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Chapter 64HildE.1.64

R64: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Konrad von Kaisheim

Prophetic Light and Human Frailty

Hildegard introduces her prophetic authority and confronts the addressee's spiritual weakness and rebellious disposition.

Hildegard's reply. A sharp light sees and speaks. O man, you are pale with the uncertainty of your mind. As though you cannot stand. And why is this? I see your deeds. For they themselves touch me. But you know the character of those who rebel.1

The Shepherd's Living Temple

Hildegard urges the shepherd to restore God's sanctuary and faithfully guide his scattered sheep.

Why, then, are you ashamed to look toward my altar, toward my sanctuary? So that you may adorn it like a temple that has living eyes.2 What a burden! Where has the good shepherd lifted his lambs onto his shoulders? Where sheep no longer walk on straight paths. The gentle shepherd ought to lift them up through the care of his own heart, and correct them, and anoint them. And teach them to do good works. And just as the hand works in the arm.

Armed for God's Work

The shepherd is called to equip his flock with good works, healing, and the binding power of the cross.

Just as the arm is moved at the shoulder blade, so let the shepherd offer his sheep examples in the hand of good works. And healing in the arm of help! And the release of various vices through the binding of the cross, as though in the shoulder of power. For truly to the penitent! Their vices are to be forgiven. For the Devil vomits forth the force of his heart, the taste of his throat, and the blazing flame of his viper's mouth. O man!

Lament for Fallen Virginity

Hildegard mourns the loss of original purity and the exile brought by disobedience and prideful deception.

Hear the lament of grief poured out over the flood of sin. It lies in the contagion of the flesh, in the beautiful form of man. Lament, O virginity! Lament the integrity of your first origin. For the hand of the supreme Craftsman formed you!✦ And placed you in the garden of delight.✦ But the burning mind of man deceived him in the empty choice of his own will! Through the prideful counsel of the sinful deceiver.

The Wound of Disobedience

Humanity's fall is described through bodily images of defilement, poison, and the serpent's corrupting desire.

So he himself was driven out through the taste of disobedience. And so his belly has transgressed. When his side had previously been pierced through the most holy gift. But now his thigh is defiled with oozing poison. So humanity has tasted the throat of the serpent! when it burned in his venomous veins. And so afterward he committed fornication in viper-like desire! which is a burning flame from the mouth of the devil.

From Rib to Ruin

Hildegard traces sin from the creation of woman through murder to the devil's casting down and ongoing malice.

Now disobedience has produced its food. And because God made woman from a rib,✦ the devil then suggested murder! so that he would lead all his works along another path, into the revelation of sins boiling up through the violence of his own heart.3 O man, what great crimes you commit! in the likeness of the ancient destroyer.✦ How so? For the worst accuser has been cast down!✦

Mourning for Human Crimes

Creation is called to mourn because humanity, turned backward by the devil, corrupts its own form and seed.

And cut off from every blessing. And because he was thrown down backward. therefore he plotted in the wickedness of his heart. so that he would lead man, turned backward, into the opposite sin.4 In this way man leaves the form of the rib! and so the formation of man perishes right there, in seed of this kind poured out. Let the earth mourn, and let the heavenly things tremble! because of these crimes.

Remembering God's Creature

Hildegard calls the sinner to remember that they are God's creature and not to cast away their created dignity.

For when a person sins through the taste of their own work, the shaping of the rib is not left behind.5 They perceive to some degree that they are God's creature. But these sins that walk behind are not in any creation.6 because the one who commits them is a human being. and does not see that they are a human being themselves. O human being! Why do you cast away the fact that you are God's creature?

Rise, Soldier of Christ

God calls the sinner back through repentance, and Hildegard urges the spiritual soldier to stand firm and renew others.

Ah, ah! O man, God shaped you with great care! But you've wrapped yourself up in many sins. But God will once again bring you back to himself through his Son. So rise up through repentance! And run to me quickly. Now, O soldier, be strong and armed along level paths. And bring green growth where dryness is. And tend to the girding of the loins of those who are with you!✦

Watchful Pastoral Care

The shepherd must labor diligently like a spice-dealer tending fruitful gardens and not abandon his flock.

