea in cor tuum pone. ita ut non cesses dum transeas per foramen animę tuę ad deum pro me aspiciens.
quia ipse te uult. Vale uale in anima tua! et esto robustus in certamine in deo. amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Pet.2.11 — Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the fleshly desires that wage war against the soul.
Notes
- 1 ↩fueris is ambiguous between future perfect ('you will have been taught') and perfect subjunctive ('you were taught'); rendered as present perfect to convey completed instruction.
- 2 ↩timenda can mean 'to be feared' or 'awe-inspiring'; the latter fits Hildegard's visionary register better.
- 3 ↩scilicet marks an appositive clarification: the sweet moisture of compunction is identified with the spirit of truth.
- 4 ↩uiriditate rendered as 'vigor' to capture the theological sense of living, life-giving force; the term carries overtones of greenness, vitality, and generative power.
- 5 ↩The rare compound verb circumedificatur ('is built around / enclosed') creates a compressed metaphor: the Incarnation is likened to honey held within a honeycomb. The subject 'it' (illud) refers back to the Word.
- 6 ↩animę tuę is an abbreviated form; the case is ambiguous (genitive 'of your soul' or dative 'for your soul'). Rendered as genitive following the most natural reading: 'the opening of your soul.' pro me aspiciens — Hildegard asks Bernard to keep her in his prayers as he turns toward God.
- 7 ↩Double imperative 'Vale uale' rendered as 'Farewell, farewell' to preserve the emphatic repetition of the Latin valediction.
- 8 ↩'in certamine in deo' rendered with the prepositional phrases kept distinct to preserve the Latin structure: the struggle is undertaken in God, not merely in a struggle that belongs to God.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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