Virtutes
The Withering Flower and the Everlasting Bloom
The fleeting beauty of earthly life is contrasted with the enduring glory of virginity in the heavenly realm.
The flower of the field falls before the wind; the rain scatters it. O Virginity, you remain in the songs of the heavenly citizens: for that, you are a sweet flower that will never wither.
Read the original Latin
Flos campi cadit vento, pluvia spargit eum. O Virginitas, tu permanes in symphoniis supernorum civium: unde es suavis flos qui numquam aresces.
Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues) companion
Let a different Virtue meet you each morning
Chosen Portion walks you through the whole Ordo Virtutum — and Hildegard's Scivias — as free daily devotionals.
The Ordo was performed scene by scene by Hildegard's nuns, and Chosen Portion restores that rhythm — one scene of the Virtues' drama as each day's devotional.
- The complete 84-scene drama, one short scene per day, in modern readable English
- Each portion pairs the scene with its Scripture echoes — 26 references resolved across the play
- Finish Hildegard, then continue with 70+ other works from Europe's royal devotional archive