R74: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Kuno von Disibodenberg
Hildegard's Reply
Hildegard begins her letter to Kuno.
Hildegard's reply.
Against Fault-Finding
Hildegard rebukes the one who does not correct himself but exposes others' faults.
O what great foolishness there is in the man who does not correct himself, but instead goes looking for what lies hidden in another's heart. And the faults he finds in that person he doesn't conceal, but exposes them like waters rushing downward with full force. Who does this? Let him hear this response from God. O man, why do you sleep in the pleasant sound of tasting the good works that resound before God like a symphony? And why do you not renounce the petulance of lustfulness?
God's Accusation
God's accusation against the one who rejects His wounds and breaks a man he did not create.
through an examination of the house of your heart. But you strike me in my jaws when you reject my limbs in their wounds!1 where you do not look to me, a wandering sheep bringing back to the flock.2 And so you will answer to me from the house of your heart. and from the city that I made! and the one I washed in the blood of the Lamb. And why are you not afraid to break a man whom you did not even create?
A Warning to Cease
Hildegard warns Kuno to stop his excess and transitions to the request about blessed Disibod.
You don't anoint him. So much so that you neither guide him nor conceal him! But you correct him in excess. Now is the time for you to come to an end. But God, who created you, does not want to destroy you. Understand this, therefore. What you asked for, father — so that I might write to you, if anything about blessed Disibod, under whose patronage you are.
The Vision of Disibod
Hildegard describes her vision of Disibod as a hidden yet noble spiritual form.
I wanted to see and understand! These things about him I heard in a vision of the Spirit. I saw. And I understood. In this manner. O wondrous and admirable thing—that a hidden form surpasses what is lofty in noble stature!3 Where the living height brings forth mysteries.4 And so, O Disibod, you will rise in the end with the flower of all the world's branches running to your aid, just as you first rose.56
Disibod as Mountain and Prelate
Hildegard praises Disibod as God's planting, a mountain, and a prelate of the true city.
And O greenness of the finger of God, in which God established the plantation that shone forth in the height like a column set in place!78 You are glorious in the preparation of God. And O height of the mountain, which will never be scattered in the discernment of God!9 Yet you stand far off, as an exile. But it is not in the power of the armed one to seize you.10 And O prelate of the true city, who in the temple, ascending as the cornerstone, into heaven!✦✦1112 Prostrate on the earth you were, on account of God.13 You, a pilgrim from the seed of the world, desired to become an exile on account of the love of Christ.14
The Enclosed Mind
Hildegard praises Disibod's contemplative life, hidden yet shining with a living fountain.
O mountain of the enclosed mind! You constantly revealed your beautiful face in the mirror of the dove. You lay hidden in secret, drunk on the fragrance of flowers! Shining forth through the lattice-work of the saints for God. O summit in the keys of heaven, which for the sake of transparent life you sold the world! Nourishing confessor, always holding this struggle in the Lord. For in your mind! A living fountain has led forth the purest streams with most bright light.
Disibod as Tower and Light
Hildegard exalts Disibod as a great tower before God's altar, building praise through the Son of Man.
Along the way of salvation. You are a great tower before the altar of the most high God! And you have overshadowed the summit of this tower with the smoke of spices. O Disibod! In your light. Through the examples of pure sound you built the limbs of wondrous praise in two parts, through the Son of Man.15 You stand on high, not ashamed before the living God! And with green dew you shield those who praise God with that voice.
Praise and Exhortation
Hildegard calls for praise to God and exhorts Kuno to live worthily for eternal life.
O sweet life, and O blessed perseverance! You who always built up a glorious light in this blessed Disibodenberg for heavenly Jerusalem! Now let there be praise to God in the form of a beautiful tonsure, manfully at work! And let the heavenly citizens rejoice over those who imitate them in this way. But you, O father, who sought these things from me in my poor condition — make yourself such in the sight of God! so that when time fails you in this age, your time may be happily prolonged in eternity!
Final Blessing
A concluding blessing that Kuno may appear in the salvation of the just.
So that you may appear in the salvation of the just.16
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. O magna stulticia in homine illo est qui seipsum non corrigit. sed querit quid in alieno sinu sit. et crimina illa quę in eo inuenit non celat secundum modum in impetu decurrentium aquarum. Qui hoc facit. audiat responsum istud a deo. O homo quare dormis in sonitu gustus bonorum operum quę coram deo quasi symphonia sonant? Et cur petulantiam lasciuię non abnegas.
per scrutinium domus cordis tui. Sed in maxillis meis me percutis quando membra mea repudias in uulneribus suis! ubi ad me non aspicis errantem ouem ad gregem reportantem. Et ideo de domo cordis tui mihi respondebis. et de ciuitate quam feci! et quam in sanguine agni ablui. Et quare non times frangere hominem? quem non creasti?