And restrain yourself in good works. so that your heart may be illuminated in the sun.7 And you won't grow weary on the straight path! Waging war against yourself. So don't abandon pastoral care! For a spice-dealer who has a well-watered and richly fragrant garden8 sees to it that his garden bears the useful fruit of its crops, so that it doesn't fail.9 For when your eye sees, and when your knowledge keeps watch!10

Do Not Hide Your Talent

Hildegard warns against spiritual sloth and the neglect of God-given responsibility, urging faithful stewardship.

Why do you sleep like someone weary in the girding of right providence over your flock?11 Go about, then, diligently in good providence, so you don't unhappily hide your talent.✦12 Since it profits you nothing to throw away that binding by which you are bound.13 While you still have two eyes — or even one.✦14 Or you have some part of living under your guardianship. But if you see no living eye in your own, but always limping!15 Then flee, and keep yourself away from your own stewardship.16

Read the original Latin

Responsum hildegardis. Lux acuta uidet et dicit. O homo pallidus es per dubietatem mentis tuę. quasi non possis stare. Et quare hoc? Video opera tua. Ipsa enim tangunt me. Sed tu nosti agnitionem rebellium.

Quare ergo erubescis ante altare meum aspicere ad sanctuarium meum! ut ornes illud uelut templum quod uiuentes oculos habet? O onus. ubi pastor bonus agnos suos leuauit super humeros suos. Ubi enim oues per uias rectas non ambulant. debet eas mitis pastor leuare per sollicitudinem animi sui et corrigere et ungere! ac docere in bonis operibus. Et sicut manus operatur in brachio.

sicut etiam brachium mouetur in scapula. sic pastor ouibus suis exempla in manu bonorum operum porrigat. et medicinam in brachio adiutorij! et solutionem diuersorum uiciorum per ligaturam crucis uelut in humero potestatis. Nam uere penitentibus! uicia sua remittenda sunt. Diabolus enim uim cordis sui et gustum gutturis sui et flagrantem flammam uiperei oris sui euomit. O homo!

audi planctum doloris in effusione criminis. quod est in contagione carnis in pulcra forma hominis. Plange o uirginitas. integritatem primi ortus tui. Nam manus summi artificis formauit te! et posuit te in ortum uoluptatis. Sed flagrans mens hominis decepit eum in uana optione uoluntatis suę! per superbiam consilij criminosi deceptoris.

Vnde ipse expulsus est per gustum inobedientię. Et sic uenter eius preuaricatus est. cum prius latus eius per sanctissimum donum perforatum esset. At nunc femur eius pollutum est ueneno sudante. Sic tetigit homo gustum gutturis serpentis! quando estuauit in uenenosis uenis suis. Unde et postea fornicatus est in uipereo desiderio! quod est flagrans flamma ab ore diaboli.

Nunc inobedientia cibum operata est. Et quia deus feminam de costa fecit. ideo diabolus deinde homicidium suggessit! ita ut omnia opera sua per aliam uiam duceret in reuelationem peccatorum ebullientium per uim cordis sui. O homo quam magna crimina facis! in similitudine antiqui perditoris. Quomodo? Pessimus enim accusator retro deiectus est!

et abscisus ab omni beatitudine. Et quia retro proiectus est. ideo cogitauit in malignitate cordis sui. ut hominem duceret retrosum in contrarium peccatum. Sic homo formam relinquit costę! unde et formatio hominis ibi perit in huiusmodi effuso semine. Lugeat ergo terra et tremiscant celestia! propter hęc crimina.

Nam cum homo peccat per gustum operis sui! non relicta formatione costę. sentit aliquantulum quod factura dei est. Sed crimina ista retro incedentia non sunt in ulla creationem! quia homo qui ea facit. se hominem esse non uidet. O homo! cur abicis quod factura dei es?

