Chapter 58OrdV.1.58
Virtutes
The Virtues' Lament for the Lost Sheep
The Virtues mourn and grieve because the Lord's sheep has fled from the life they offer.
Alas, alas, we Virtues — let us mourn and grieve, because the Lord's sheep flees from life!✦
Read the original Latin
Heu, heu, nos Virtutes plangamus et lugeamus, quia ovis domini fugit vitam!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.18.12-Matt.18.13;Luke.15.4-Luke.15.7 — What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? Matt.18.13 — And if it happens that he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that have not gone astray. Luke.15.4 — Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? Luke.15.5 — And when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Luke.15.6 — And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Luke.15.7 — I tell you, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents more than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.
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