Tu non unguis eum. ita ut nec eum regas nec celas! sed in nimietate illum corrigis. Nunc tempus deficiendi tibi adest. sed deus qui te creauit te perdere non uult. Hęc ergo intellige. Quod autem o pater petisti. ut tibi scriberem si aliqua de beato Dysibodo sub cuius patrocinio es.
uiderem et intelligerem! hęc de ipso in uisione spiritus audiui. uidi. et intellexi. secundum modum hunc. O mirum admirandum quod absconsa forma precellit ardua in honesta statura! ubi uiuens altitudo profert mistica. Unde o disibode surges in fine succurrente flore omnium ramorum mundi ut primum surrexisti.
Et o uiriditas digiti dei in qua deus constituit plantationem quę in excelso resplenduit ut statuta columpna! tu gloriosa es in preparatione dei. Et o altitudo montis quę numquam dissipaberis in discretione dei! tu tamen stas a longe ut exul. sed non est in potestate armati qui te rapiat. Sed et o presul uerę ciuitatis qui in templo angularis lapidis ascendens in celum. in terra prostratus fuisti propter deum. tu peregrinus a semine mundi desiderasti exul fieri propter amorem christi.
O mons clausę mentis! tu assidue pulcram faciem aperuisti in speculo columbę. Tu in absconso latuisti inebriatus odore florum! per cancellos sanctorum emicans deo. O culmen in clauibus celi quod propter perspicuam uitam mundum uendidisti! hoc certamen alme confessor semper habens in domino. In tua enim mente! fons uiuus clarissima luce purissimos riuulos eduxit.
per uiam salutis. Tu magna turris ante altare summi dei! et huius turris culmen obumbrasti per fumum aromatum. O dysibode! in tuo lumine. per exempla puri soni membra mirificę laudis edificasti in duabus partibus per filium hominis. In alto stas non erubescens ante deum uiuum! et protegis uiridi rore laudantes deum ista uoce.
O dulcis uita et o beata perseuerantia! quę in hoc beato disibodo gloriosum lumen semper edificasti in celesti ierusalem. Nunc sit laus deo in forma pulcrę tonsurę uiriliter operante! et superni ciues gaudeant de his qui eos hoc modo imitantur. Tu autem o pater qui hęc a me paupercula forma petisti. talem te in conspectu dei fac! ut cum tempus in hoc seculo tibi defecerit. tempus tuum in eternitate feliciter prolongetur!
ita ut in saluatione iustorum appareas.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩The address shifts to God or Christ speaking; 'in my jaws' is a vivid metaphor for being struck through the words/cries of the rejected.
- 2 ↩The Latin is compressed: likely 'you do not look to me [as one] bringing back a wandering sheep to the flock,' but the participial phrase is ambiguous in attachment.
- 3 ↩absconsa forma ('hidden form') is a dense Hildegardian image; the referent is left open as in the source.
- 4 ↩uiuens altitudo ('living height') is a characteristic Hildegardian mystical image; rendered to preserve its strangeness.
- 5 ↩surges could be future indicative ('you will rise') or jussive subjunctive ('may you rise'); the prophetic context favors a declarative future reading.
- 6 ↩succurrente flore omnium ramorum mundi — 'with the flower of all the world's branches running to aid' — is a richly metaphorical Hildegardian image; the ablative absolute is rendered as an accompanying circumstance.
- 7 ↩uiriditas: Hildegardian visionary term for living, life-giving power or freshness; rendered as 'greenness' to preserve the organic, vegetal quality of the image.
- 8 ↩plantatio: 'plantation' in the sense of a planted garden or cultivated plot, not a colonial estate; Hildegard uses it for divinely ordered growth.
- 9 ↩dissipaberis: passive future of dissipo; rendered as 'be scattered' — suggesting the mountain of faith or the Church cannot be broken apart when grounded in God's discernment.
- 10 ↩armati: 'the armed one' — likely a spiritual adversary or worldly power; the passive periphrasis 'non est in potestate' emphasizes that no hostile force has authority over the soul.
- 11 ↩angularis lapidis: 'cornerstone' — evokes the stone the builders rejected (Ps 118:22 / Eph 2:20); Hildegard applies it to the prelate's role in the heavenly city.
- 12 ↩The sentence is exclamatory and syntactically incomplete — typical of Hildegardian visionary style; rendered as an exclamation rather than a full clause.
- 13 ↩prostratus fuisti propter deum: the prostration is 'on account of God' — either in worship before God or brought low by God's action; the ambiguity is preserved.
- 14 ↩a semine mundi: 'from the seed of the world' — i.e., born of worldly origin or human descent; the pilgrim identity is defined by origin in the world and voluntary departure from it.
- 15 ↩membra rendered as 'limbs' in the sense of members/parts of a body of praise, not physical limbs.
- 16 ↩ita ut introduces a result clause: 'so that' or 'with the result that.' The subjunctive appareas confirms this is a purpose/result construction, not a statement of fact.
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