Ach ach o homo in magno studio deus te formauit! sed tu in multa crimina te inuoluis. Sed deus iterum per filium suum te ad se reducet. Unde per penitentiam surge! et cito curre ad me. Nunc o tu miles esto robustus et armatus per uias planas. et ibi uiriditatem fac ubi ariditas est. et cura cincturam renum illorum qui tecum sunt!

et coerce teipsum in bonis operibus. ut cor tuum illuminetur in sole. et non fatigeris in recto itinere! contra teipsum bellans. Ergo pastoralem curam non relinque! quia pigmentarius qui irriguum et bene olentem hortum habet. uideat ut ortus ipsius utilitatem fructuum afferat ut non deficiat. Nam cum oculus tuus uideat et cum scientia tua uigilet!

quare dormis sicut lassus in cinctione recte prouidentię ouilis tui? Circui ergo sollicite in bona prouidentia ne talentum tuum infeliciter abscondas. quoniam tibi non prodest ut abicias alligationem illam qua ligatus es. dum duos oculos uel unum. aut aliquam partem uiuendi sub tua custodia habes. Si autem nullum oculum uiuendi in tuis uides sed semper claudicationem! tunc fuge et abstine te a uillicatione tua.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.2.7;Isa.64.8 — Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Isa.64.8 — But now, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
  2. ↩Gen.2.8 — And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
  3. ↩Gen.2.21-Gen.2.22 — So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Gen.2.22 — And the LORD God built the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
  4. ↩John.8.44;1Pet.5.8 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. 1Pet.5.8 — Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
  5. ↩Rev.12.10;Luke.10.18 — Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. Luke.10.18 — He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning."
  6. ↩Job.38.3 — Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall make it known to me.
  7. ↩Matt.25.25 — And being afraid, I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.
  8. ↩Matt.6.22 — The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩agnitio is a rare word; rendered here as 'character' to convey recognition/knowledge of the nature of the rebellious, rather than a simple act of identification.
  2. 2 ↩ut rendered as purpose ('so that') rather than result; the image of the sanctuary as a temple with living eyes is vivid and unusual.
  3. 3 ↩ebullientium rendered as 'boiling up' to capture the sense of sins surging or welling up with force; could also suggest 'seething.'
  4. 4 ↩ut rendered as purpose clause ('so that'); could also be result, but purpose fits the malicious plotting of the prior clause.
  5. 5 ↩The Latin is compressed and unusual: 'non relicta formatione costę.' The sense seems to be that the formed structure (of the rib, echoing Genesis) is not abandoned — i.e., the created order remains even when sin intervenes. The grammar is elliptical.
  6. 6 ↩The accusative 'creationem' after 'in' is unusual — one would expect the ablative 'creatione'. The normalized text is retained as given; the sense is that such sins have no place in God's created order.
  7. 7 ↩in sole likely a metaphor for divine illumination (Christ as the Sun of Righteousness); could also echo a liturgical or Song of Songs image. Kept deliberately open in translation.
  8. 8 ↩pigmentarius (spice-dealer/perfumer) is used figuratively: someone who tends and works with rich, fragrant material. The image is of a gardener-cultivator who brings forth good things from a well-tended garden.
  9. 9 ↩Two purpose clauses (ut… ut non) express the gardener's care: the garden should yield useful fruit and not fall short. ortus (garden/planting) and utilitas fructuum (usefulness of fruits) together stress productive spiritual labor.
  10. 10 ↩The exclamatory couplet pairs oculus (eye/spiritual sight) with scientia (knowledge/discernment) as twin watchmen. The double cum may be temporal ('wheels when… when…') or explanatory; the force is that vigilance of inner sight and understanding is what keeps the garden from failing.
  11. 11 ↩The image is of a shepherd who has girded himself for watchful care yet sleeps instead. 'Cinctio' (girding/belt) evokes readiness for labor; 'recte providentiae' modifies the flock's right oversight.
  12. 12 ↩'Talentum' echoes the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14–30); the warning is against burying what God has entrusted.
  13. 13 ↩'Alligatio' (binding/tie) refers to the obligation or charge to which the addressee is bound — likely pastoral or monastic duty. The logic: discarding this bond serves no good.
  14. 14 ↩The truncated construction ('dum duos oculos vel unum') is elliptical; Hildegard appears to be saying: you have at least one eye, i.e., some capacity for spiritual sight. The full thought continues in the next sentence.
  15. 15 ↩'Oculum vivendi' = a living eye, i.e., a faculty of spiritual perception or discernment. 'Claudicatio' (limping/lame walk) suggests a halting, defective spiritual life. The exclamation is sharp: if your own sight is lame, what good is it?
  16. 16 ↩'Villicatio' (stewardship/management) — if one lacks the spiritual sight to govern well, the counsel is to withdraw from the office of oversight rather than do harm.

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